Feb. 3, 2012
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COLLEGE PARK, Md. -
Head coach Randy Edsall visited with the media Friday in his office at the Gossett Team House to give an offseason update on the program.
The team is currently in the midst of its offseason conditioning program.
Spring practice gets underway on Saturday, March 10 and concludes on Saturday, April 21 with the annual Red-White game.
The Terps will open the spring with three practices before taking a week off for spring break (March 19-23). They will return to the field on Tuesday, March 27 and practice each Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday for four weeks.
Terp Notes:
Personnel Update: Edsall announced some roster changes. Desmond Kearse will not return to the team due to academic issues and Pete DeSouza will take a medical hardship. Kearse played in just two games last season on special teams. DeSouza has not played since his redshirt freshman season (2010) when he was injured in a traffic accident. He will serve as a student assistant coach. "We'll have [Pete] learning the tricks of the trade, so he can be involved with us and we can keep him involved with football," Edsall said. "He'll be doing things with us, so that's a positive. It's unfortunate that he was never able to come back off of those injuries." The Terps also added non-scholarship defensive lineman Yannick Cudjoe-Virgil this semester. Cudjoe-Virgil spent the last two seasons at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pa., after playing locally at Towson High School.
Out for the Spring: Tyrek Cheeseboro (knee), Makinton Dorleant (knee), Nick Ferrara (hip), Kenny Tate (knee) and Pete White (shoulder) will all miss spring practice while rehabilitating from surgery. Tate likely has the longest recovery of the group. "[Kenny's] rehabbing, he's working hard with his rehab," Edsall said. "It's one of those injuries, from what I've been told, that he probably won't be ready until August. We hope that he's ready by then and when we get closer to August 5 [open of preseason practice]. I don't know if he'll be limited at that time, but we'll have to see how he progresses."
Limited for Spring Practice: There will be a number of players limited during spring practice. Joe Vellano, Kevin Dorsey and Ian Evans also have had a variety of ailments, but are expected to be cleared for the first practice.
Terps Shine in the Classroom: Maryland football is coming off one of its best semesters in recent memory:
The 2011 fall semester team GPA was 2.544
This was the second highest (spring 2011 was 2.589) team semester GPA in 8 years (16 semesters)
This was only the second time in 8 years (16 semesters) that football had a semester team GPA above 2.50
This is the only time in 8 years (16 semesters) that football posted semester team GPA's of 2.50 or higher in consecutive semesters
The cumulative team GPA at the end of the fall semester was 2.554
This was the highest team cumulative GPA in 8 years (16 semesters)
This marks the only time in 8 years (16 semesters) that MFB posted a team cumulative GPA above 2.5
Edsall Quotes:
On players changing positions:
"Right now we still have not made too many decisions on personnel and who our personnel will be. I want all of our coaches, as we have our winter program, to be able to evaluate our guys and take a look at them and see where they might fit in best before we get into spring practice. We'll end up talking more about personnel in the next few weeks. As we get towards the end of February, we'll have a much better idea from the standpoint of where we want to plug guys in."
On quarterbacks Danny O'Brien and C.J. Brown:
"We'd like to have a starter [by fall]. Those are the things that are going to play out during the spring. The whole philosophy is, offensively we're going to be a pro-style offense that will incorporate some spread mechanics. What we want to be able to do is take our personnel and use the best people and put them in a position to do the things that they do best. Whoever those guys are, we'll take that philosophy and shape it to their needs."
On the defense:
"It's the same thing on defense. We're going to be a 3-4 defense; we're going to be an attacking defense that's going to bring pressure. We're going to get guys in positions to be able to execute the defense that we want. We haven't decided on where some of those guys are going to be placed. We're evaluating to make sure -- because what we're looking for and the nature of the positions, whether it's a nose guard or the two ends that will play. We're going to be a pressure team."
On recruiting defensive linemen:
"I wanted to be more aggressive. We're having a tough time finding defensive linemen to play in a 4-3 defensive scheme. I think now, especially in the area we are in for recruiting, you can find these hybrid-type guys. That helps you from a special teams standpoint as well."
On Danny O'Brien's injury:
"His arm is healing and he's doing well. We don't hit the quarterbacks in the spring anyhow so I think a lot is going to depend on how much the trainers and the doctors see in terms of the healing process. Even if he's in there and he's handing the ball off and giving it to [the running back] with his left arm, he could take a bump on that arm. As far as I know, I think he's going to be able to compete in certain things but I'll know more once we get closer to March."
On improving team speed:
"We're always going to try and improve on athleticism and our speed. Again, on defense we want to be fast, we want to be physical and aggressive. On offense we want to be able to find those guys that have the ability to make plays. I think we recruited some of those players who are able to do that. We have to take the guys that we have here and make them better and increase their abilities to with in the scheme of what we want to get done."
