University of Maryland Athletics

March 7, 2006

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The following is the last in a six-part series previewing the Maryland football team as it heads into spring practice for 2006. Today's final segment takes a look at Maryland's secondary and specialists. The Terps break training on spring camp this Saturday at the football practice fields.

Defensive Back
Tim Banks moves over from inside linebackers to coach the secondary this year and he will have a few things to figure out with the departure of Gerrick McPhearson and Milton Harris, who was a tremendous surprise to the team at his safety spot last year.

The Terps are set at field corner with Josh Wilson on board for his senior season. A postseason honors candidate, Wilson is a good cover guy and a tremendous open-field tackler. Behind him will be sophomore Kevin Barnes and redshirt freshman Anthony Wiseman. Both run well and Barnes saw playing time and performed well at times last year, but both have areas in which to improve to see increased playing time behind Wilson.

On the other side, the versatile Isaiah Gardner enters spring as the starter. Gardner, who can also play safety and be moved around in nickel and dime sets, will get competition from Richard Taylor, a third-year player who has steadily gotten faster and better in his tenure at Maryland. After missing his first year due to injury and struggling at times to pick up the system since, Taylor has since improved and could be fighting for a spot if his improvement continues. Redshirt freshman Jamari McCullough will also be working with his sites set on earning playing time.

At strong safety, Marcus Wimbush enters the season as the starter with promising youngster Jeff Allen nipping at his heels. Wimbush had his best year as a Terrapin last year and has improved his cover skills while Allen showed the instinct and talent that have members of the coaching staff thinking his time is not far off. Hunter Reddick, a transfer from Navy before last season, will also be a factor.

Christian Varner returns as the starter at free safety. The heady, hard-hitting performer will be backed up by J.J. Justice, a junior who might be better suited to the strong safety spot in Chris Cosh's system. He will start the spring back at free safety, but has the size and speed the Terps hope will be more of a factor this season.

"One of the things Coach Cosh does is really involve safeties in run support, so that will make some opportunities for a guy like Justice," said Friedgen. "But overall, we are in pretty good shape and just need to figure out where some guys are going to play. It would be very helpful if we could find some depth out of some of our younger guys. If we don't have that, it might affect us in our nickel and dime, which we like to play."

Specialists
Maryland is set at punter and in the snaps with the return of Adam Podlesh (the league's leading returning punter and an All-American hopeful), long snapper Andrew Schmitt and short snapper Brendan McDermond, who had no errant snaps between them last season.

At kicker, Dan Ennis will look to return to the form that had him start the season - his first as a starter -- with 11-straight successful attempts in 2005. He will be challenged by Obi Egekeze and Chris Roberts, two players who will also be looking to upgrade the team's efforts in kickoffs this year. Egekeze is now completely healthy and should be more of a factor than he was after injuring his thigh in a preseason scrimmage last year.

"We need to improve on our kickoffs and placekicking," said Friedgen. "Ennis did a nice job in the first half of the season, but we struggled down the stretch. With Adam, we are in real good shape so our focus will be more on the kicking game."

Spring Outlook Schedule