ESPN reviews Maryland football post-spring ball

Ahmed Ghafir
5 hours ago
2 min read

Maryland football will kick off a pivotal 2025 season in a little over three months when they host Florida Atlantic on August 30, while ESPN ranked the Terps 69th in the preseason FPI rankings. And after taking a look at Power Four teams through spring football, ESPN is bearish on Maryland heading into 2025 after projecting Maryland as the second-worst Big Ten team this upcoming fall ahead of only Purdue.

ESPN’s Billy Connelly noted the NFL flavor added to the coaching staff with Pep Hamilton and Ted Monachino taking over as offensive and defensive coordinator, while Maryland also hired former NFL assistants Hal Hunter, Jarrod James and Chili Davis and promoted former first-round pick Corey Liuget as the program’s new defensive line coach. But ESPN pointed to the outgoing production that materialized following the four-win 2024 season.

What went wrong: “Maryland had more NFL draft picks (6) than wins (4) and saw several key contributors enter the portal. Starting quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. and Hemby, a three-year starter, both transferred within the Big Ten at Wisconsin and Indiana, respectively. Maryland lacks a proven quarterback on the roster. Others to depart included defensive tackle Lavon Johnson (Texas), and offensive linemen Terez Davis (Ole Miss) and Jayvin James (Mississippi State). After a tough 2024 season on the offensive line, Maryland's room turned over significantly. A late defensive coordinator change creates potential flux with that unit, which lost four NFL draft picks.”

While the article was published ahead of Maryland’s newest transfer portal commit with OL Carlos Moore Jr. now on board, committing to Maryland over Auburn among others, ESPN noted the impact additions of Central Connecticut transfer OL Rahtrel Perry, who is in line to take over Andre Roye’s spot at left tackle.

“Cornerback Jamare Glasker, who started at Wake Forest last season, also should help,” Connelly wrote, also noting the addition of former Arkansas State cornerback Dontay Joyner as the duo are expected to upgrade the top of the cornerback room. “[Dorian] Fleming is a good replacement for tight end Preston Howard, and Locksley has a good track record with receivers such as Jalil Farooq, a solid contributor at Oklahoma in 2022 and 2023 before missing almost all of last season with a broken foot.”

FanDuel projects Maryland’s 2025 win total at 4.5 with the over (-115) a slight favorite, but head coach Mike Locksley will look to bust the early season predictions with hopes to guide the program to its fourth bowl appearance in five seasons.

“Adding new coordinators after both the offense and defense regressed could turn out to be a good thing, but the spring run of transfers was awfully alarming,” Connelly closed out.

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