After fast start, tight end production falls off for Maryland football in latest loss

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With one returner and another boomerang transfer addition leading the room, head coach Mike Locksley pointed to the tight end room as one that offered optimism ahead of the 2026 regular season. Yet the production hadn't followed with the room combining for 247 yards and one touchdown on 27 catches through the first five games, including 97 yards on 13 catches through the first three Big Ten games.

That changed in the first half on Saturday.

The first big play came from tight end Preston Howard after coming down with a one-handed, 25 yard catch down the sideline that set the offense up with its first scoring opportunity. Three plays later, freshman tight end Damon Hall Jr. took a designed run one yard for his first career touchdown, putting Maryland ahead, 7-0.

Dorian Fleming, the first in the room to record a catch, would loom large next after coming down with his second touchdown of the season, reeling in a three-yard touchdown that put Maryland back ahead, 14-7. Fleming also extended his consecutive catch streak to 16 games, which temporarily tied him for the third-longest streak among FBS tight ends with Marshall's Toby Payne in action later in the day.

The second half? Two targets, one catch and seven yards for the room -- and it happened on the game's final drive.

With Maryland trailing by one touchdown and inside the redzone, quarterback Malik Washington found Fleming for the seven yard pickup on second down. The second target nearly resulted in Fleming's second touchdown of the day -- what would have been his first multi-TD game since Nov. 23, 2024 against Texas State -- before replay review took it away. With Fleming's foot out of bounds by a hair, Maryland's final drive ended in no points after ultimately dropping the program's homecoming game for the second consecutive season in a 37-30 finish. Sandwiched between the targets to Fleming was a drop by running back DeJuan Williams in the flat, wiping away what could have been a game-tying play.

"We need our tight ends to play because they're usually the equalizer with the matchups that they face," head coach Mike Locksley said as Maryland's conference losing streak extended to 12.

Entering the season with a chance to produce a pair of NFL-caliber tight ends in 2027, Fleming and Howard have combined for 259 yards and 26 catches at the midway point. For Howard, injuries played part of the story after missing three games with a lower body injury, making Saturday's catch his first against a Power Four school since coming down with one reception for five yards against Alabama during his one season at Auburn in 2025.

With the passing game struggling to generate consistency, another reason for the limited production stems from wide receiver Chris Durr Jr. building on his breakout season after recording 104 receiving yards, 16 rushing yards and his first career rushing touchdown against Rutgers. Durr enters the bye week tied for an FBS-leading 52 catches in 2026, while he's already recorded a career-high 580 receiving yards.

Durr broke off a 48 yard catch and run against Rutgers that gave Maryland life late, yet evidence of the NFL traits that the Wyoming transfer has shown in his lone season in College Park. Durr is also one of six FBS WRs to record at least six catches and 100 receiving yards in four games in 2026, alongside the likes of Jeremiah Smith, Malachi Toney and Baltimore native Jesse Legree among others.

Yet in a game where wide receiver Na'eem Abdul-Rahim was inactive, the lack of opportunities for the unit down the stretch loomed large on offense.

After doing so just twice in 2025, Fleming has eclipsed 50 receiving yards once in 2026 and has failed to amass that total over his last three games. Howard, meanwhile, has just four catches in four games during his second stint with the program. The rest of the room, meanwhile, has added five catches for 30 yards.

“I was fortunate enough, my first or second job was to be the tight end coach for Lane [Kiffin] at FAU and we had a Mackey Award winner there and this room is very similar to what I had with Harrison Bryant,” offensive coordinator Clint Trickett said ahead of the 2026 regular season.

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