It’s officially game week in College Park as Maryland is set to host West Virginia on Saturday for a 3:30 PM kickoff.
Maryland unveiled their depth chart on Tuesday with largely no surprises, but one notable name among the starters was lineman Aric Harris drawing the start at center. Tuesday’s depth chart marks the first time that Harris has been publicly tabbed as a starter lineman for the Terps after offensive line coach Brian Braswell leaned on Johari Branch at center with Evan Gregory filling the role at right guard. Now, the 6-foot-3, 302-pound Florida native is set to make his first collegiate start.
“Anytime we recruit a junior college player, as you saw with [Mosiah] Kite, Ami Finau last year, Challen [Faamatau] in the role he played for us last year, we recruit junior college players because we have voids and recruiting them to come play,” head coach Mike Locksley said on Tuesday. “And so, Aric Harris was a great addition and we're very fortunate to be able to get him in here late. He was a guy that had another year of eligibility to play at the junior college ranks and played really well. He was at a school were recruited Jakorian [Bennett] from so we had tape and had ability to see what he would bring to the table. But what he's done is he's been able to add some flexibility to our offensive line. As you see we've got some guys backing up in spots.
So that allows us now where Spencer Anderson would have been our second center and starting at tackle. By signing in the center late like we did with Aric Harris, it gives us flexibility to move Johari [Branch] over to the guard position after spending all spring in the center. Which again, we've created depth because you can play both positions. But Aric came in, picked up our system really well, coach [Brian] Braswell and our staff did a really good job of getting them caught up.
But it's a testament to his type of mental intelligence and football intelligence he has that within a six-week period of time, has been able to come in here, grasp what we do, kind of be the quarterback up front and it's made us better by having him there and making that his ability to play center.”
While Maryland also unveiled a three-way battle at the starting punter spot, the two-deep in the secondary also caught fans by surprise. Nick Cross and Jordan Mosley return as the starting centers, as expected, but an “OR” designation is all that separates Jakorian Bennett and Tarheeb Still on the depth chart. Isaiah Hazel also drew the “OR” designation as the nickel cornerback alongside Still, but the strength in the secondary helped make that move possible.
“We got three starting corners. We have the flexibility to start out in our nickel defense, to play Tarheeb at the nickel or the corner or Jakorian can go and play in at the nickel. And then we also have Isaiah Hazel so for us, it's just you guys don’t give me a lot of places to put three starting corners, so I've created if you didn't notice the extra spot, but Jakorian is a starter for us, Deonte Banks is a starter for us as well as Tarheeb Still. And then we have Kenny Bennett who will be able to play a lot of and may end up as a starter, so we feel good about the depth that corner.
They all have the flexibility to be what we call nickel defenders for us, people on the inside and when you're able to do that with those guys and hopefully with the ability to play a lot of players.”
The position that largely entered the offseason with little question surrounding who the starter would be is at quarterback, where Taulia Tagovailoa enters as the second-year starter in hopes of maximizing the offense’s potential. Locksley added it’s a “steadying force” to have a returner in Tagovailoa and a back-up in Reece Udinski with a deep stable of receivers at his disposal.
“That’s not been a luxury, at least all my 13 years here with that position to be able to come back and have a returning starter, healthy, no questions about it. Bringing in Reece Udinski has definitely improved us and improved that room, and it created some competition and I think that’s brought the best out of all those guys. But Lia is familiar very with what we do on offense, I think the addition of Dan Enos coming in and his knowledge of what we do on offense and how he's been able to continue the development of Lia has really made things easier for us on the offensive side, definitely need to make sure that with Lia, we continue to have him make good decisions. I think he has a very comfortable level with the receivers now to be able to be here a year and a half of these guys this summer being able to do things with player-run practices and develop chemistry."
With the two-deep now set and fall camp in the rear-view mirror, the time is now to prove the team is ready to shed the ‘potential’ tag that carried the Terps through the offseason. Locksley added the key to growth this season starts with his team’s discipline as Maryland takes a step forward in 2021, given the level of buy-in that Locksley feels his team possesses.
“We feel like going into year three with this team, there’s a really good understanding of the ‘Terp Way,’ how we want to do things and now hopefully it transfers over from the football field with us playing with the kind of discipline not beating ourselves, not getting the dumb penalties or all the self-inflicted wounds that typically happen with teams that that, you know, don't win. And then the next question was how we want to handle adversity. And we were faced with a little adversity during training camp, we had some really hot days where we had to fight through weather, but now we're gonna have opportunities where we may get punched in the mouth and we may get knocked down. And the question is, is are we built as a team and as a football family well enough to get them off the ground and continue to fight together and not break apart?”