LIKE! Maryland Football on Facebook

LIKE! Maryland Athletics on Facebook

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Three days into preseason camp, Maryland for the first time donned shoulder pads Thursday afternoon in a two-hour workout at the on-campus practice facility.

Thursday's session focused on the installation of a playbook that remains fairly new to the Terrapins and head coach Randy Edsall was pleased with the progression he saw.

"I thought the practice was pretty good," Edsall said. "I thought the execution was a little bit better today than it was the first two days and I think the young men really retained a lot from the spring. As we're installing everything this fall you can see the carryover, you can see the cohesiveness is improved now in the third day of fall camp as compared to the third day of spring. Overall, I was pleased but I know we have a lot of work to do to get where we want to be."

After starting the session with individual work, the defense held the upper hand in red-zone exercises while the offense was able to move the ball into scoring position during the two-minute drill.

In the red-zone drills the offense was presented with first-, second- and third-down scenarios inside the 10-yard line and the defense prevented a score on 13 of 17 plays. On the scoring plays, C.J. Brown hit Adrian Coxson on an inside slant, Danny O'Brien threw down the middle in traffic to connect with Quintin McCree, and Davin Meggett and O'Brien both found the end zone on short runs.

Edsall liked what he saw out of the defense, particularly in the unit's cohesiveness.

"The thing that I like so far about the defense is I see the group communicating a lot more, and a lot more effectively than what we saw in the spring," Edsall said. "The good thing is that we have all the pieces out there working together. That's the biggest thing. The more we can hone in on who these starting 11 are going to be, offensively and defensively, and the more repetitions they get together, that's when I think the productivity will increase."

During the two-minute scenario, the offense started from its own 22-yard line with 1:05 on the clock, needing a field goal to win. The first-team defense forced the first-team offense to turn the ball over on downs, with defensive backs Cameron Chism and Jeremiah Johnson providing solid coverage on first- and fourth-down stops.

The second-team offense, however, was able to move the ball well. C.J. Brown went 4-for-6 for 52 yards on the drive, including a 28-yard strike to Ronnie Tyler, who made an acrobatic catch and got his foot down inbounds near the right sideline. A 12-yard pass to Tyler over the middle two plays later set up a 36-yard field goal try by Nick Ferrara, who put it through the uprights with six seconds remaining.

Coxson, a freshman transfer from Florida, also made a key catch during the drive, leaving Edsall impressed with the competition in the receiving corps.

"I think we have some depth there," Edsall said of his receivers. "After Quintin [McCree], Kevin [Dorsey], Kerry [Boykins] and Ronnie [Tyler], Tony Logan has shown some good things, as has Webb Dulin; those guys have been around. I like what I see out of Devin Burns, he's getting better; Adrian Coxson made some plays today. A guy that I think is coming on and that I really like is Marcus Leak, and Tyrek Cheeseboro as well. So I think we have some depth there. That's probably the most competitive position that we have out there right now."

The Terps practice again Friday afternoon, the final session before putting on full pads for Saturday's session.

Terp Notes: