Profiles In Terpage – A Countdown To The Football Season: Darius Kilgo
By petevolk
A recurring series where we will profile every player and coach on Maryland’s roster, counting down to kick-off against Miami. Thanks to OBNUG for the idea.
Today we profile a defensive tackle from Charlotte.
Darius Kilgo, Freshman (RS), Defensive Tackle
Stats:
Height: 6’3″
Weight: 290
Ratings: Three stars by Rivals; three stars, #56 offensive guard by Scout; two stars, #114 defensive tackle by ESPN
40-yard dash time: 5.28
High School Stats (senior year): 67 tackles, four sacks and two forced fumbles
High School Stats (junior year): 83 tackles, five sacks and three forced fumbles
High School: Weddington High School, Charlotte (Nc.)
How’d He Get To College Park?
Kilgo is an example of who you choose to believe – recruiting sites or the teams themselves. While he was ranked fairly poorly by all three scouting agencies, the hulking defensive tackle pulled in offers from Auburn, Michigan State, South Carolina and Tennessee, among others. In these cases, I tend to side with the teams who offered him, and Kilgo has got quite an impressive list.
Kilgo was recruited to Maryland by Lee Hull, one of the few assistant coaches retained by the new staff, and also played offensive guard in high school (as well as basketball and track).
After his junior season, Kilgo was named all-conference and all-county.
More after the jump.
Nickname:
Darius “Ghostface” Kilgo
Career Highlight:
His great junior season in high school, losing all that weight.
Career Lowlight:
Redshirting last year? Choosing Maryland because of the coaching staff only to see most of them leave? I got nothing.
Arbitrary Top Five List:
Current Maryland players from North Carolina:
1. Danny O’Brien
2. Demetrius Hartsfield
3. Michael Tart
4. Nigel King
5. Darius Kilgo
Dream season:
Winning the back-up defensive tackle from Justin Anderson, picking up solid snaps towards the end of the year.
Nightmare season:
Garbage time in the Towson game.
2011 prospectus:
Darius Kilgo has lost a lot of weight since coming into College Park, and that’s a good thing. At 6’3″ and weighing over 325 pounds, he was a massive presence in the middle but didn’t have a lot of speed coming off the line. Down to 290 now, Kilgo will probably have added some significant speed to his sizable frame.
Thing is, Kilgo played against very poor competition in high school, and dominated at a school that’s not known for success in the sport. Think of him as Maryland football’s version of Mychal Parker (just without the gamechanging skill we’ve seen from Parker at times). Kilgo still has a lot to learn about football at the college level, and hopefully he’ll be able to work well in practices to get to a comfortable level.
Kilgo currently sits as the co-backup to Andre Monroe at one of the two defensive tackle positions, with Justin Anderson. It’s fair to say that Anderson is the strong favorite to win that job, but this placement shows how far Kilgo has come already. Don’t expect to see him play that much this year if at all, but he’s got a great frame for a defensive tackle and could have a bright future with this program.
Up Next:
Our next player was the definition of a ‘tweener coming out of high school,but seems to have settled in as a(n undersized) defensive end.