Maryland Football Returns With Talent and Expectations

After playing only five games last year due to a COVID shortened season, the Maryland football team enters preseason camp today looking to take the next step in the vaunted Big Ten. 

The 2020 season was one of ups and downs for the Terps. The highs of a thrilling fourth-quarter comeback win against Minnesota and a victory over Penn State in Happy Valley were mixed with a Week One loss to eventual Big Ten West champion Northwestern, short-handed losses to Indiana and Rutgers, and four games canceled due to COVID-19. 

Entering 2021, the vibes are optimistic. The team returns with not only over 90% of their roster vaccinated against COVID-19, but it also returns 85% of last season’s production, the 10th-highest returning production of any team in the country and the highest total returning production of any team in the Big Ten, according to ESPN. 

The Terps return 86% of their offensive production (14th-best in the country) and 85% of their defensive production (17th-highest mark in the nation).

At the forefront of the returning production is quarterback and Maxwell Award Watch List candidate Taulia Tagovailoa. With no restrictions holding him and his team back, the Hawaii native is excited about camp and the coming months.  

“We feel like we can do something special this year,” Tagovailoa said. “We just have to continue to do the good things that we did last year. The way to win is coming together as a team and recognizing that it’s not just about one guy.”

Maybe the most anticipated group for the team is the wide receiver group led by senior and Biletnikoff Award Watch List candidate Dontay Demus Jr. 

Maryland’s top five receivers from a year ago that combined for 70 receptions, 1,067 yards, and eight touchdowns are back in 2021 to give the Terps one of the most talented position groups in the nation.

In fact, the group is so deep that in five games last season, Maryland had five different leading receivers who all return this year, the only team in the Big Ten to accomplish that feat: Nick DeGennaro at Northwestern, Jeshaun Jones vs. Minnesota, Rakim Jarrett at Penn State, Dontay Demus Jr. at Indiana and Brian Cobbs vs. Rutgers. 

“From top to bottom, it’s one of the best [groups] that I’ve been a part of,” said Maryland Head Coach Michael Locksley at Big Ten Media Day.

Demus Jr. knows he and his position-mates have a lot of expectations and he’s ready to prove that his group is ready for the challenge. 

“From top to bottom we’re stacked,” Demus said of the receiving corps. “It doesn’t matter who you put on the field. All of our guys know the playbook, they put in the work both on and off the field, and I feel like we’re going to be really tough to guard this year.”

One of the major starters that the team lost was running back Jake Funk who was selected in the 2020 NFL Draft by the Los Angeles Rams. 

Filling that void from both a production and leadership standpoint will be Doak Walker Award Watch List member and veteran of the team, redshirt senior Tayon Fleet-Davis. 

Fleet-Davis, from Oxon Hill, Maryland, will push to handle lead back responsibilities. Senior Challan Faamatau, sophomores Peny Boone and Isaiah Jacobs, and freshman Roman Hemby are also expected to contribute. 

Having been in a running back group that featured future pros like Funk, Anthony McFarland, Ty Johnson, and Javon Leake, Fleet-Davis is ready to lead the current stable of backs who hope to achieve the same status. 

“Having played with those (current pros) and having seen the work they put in to get to that next level, that’s special,” Fleet-Davis said. “I like this group we have in here right now, it can be just as special too.”

The offense isn’t the only side of the ball that will see an influx of returnees. 

The defense, which returns 10-of-11 starters (most in the Big Ten), is led by a veteran secondary, anchored by junior safety and two-time All-Big Ten honorable mention honoree, Nick Cross.

The Bowie native was one of the first major recruits that Locksley signed when he first took the job and the three-year starter is now one of the elder statesmen of the group.

With camp approaching, Cross likes the talent and the depth of the guys around him. 

“We have a really talented group of defensive backs,” Cross said. “We have athletes across the board and from the top down. We’ve got guys who can run, hit, jump and catch and it’s just a complete defensive back group.”

The shortened 2020 season also gave birth to the emergence of cornerback Tarheeb Still. The pass defender led the nation in pass breakups and was named a Freshman All-American by The Athletic and an Honorable Mention All-Big Ten selection.

The rising sophomore will look to build on that season and personally wants to see a jump on and off the field. 

“This year I obviously want to play even better but I also want to become a better teammate,” Still said. “I want to become more of a leader so that when times get tough I can help get us through them.”

With virtually all of his position groups returning a plethora of talented players, Locksley is excited for his players to hit the field in a full camp with no restrictions. 

Now that they can finally spend extended amounts of time together, he wants his players to not only become a team but the family that he so often preaches.

“Every single college football team puts in the work this time of year,” Locksley said “When you spend a year in isolation like our guys did, that chemistry and that bond doesn’t develop. We want to create that brotherhood and the summer is where you do it.”