Following his sixth start in six career games, Maryland freshman linebacker Jaishawn Barham was named co-freshman of the week.
The former four-star prospect from St. Frances recorded five tackles, two sacks, two tackles for loss, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery against Purdue. Barham becomes the third Terp to earn Big Ten honors this season after becoming a key contributor to the defense. Barham entered Saturday with 29 tackles, the fourth-most of any FBS freshman, and registered 12 tackles against SMU for the most by a Maryland true freshman since D’Qwell Jackson did so back in 2002.
While Maryland’s defense has shown steady progress from week one into week seven, Barham has emerged as the centerpiece of the unit. “He’s a grown man out there,” Durell Nchami said after Saturday’s loss. “He’s definitely going to be one of the greats here. He just needs to keep going and stay on course because he keeps doing that, something great is going to happen for him.”
While enrolling in January gave him a leg up on leaning the defense, Nchami credited Barham’s attention to detail for his progression. “At practice he’s very attention to detail oriented. He takes things very serious, he’s always focused so I feel like that’s what’s helping to [have] his game go to the next level.” Head coach Mike Locksley talked about Barham’s impact in Maryland’s pass rush set following Saturday’s loss.
“We talked about us not playing well on the first down. Our defense did a great job of getting them into those third longs. You know, we dropped some coverage, some drop eight coverage to take away some of the throwing lanes, which allowed us to get our dime rabbit group, which that group is put on the field to rush the passer. And you know, it was great to see [Durell] Nchami show up today and Jaishawn Barham is one of those guys that have some natural pass rush ability and so we’ve implemented him in that package and made some place for us when we needed them.”
Maryland returns to action on Saturday, traveling to Indiana. The game is set to kick at 3:30 p.m. and it will air on ESPN2 and the Maryland Sports Radio Network.
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