Improved depth fuels confidence in Maryland football's 2026 defense

Ahmed Ghafir
13 minutes ago
4 min read

While acknowledging the growing pains that last year’s freshman class went through that can prepare them for the upcoming season, head coach Mike Locksley also pointed to the “depth that we’ve created” on defense with the defensive line arguably the best addressed unit on the roster.

“The depth has given us an opportunity,” Locksley said on Wednesday.

Even with two experienced pieces returning along the interior defensive line in Eyan Thomas and Bryce Jenkins, Maryland added four upperclassmen from the transfer portal to bolster the depth: Derrick LeBlanc, Lavon Johnson along with Jayvon and Armon Parker. That doesn’t include the return of EJ Moore and Delmar White, while former Ohio State pledge Cam Brickle was among the early enrollees in the 2026 class.

After watching the unit struggle with depth a season ago, highlighted by the trio of October losses where it loomed largest, former first-round pick and defensive line coach Randy Starks is tasked with answering a good problem for the staff to answer with fall camp a chance to iron out a two deep after a handful of pieces were sidelined in the spring.

“We're going to get them lined up and let them play fast and be physical,” Monachino said.

“Even with the depth, like you see the ones, the twos, and the threes, like it's no drop off,” linebacker Daniel Wingate said of the interior defensive line.

The depth also extends to the edge rushers, who add former five-star Zion Elee to a loaded roam led by Zahir Mathis, Sidney Stewart, DD Holmes and Nahsir Taylor. With Elee getting a chance to learn from Stewart and Mathis through 2026, Mathis admitted his recent life change sparked his offseason motivation.

After proposing in January, Mathis tied the knot with his wife in June as the sophomore star admitted it “drives me.”

“Just having my wife, she's holding me accountable to everything that I tell her and everything that I want to strive to be,” Mathis said. “It's pretty amazing to have that person in my back corner, just pushing me to be a better person, push me to be a better leader, push me to be a better player, just helping me out throughout the process.”

As for Elee, head coach Mike Locksley said at Big Ten Media Day that the St. Frances product is “as advertised” as he looks to build on the lessons learned from the spring into summer workouts.

“Zion is in the process of learning the system and learning where he fits and figuring out, okay, what are the things that I can do first?” Monachino said of Elee.

Behind them is additional experience with a veteran leader. After being tabbed as a linebacker with shades of former Maryland star EJ Henderson by head coach Mike Locksley, senior linebacker Daniel Wingate is back as the glue guy, as Monachino noted, to lead an inside linebacker room with more of a “pro mindset” in 2026.

“Danny's the one that will ask the right questions in the meeting room. Danny sees around corners and does a lot,” Monachino said of Wingate.

With a chance to become the second Maryland linebacker drafted in three seasons after Ruben Hyppolite, Wingate is part of a front seven that boasts confidence after combining to total over 720 tackles and 30 sacks over the last two seasons. Some of that experience comes from new pieces like VMI transfer Stephen Dean, who Wingate previously described as “relentless,” or Rice men’s basketball transfer Jordan Williams, the experience the Terps boast in the front seven allow an opportunity for arguably the deepest front seven to get creative in 2026.

“I definitely feel like the experience allows us to get deeper within the playbook. Monachino allows us to play fast,” Wingate said. “He allows us to move fast within the playbook, so just allowing him to get deeper into it to kind of mess around with offensive coordinators or the QBs, it'll be real fun.

While the cornerback room has its own questions to answer after Dontay Joyner’s dismissal, the safety room, meanwhile, features a former blue-chipper in Messiah Delhomme alongside three Spalding products in Lavain Scruggs, Jayden Shipps and Sean Johnson. The trio could all find themselves in impact roles in 2025 with Scruggs looking to step back into a starting role for the second straight year, Shipps looking to build on his profile as a versatile defensive back along with Johnson cementing the rotation behind Delhomme.

“I'm teaching him the in and outs, not just learning how to do your job, but once you learn to do your job, it's easy to learn about the offense and how they can attack themselves,” Scruggs said of Shipps. While noting that Johnson has the “length, strength” with the skillset to play the boundary, Scruggs has also watched Delhomme “grow up” while putting an emphasis on communicating.

“We’ve got good chemistry,” Scruggs said of the pairing.

Now it’s about putting it all together, especially for a defense that saw several freshmen like Delhomme, Stewart and Mathis become impact pieces now pointing to offseason development as the reason for a 2026 turnaround.

“I think the big thing is this time has been a great advantage for some of these young players like Zahir Mathis and Sidney Stewart and C.J. Smith a year ago. Like I've talked about, these guys were thrown into the fire,” Locksley said. “They learned that this league is a trench league, and it's a heavy-handed league. And both those guys, especially like Zahir, who's a little undersized for that position, they both struggled as the season went on. Whether it was injuries, being a little nicked up, but because of the experience they got playing early, I've seen a confidence from Sidney, from Zahir, from C.J. Smith, from Messiah Delhomme. All these young players that a year ago, were really put through some disadvantaged situations. I really see the benefits of what we did now because of how they've been able to grow and learn [from] things they went through.”

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