Maryland Football: Levern Jacobs is ready to lead

Levern Jacobs has certainly had an up-and-down career at Maryland.

With Jacobs entering his final year in College Park, he’ll look to go out in style in the beginning of a new era.

Jacobs began his Maryland career at the bottom of the depth chart. As a freshman in 2012, the former Suitland (Md.) standout played primarily on special teams.

He did see action at wide receiver in the second half of the 2012 season. In five games (two starts), Jacobs caught seven passes for 50 yards, including a four-catch performance against Clemson.

The 2013 season was by far the most impressive of Jacobs’ career.

Jacobs hauled in 47 passes for 640 yards and three touchdowns. The star wideout was leaned on heavily due to Stefon Diggs being lost for the season in October due to a leg injury.

The former Suitland star topped the century mark in receiving yards on two occasions that season. One of which came against Clemson when he recorded eight receptions for 158 yards and a touchdown.

In fact, the Clemson game was the best performance of his entire career. In the first quarter, Jacobs took a slant pass from Caleb Rowe for a 71-yard touchdown against the No. 9 team in the country.

His touchdown gave Maryland a 7-3 lead and the Terrapins actually held the lead after one quarter of play. In the end, the duo of Tahj Boyd and Sammy Watkins proved to be too much in a 40-27 Maryland defeat.

Jacobs never really had a chance to build off his exceptional 2013 season. Along with A.J. Hendy, he was suspended for the entire 2014 season because of a violation of the student athlete code of conduct.

He served the season-long suspension and was a model citizen during that time.

In 2015, Jacobs turned in a solid season despite very inconsistent quarterback play. He caught 35 passes for 425 yards and three touchdowns.

While Jacobs led the Terps in receiving, it still wasn’t as impressive as his 2013 campaign.

When Jacobs is at the top of his game, there’s few wideouts that can make the type of impact that he can.

Despite not having elite size, Jacobs can flat-out make plays in the open field. After making the catch, he can do anything once he finds open space due to his speed.

The senior wideout also has tremendous hands and is extremely capable of catching the ball in traffic.

Simply put, Jacobs is a playmaker. He is the type of player that can change the course of a game at the drop of a hat.

These days, Jacobs is even more of a complete player. When D.J. Durkin arrived, he wanted Jacobs to take that next step and become a better blocker.

“Levern Jacobs is a guy I am proud of right now,” Durkin said at Maryland’s Media Day earlier this month. “Levern is a guy that we have really had to sell and build up in terms of playing physical. He is one of our best guys on special teams right now.”

If Jacobs is able to be more physical, it could allow him to break away from defenders when running his routes.

Next: Terps released 2016-17 schedule

Maryland has a phenomenal group of receivers heading into the 2016 season. If Jacobs can continue to be the top dog and lead by example, this could be a very lethal offense under new offensive coordinator Walt Bell.