Big Ten Network highlights standout players, position groups after Maryland football fall camp visit

Ahmed Ghafir
7 hours ago
2 min read

The Big Ten Network stopped in College Park on Wednesday night as they made their round through the conference while Maryland football has officially reached the halfway point of fall camp. With growing pressure on a bounceback season amid a make-or-break year for head coach Mike Locksley, all the talk all offseason has been centered around the returning production and how that materializes into wins and production.

Still, Maryland has multiple pieces to turn to that they expect will play integral roles in 2026, including former five-star and local edge rusher Zion Elee, who was tabbed a “high-end athlete” by Howard Griffith.

“It's really about him continuing to get better and developing as a player because the raw talent is there. He's going to be able to help this team mostly versus the pass, and that'll happen. But the run stuff will start to come as well,” Griffith added.

“And what a great place for him to look at what Sidney Stewart did last year. It's my understanding that even though Zahir is going through an injury, he's taking on a mentorship role. What a great opportunity for a young guy in Elee to learn from those guys that had great freshman years last year. Sidney Stewart, though they call him The Bull, and rightfully so. He is a force coming off the edge, and you need a great pass rusher to close out games. That's been a big topic of conversation here. You need someone that's going to close out games off the edge. They got that [in] Sidney Stewart.”

He wasn’t the only one who drew praise defensively after linebacker Trey Reddick was recognized “an athletic freak,” yet so was true freshman cornerback Darrell Carey, who is expected to be a rotational piece after drawing consistent praise since he arrived as an early enrollee in January.

“I think he’s going to really have an opportunity to help them in nickel situations and in base defense. He’s a long, rangy corner that I think will give them a lot of help,” Griffith said.

On the other side of the ball, offensive coordinator Clint Trickett echoed a similar message that head coach Mike Locksley told local media on Wednesday after pointing to the optimism in both the running back and tight end room ahead of 2026.

“There's multiple in the receiver room, the tight end room between Preston [Howard] and Dorian [Fleming]. We have two elite ones there. AJ [Szymanski] can give us some depth there also as well. The running back room. There's three studs in that room. DeJuan [Williams], number zero leading us off, but there's a lot of toys to play with,” Trickett said. “And up front, having an offensive line that gave up the fewest pressures per pass attempt last year, that's very, as an offensive coordinator, you're very pleased.”

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