The Maryland football opened preseason camp Monday as the Terps held their annual media day at Gossett Football Team House.
The Terps arrived on campus for preseason camp Sunday in preparation for their season opener against Richmond at Capital One Field at Byrd Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 5 at noon.
Maryland spent the afternoon posing for team photos and meeting with members of the media to discuss the upcoming season. Following the morning photo session, head coach Randy Edsall held a press conference with reporters, followed by media availability with the players and assistant coaches.
Head Coach Randy Edsall
Opening Comments:
“I’m really excited and really enthused about this team. I don’t know in 17 years as a head coach that I have been around a team that has really taken on the leadership that this group has taken on since January. It sure makes my job easier and all of our coaches’ jobs easier when they not only hold themselves accountable, but also hold each other accountable. It has probably been the best and the smoothest summer that I have been involved with. It has been a very productive summer for our guys. They got stronger, bigger and faster. They just did a tremendous job. I’m very happy and very proud that they heeded the message that we sent them and that I have talked to our leadership council about.
“We will have a couple guys that as we start the practices will be really on a limited basis. Derwin Gray will be limited. Also, Andrew Isaacs won’t be able to do certain things. Adam McLean will be out because he is still rehabbing from his ACL injury that he had in high school. For the most part, everybody else is good. There are going to be some guys that we might have to monitor a little bit. They might only go one practice when we have the two-a-days, that being Quinton Jefferson, Taivon Jaocbs, Brett Kulka and David Shaw.
“This is great for me and our coaching staff because I think we have probably more competition at all the positions since I have been here. That is going to be neat to see how all that unfolds. We have plenty of opportunities for guys. The one thing we told them is we are going to put the best guys on the field. They are going to determine it.”
“I’m excited about the freshmen group. There are guys there that will have opportunities. We will see what they can do here as we get started. They have come in and transitioned well. A lot of that has to do with the upperclassmen welcoming them in and getting them acclimated to what they have to do.”
On Daxx Garman and the quarterback battle:
“I have not seen anything about him as a player because we are not allowed to be out there with our guys on the field with a football during the summer. That is going to be an interesting battle. Daxx [Garman] and Caleb [Rowe] and Perry [Hills] are going to fight it out and we will see how it all unfolds. They are all eager and they are all hungry and they all want to be the guy. We’ll see how it goes. Daxx is a young man who is a football junkie. He is smart, doesn’t say a lot, but he is a worker, he is a student of the game. It is nice to have three guys who have won games against power five teams.”
On the wide receiver group:
“I feel really good about our wide receivers. I see all this stuff that people are saying and everything else and I kind of laugh at it myself. I think we have some pretty dynamic guys. I think we got some guys that have worked very, very hard. You take a look at Amba Etta-Tawo, this is his time now. He finally got the shoulder cleaned up, had surgery on that in January. He is more confident now. You have Malcolm Culmer, who has played, now he has a chance to be a number one. He has worked really hard this summer. Levern [Jacobs] is just as hungry as ever. Taivon [Jacobs], who is coming back and wants to play and worked his tail off. DeAndre Lane is bigger, faster and stronger. Then you add Will Ulmer, he is back and ready to go. Jahrvis Davenport and D.J. Moore are two young guys. Zac Morton, those guys are all guys that I am excited about. I think we have some playmakers there.”
On the depth of the front seven:
“We have Quinton Jefferson, who was a starter for us last year who is coming back. [He] has really worked hard and I think he will have a really good year for us. You got some of these young guys that have been out – David Shaw played a little bit last year, he will be at the nose [tackle]. Roman Braglio is a guy who played for us. Now what happens is you take Malik Jones, Ty Tucker, those guys want to play and they have worked hard. Malik really did a great job this summer, got a lot bigger and stronger, put on weight, got a lot stronger. Same with Ty. Kingsley Opara is a guy that has been here now two years. He has a chance to step up and show what he can do. I like the move that we did with Cavon Walker, making him a defensive end and also Brett Kulka. Brett is a young guy, redshirt freshman who showed a lot of promise. I feel good about what we have there.”
On the running back situation:
“Wes [Brown] has done a really good job. I’ve seen him grow so much in the time that he’s been here. He and Brandon [Ross] are the two guys and we’ll see how it all plays out this preseason. We are expecting Wes to have a big year. I think you always have to have two guys there, but in terms of who gets the bulk of those carries, that is something we have got to figure out this preseason.”
On Yannick Ngakoue’s position change:
“What we did really is we just took Yannick [Ngakoue] from standing on two feet to putting his hand in the dirt and giving him a couple more opportunities for him to explode and come off the line of scrimmage. I expect him to have a really good year and to continue to improve and get better from where he was. Putting him in that situation, I think it gives him a chance to have a little more explosiveness with his hand down rather than just standing up on two feet. I liked what I saw in the spring and now if he can just continue that, I think it gives us a chance to be a little more aggressive.”
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