Maryland Terrapins Football Offseason Preview

The Maryland Terrapins were able to get to a bowl game in 2021, so they achieved that much. They then defeated Virginia Tech to win the Pinstripe Bowl. The season involved some modest successes, but the bigger question for the Terrapins is if they can move upward in the Big Ten standings and begin to compete for better bowl bids at some point. That will be difficult, given that Maryland – in the Big Ten East – competes in the same division as Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, and Penn State. Maryland wasn’t able to come particularly close to beating any of those four teams last year, so head coach Mike Locksley knows he has a lot of work to do if Maryland is going to take the next step as a football program. The Terrapins do have Taulia Tagovailoa and a talented offense coming back this season, but as you will see, the Terps have to focus on other parts of their roster if this season is going to be everything it can be.

Key Personnel Lost

Maryland lost running back Tayon Fleet-Davis, one of the team’s better playmakers this past season. The Terps made a change at defensive coordinator and brought in Brian Williams to call defensive plays. We will see if Williams can improve a defensive unit which has to be improved in a lot of ways and from a lot of different angles.

Important Incoming Freshmen

Linebacker Jaishawn Barham is a four-star recruit and the highest-ranked recruit in Maryland’s 2022 class. Given how poor Maryland’s defense was last year, and given how vulnerable it was against teams with strong offensive lines and competent running games, Barham becomes a central point of focus for Locksley and the coaching staff as they try to create improvement on the defensive side of the ball. Maryland was acutely lacking on defense, so the new arrivals need to transform the character and quality of the roster.

Key Position Battles

As bad as the defense was, there is a big need for help on the offensive line, which allowed 23 sacks in nine Big Ten games last season, a staggering total. Locksley needs to get reinforcements at that position if Tagovailoa is going to have enough time to throw the ball down the field and hit his receivers. That’s one big area where position battles will have a notable impact on the roster.

The other area is at defensive line, where Maryland got shredded by a lot of opposing Big Ten offensive lines last season. Maryland could not hang physically against a lot of Big Ten teams. The Terps were thrown around like rag dolls, and that simply can’t continue into 2022. Maryland needs to identify the best talents on its defensive line and develop them a lot better than it was able to do in 2021. This is a foundational aspect of any realistic attempt to improve the roster.

Biggest Offseason Goal(s)

The Terps need their offensive and defensive lines to make the jump from 2021. If this team improves in the trenches, it can accomplish a lot this season.