Maryland football head coach Mike Locksley turned to the transfer portal to restock the offensive line this offseason as Pennsylvania native and Purdue transfer Josh Kaltenberger became the first to pull the trigger.
The versatile Big Ten lineman arrived in College Park with one goal in mind: “I’m coming into this as, in my mind, I’m going to be the starting center and know I have to go earn that spot. I look forward to earning that day in and day out, but that’s the spot.”
Ever since then, Kaltenberger has done exactly that where he’s anchored the first-team offensive line and drawn praise for his seamless transition under assistant Brian Braswell. “When you look at Josh Kaltenberger, he’s a guy that’s played four years in the Big Ten. He understands this league. He knows what it takes to compete [in] this league,” offensive coordinator Josh Gattis said at media day.
While Kaltenberger has lived up to his on-field expectations through offseason workouts into fall camp, it’s his comfort around College Park that has left an imprint heading into week one.
“If there’s one person that loves living in the DMV, I mean, this dude is [in] downtown
D. C., museums,” head coach Mike Locksley said ahead of fall camp. “Josh is just like a kid in a candy store.”
“I’ve loved this area. There’s a bunch of different stuff. I’m not a big person on going out at night or whatever,” Kaltenberger added. “I took probably about 12 guys down to the Bible museum this past summer. That was a really, really cool experience. I’ve gone and seen the memorials, all the monuments, just kind of American history has been really cool to see just right in front of your eyes. I mean I grew up Pittsburgh, four hours away — I’ve never been to
DC before I came here, which is crazy. So I’ve been having a good time eating at different restaurants — a lot of restaurants. So it’s a lot of fun.”
On the field, Kaltenberger has stepped into a leadership role “not by just being a guy talking about it, but with his actions and the way he prepares,” Locksley added.
“Coming here and being part of this team, I wanted to take that leadership step,” Kaltenberger added. “Just coming in here as an older guy, knowing that I would be the oldest [offensive] lineman in the room. And I feel like when I came here, when I committed here, my first day doing, it’s just been day by day. It’s a grind but at the same time, I want to be able to represent this offense line. I want to be able to represent this offense and I’m very excited to represent them as well.”
That continues with pushing the offensive line through the halfway point of fall camp, though Locksley added the signs of fatigue have yet to surface in practice.
“If you wake up tired, if you wake up with energy, no matter how you feel when you wake up, the effort has to be there. It has to be on the same level every single day. Standard is the standard and that’s how we look into it. We’re getting tired when we’re not feeling like it. When you’re in meetings and you’re getting sleepy, no, wake up. You got to come out to practice, same effort and attitude every single day. Consistency is what we’re looking for.”
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