The Maryland football team is going through spring practices with new coach D.J. Durkin and it’s easy to see that there’s talent on the offensive line.
Once Durkin arrived on campus, the slate was wiped clean in terms of the Maryland depth chart.
One of the biggest areas of talent for Maryland has to be the offensive line. When Randy Edsall was running the show in College Park, he did manage to get one thing right: prioritize the offensive line on the recruiting trail.
The Terrapins have added the likes of Quarvez Boulware, Derwin Gray, Brendan Moore, and Damian Prince in recent years and the fruits of Edsall’s labor may finally be coming to fruition this spring under the direction of Durkin.
“Brendan (Moore) has really stood out,” Durkin said. “He competes every day; he’s consistent with what he does. He’s our style of guy, meaning that he is a blue-collar type player. He’s done a very good job. These guys as a unit, as a whole, are starting to gel and mesh. You can see a big difference today compared to our first practice.”
Moore wasn’t a heavily recruited prospect during his high school days at Round Rock Westwood (Tex.). His only significant offers were from Boise State, Colorado State, Houston, and Missouri.
Moore has really settled in during his time at Maryland and displayed a ton of versatility for the Terps. While he projects to be the team’s starting center, Moore is preparing for every position on the offensive line.
“As a center, you have to learn every single position because you have to know every single position and you have to know the technique for all of those,” Moore said. “Being a center is great, but I still study the other positions and I would be fine if they put me in any of them.”
As impressive as Moore has been, he’s not the only Terp offensive lineman that has made strides this spring.
Gray and Prince, who are both sophomores, continue to battle their way up the depth chart and impress Durkin. Both came to Maryland as highly-touted four-star recruits that spurned several high-major offers to play for their hometown school.
“They are both getting better every day,” Durkin said. “They’ve still got a ways to go, but those guys are extremely talented. When they finally understand what we are trying to do and what we are asking them to do, I think that they can be great football players for us. I believe they are both willing and they are taking coaching well.”
One of the biggest positives for Maryland is the depth and versatility that they have on the offensive line.
“We’ve been moving guys around a bunch. I don’t know if there is a guy on the line who has played just one position so far this spring. We’ve moved them all around. We need to find out what we got and they’ve done a good job handling that. I know it’s a little harder to get honed in on one position, but at the end of the day we’ll be better in the long run.”
Next: 11 Terps participate in Pro Day
With guys like Ryan Doyle and Andrew Zeller leaving the program, Maryland is going to need some of these offensive linemen to rise to the challenge and become elite players. Especially with an unstable quarterback situation, the offensive line becomes that much more important.