(ACC) The Terrapins play on a grass field at Byrd Stadium (seats 54,000).
- New head coach Randy Edsall comes over from UCONN where he took his team to a BCS game for the first time in school history. And he doesn’t come into dire circumstances as he takes over a Maryland team that returns a considerable amount of starters that produced a 9-4 season last year. Former head coach Ralph Friedgen was fired after 10 years at Maryland, and while it would have seemed more fitting for Friedgen to have been fired after his 2-10 season in 2009, perhaps the Terrapins were just looking for a different direction. In contrast to his predecessor, Edsall is a strict disciplinarian. No hats indoors, no do-rags, no earrings, no riding scooters (two players were injured doing so), no messy facial hair and no being late.
- Edsall is a defensive-minded coach and already has been moving players around on the defense. He asked First Team All-ACC player Kenny Tate to move from safety to linebacker. Technically the position is “star” which is a hybrid safety-linebacker
"Star" Kenny Tate
position that essentially acts as an outside linebacker. And according to Edsall, when he watched the tape of Tate from last year he noticed “almost 90 percent of the time he was playing down.” Even though Tate was playing in the third row of defense, or the secondary, his position with regards to that area was closer playing down or closer to the front/ line of scrimmage. Edsall explained that “he wasn’t playing back in the deep half, the quarters or a post player. When you take a look at his abilities, he’s better suited to being a linebacker.” Edsall’s teams have always relied on linebackers to make the plays on defense and Maryland’s defense this year will likely rely on Tate’s ability to make plays and well he adjusts to his new position.
- Edsall promoted Maryland assistant coach Todd Bradford to defensive coordinator. (meanwhile Maryland’s former defensive coordinator Don Brown left to take the same position at Edsall’s former school, UCONN). Bradford’s system is less about substituting different personnel (like Brown) and more about showing different looks and formations. His system also includes a lot of blitzing packages and relies more on coverage responsibility. Maryland’s defense is experienced, but not in this system and are time will tell how quickly and well they pick up the intricacies of their new assignments.
- New offensive coordinator Gary Crowton comes over from LSU. He likes to run a faster offense and has already given the team game film on Oregon to study as an example of a fast-paced offense.
- Quarterback Danny O’Brien was the ACC Freshman of the Year in 2010 and even though he loses his top target in Torrey Smith, he will be more experienced and should
Quarterback Danny O'Brien
improve upon his 57% completion rate. He did have an impressive 22-8 touchdown to interception ratio, which means he produced points without costly mistakes. And with the new system this year, the running game should improve, which will take some of the pressure off of O’Brien. He looked great in spring practice, but he also was facing very basic defensive coverage looks from their defense. - Maryland has really struggled to run the ball, but that should change as Edsall typically likes to run the ball first and has had historically stronger running teams than passing teams. Hopefully running backs David Meggett and DJ Adams are up for the challenge.
- New to the schedule this year, Maryland plays Notre Dame.
