Maryland head coach Mike Locksley has been transparent that the practices leading into the Dec. 29 Pinstripe Bowl are considered the start of the 2022 season, but to fans, the bowl game is still viewed as the finale of the 2021 season.
That didn’t stop Maryland from getting good news for the 2022 season as both wide receiver Dontay Demus and offensive guard Johari Branch announced their return for one more season. The return of Demus, regardless of whether the decision was influenced by his recovery timeline, still gives the wide receiver room a big piece next season as the 6-foot-4 wideout was on a historic pace through his first four games. While second-year receiver Rakim Jarrett finished with a team-high 56 catches, 24 catches from Demus through the first four games are a testament to the type of talent that the Terps return. With the top two options back at receiver for one more season, Jarrett knows what Demus means to the potential of the ’22 offense.
“It means a lot. Dontay Demus, he’s our guy on the offensive side of the ball for the most part,” Jarrett said. “Having him being on the other side, you can’t really double him and double me because we’re both explosive guys so having him means a lot for ‘Lia and myself and the offense as a whole.”
The offensive line took a step forward under first-year offensive line coach Brian Braswell, shedding nearly one sack per game from 2020 into 2021, and got a big piece back to add to the Terps’ optimism in the trenches. Rated one of the top juco offensive linemen in the 2020 class, former Independence C.C. three-star Johari Branch has started all 17 games at guard since arriving in College Park. Branch was considered a toss-up to return for one more season, but to head coach Mike Locksley, there could be more key pieces returning beyond the Pinstripe Bowl.
“There'll be a few more here as we get into the bowl game where you'll see some guys make decisions to return for that extra year,” Locksley said during Wednesday’s bowl game media availability. “I think it sends the right message that, you know, we're doing things the right way within our program. As I've said, from day one, you know, the best recruiting job you can do is recruiting the talent within your program, first and foremost, because of the transfer portal, because of immediate eligibility. And we've tried to do a great job as a program and as a football family of providing a tremendous amount of resources to where our players want to be here. And they feel that when they leave here, they're leaving a better version of themselves. And so, it's great, because most of these guys have been really big contributors over the last couple of years. And just looking at maybe the impact that that extra year had on a Sam Okuayinonu. To me, kind of leads me to believe that having some of these veteran starters return next year will be very, very beneficial to the continued development of our program.”
While Maryland also saw news of a departing Terp when tight end Chigoziem Okonkwo announced his decision to declare for the 2022 NFL Draft, the potential for what may happen after the bowl game hasn’t derailed the team’s focus during their bowl prep.
“I think the big thing is just the approach they've taken to these practices because you can get to this point in your season where all of a sudden, things become mundane, meaning you just kind of aimlessly go through the process of practicing. And, you know, these guys have been dealing with taking final exams, obviously, dealing with the COVID situation around them, having to kind of rethink how they live again because of COVID. But every time we stepped on a field of practice, I felt the energy level was where we wanted to be, I feel that they've approached it with what I call a deliberate mindset, that I want to get better at these couple of things. And to me, that's what makes practices be up to the level that we want to because you don't want to go through where you just kind of put it on neutral or put it on cruise control and go through the motions which can happen when you get into these types of practices where the game is three weeks away, and we're out practicing. I think the mental approach of how our players looked at these practices are right in alignment with how I visualize them to be where they got better. We got better fundamentally individually and that means hopefully, we'll be better collectively when we go out on the field on the 29th.”
Maryland will kick off against Virginia Tech at 2:15 PM.
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