April 10, 2007
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -
Three days after its first scrimmage of the spring, the Maryland football team returned to the practice field Tuesday afternoon for a two-hour workout.
The days off gave the coaching staff a chance to review the film from Saturday's 90-play situational scrimmage.
"We had a lot of young guys that kind of froze up in their first scrimmage," head coach Ralph Friedgen said. "We made a lot of mental mistakes, but there were some good things in the scrimmage."
Offensively, the Terps are looking to build depth, especially along the offensive line, and find more playmakers.
Injuries along the offensive line have given some of the second-team players a chance to shine. Sophomore Phil Costa is one of the beneficiaries. He entered the spring as a backup at center, but has also seen time at guard with starter Andrew Crummey out of action.
"Phil has had a great winter," Friedgen said. "He tested out the best of all the linemen. He power cleaned 420, benched about 450 and ran a 4.9 (in the 40-yard dash). I'm hoping that he'll come on. He just needs experience and like a lot of these young guys, just needs a lot of reps. He's getting them right now."
Redshirt freshman LaQuan Williams, who moved from cornerback to wide receiver at the beginning of spring practice, has made a number of plays.
"LaQuan continues to make strides," Friedgen said. "He made a nice play today. He's moving up. If he could come on and be a receiver that would really help us out."
The defensive secondary appears to have quite a few battles for playing time with two starters gone (cornerback Josh Wilson and strong safety Marcus Wimbush) and senior CB Isaiah Gardner rehabbing from off-season shoulder surgery.
"Kevin Barnes is playing maybe as good as he's played," Friedgen said. "There's a battle at corner between Anthony Wiseman and Richard Taylor. We also have a battle at safety between J.J. Justice and Terrell Skinner. We have more depth on defense."
Some of the miscues in Saturday's scrimmage led to a change in Tuesday's practice plan. Rather than pads, the Terps hit the field in jerseys and shorts with the focus being execution.
"We redid the practice schedule today and went to a learning type practice," Friedgen said. "We want to correct some mistakes from Saturday."
The adjustments seemed to work as Friedgen came away satisfied with the seventh of the allotted 15 spring practices.
"I was pleased with practice," Friedgen said. "It might be the opposite when I look on film. I thought they were into it. I thought the effort was pretty good. I thought we got better today."
The Terps are off until Thursday when they hit the field at 4 p.m.
Terps Notes: The Terps are scheduled to have another scrimmage on Saturday, April 21 which will be the final tune-up for the annual Red-White Spring game on Saturday, April 28 (3:30 p.m. ET) ... Friedgen said after Tuesday's workout that redshirt freshman running back Da'Rel Scott may return to practice later this week.
