Terps Release Preseason Depth Chart
The Maryland athletic department may have inadvertently leaked a preseason depth chart to the public via their guidebook yesterday (hat tip to my friend Zack Kiesel over at BSL for this one). The guide includes all kinds of good stuff, and you can check it out here, but we’ll mostly be looking at the depth chart hunkered down on page 11.
QB
1. C.J. Brown
2. Caleb Rowe
3. Perry Hills
4. Shane Cockerille
5. Will Ulmer
Brown’s the starter, Rowe’s the backup plan. The staff still sees Will Ulmer as a quarterback. Nothing surprising here, move along.
RB
1. Wes Brown
OR
1. Albert Reid
OR
1. Brandon Ross
OR
1. Jacquille Veii
2. Joe Riddle, Tehuti Miles, Zac Morton
The running back battle is a little more interesting, as Wes Brown has clearly done enough in his return to ensure that no one has the starting gig right now. I’m assuming Ross is the starter heading into week one, but the carries distribution may be more in flux than we presume.
WR
1. Stefon Diggs
2. Levern Jacobs
3. Daniel Adams
4. DeAndre Lane
WR
1. Deon Long
2. Nigel King
3. Amba Etta-Tawo
4. Juwann Winfree
WR
1. Marcus Leak
2. Taivon Jacobs
3. Malcolm Culmer
TE
1. P.J. Gallo
OR
1. Derrick Hayward
OR
1. Andrew Isaacs
2. Eric Roca, Brian McMahon, Andrew Gray
For awhile I was fairly confident Maryland had one of the best wide receiving groups in the country, but when you see it on paper, you’re certain of it. Levern Jacobs is talented enough to start for a lot of teams, and he’s buried behind someone who makes him look average. Taivon Jacobs is behind a guy who missed all of last season and he’s a four-star former Ohio State commit. This is clearly the team’s strength, and it’s easy to imagine the team using some new sets to emphasize that point clearly.
The tight end situation adds a newcomer in linebacker-turned-blocking option Derrick Hayward as a legitimate contender. Isaacs, Gallo, and Hayward are going to duke it out for the remainder of the offseason, and it may come down to who can be the best blocker. Methinks there’s no way they play Andrew Gray this year with this emergence (a good thing).
LT
1. Michael Dunn
2. Jake Wheeler
3. Damian Prince
LG
1. Silvano Altamirano
OR
1. Evan Mulrooney
2. Mike Minter
C
1. Sal Conaboy
2. Stephen Grommer
3. Joe Marchese
4. Brendan Moore
RG
1. Andrew Zeller
2. JuJuan Dulaney
3. Maurice Shelton
4. Sean Christie
RT
1. Ryan Doyle
2. Derwin Gray
3. Banks Agaruwa
There’s uncertainty surrounding the left guard position as the battle between Altamirano and Mulrooney continues, but the overlying trend here is that this group is paper thin. Damian Prince and Derwin Gray are backups at left and right tackle, but there’s not a ton of experience with this group. Maryland has had bad luck with offensive linemen departures and injuries, so they need to be praying for good health.
DE
1. Quinton Jefferson
2. Malik Jones
3. Spencer Myers
4. Ty Tucker
NT
1. Keith Bowers
OR
1. Darius Kilgo
3. Azubuike Ukandu
4. David Shaw
DE
1. Andre Monroe
2. Roman Braglio
3. Kingsley Opara
4. Ruben Franco
5. Brett Kulka
Maryland’s got a surprisingly underrated front between Jefferson, Bowers/Kilgo, and Monroe. All three have proven themselves adept as solid pass rushers, but there’s a lot of inexperience if either of them is incapable of staying healthy.
OLB
1. Matt Robinson
2. Alex Twine
3. Cavon Walker
4. Avery Thompson
5. Nnamdi Egbuaba
ILB
1. Cole Farrand
2. Jermaine Carter Jr.
3. Brock Dean
4. Tyler Burke
ILB
1. L.A. Goree
2. Jalen Brooks
3. Matt Gillespie
4. Abner Logan
OLB
1. Yannick Cudjoe-Virgil
2. Yannick Ngakoue
3. Clarence Murphy
4. Chandler Burkett
5. Jesse Aniebonam
The staff has buried true freshman Aniebonam pretty deep on the depth chart, suggesting that it’s possible the staff is confident they aren’t going to need to rely on young talent to get by; that is to say, the guys on the roster are good despite the inexperience.
CB
1. Will Likely
2. Jeremiah Johnson
3. Undray Clark
4. Daniel Ezeagwu
SS
1. Sean Davis
2. A.J. Hendy
FS
1. Anthony Nixon
2. Zach Dancel
CB
1. Alvin Hill
2. Jarrett Ross
Alvin Hill must be pretty talented to supplant Jeremiah Johnson, who was injured all last season, for the starting corner spot alongside Will Likely. Is this a product of Johnson just being a little rusty or is Alvin Hill that talented? Regardless, that’s not a bad thing.
K
1. Brad Craddock
P
1. Nathan Renfro
LS
1. Christian Carpenter
Yup. That about sums it up, no major surprises. The biggest takeaway is that there are still no clear-cut winners at the RB spot and on the defensive line.