Maryland's run defense shows signs of optimism, but run offense a work in progress

Chase King
3 days ago
5 min read

In Maryland football’s season opener against Florida Atlantic, the Owls had 62 pass attempts yet the Terps' defense stood tall in its first test after coming away with six interceptions and only allowing seven points.

In week two, however, it’d be Maryland’s run defense that was tasked with answering the call, and it came with mixed results.

NIU rushed the ball 48 times in their season opener against Holy Cross and is coming off a season where they recorded 2,649 rushing yards, the nineteenth most in FBS football. Add in Chavon Wright, a transfer from DII-Charleston who recorded over 2,300 all-purpose yards and 39 total touchdowns in 2024, and the Huskies’ ground game had juice heading into the team’s first matchup since 2004.

The Terps are coming off the 2024 season, where they allowed 136.8 rushing yards a game and finished the season allowing 268 yards against Iowa and 219 against Penn State.

NIU entered the game wanting to establish the run, ending their opening drive with ten rushes for 20 yards, including a 13-yard rush they pulled out on a 3rd-and-14.

Following that, the Terps’ defense was on top of NIU for a while. NIU was able to orchestrate a 19-play, 75 yard drive featuring 14 rush attempts and spanning eight minutes to end the first half with their first points of the night. For the most part, the Terps' defense was able to negate any long rushes with only two of the NIU’s 32 carries going over ten yards in the first half, though the Huskies’ commitment to the ground helped dominate the time of possession with NIU holding onto the ball for nearly 22 of the opening 30 minutes.

A big reason for that was the Huskies converting half of their 16 attempts on third and fourth down, including 3-of-4 on fourth down.

“Our defense played well, but the third downs, not getting off the field causes them to play a few too many plays for us,” head coach Mike Locksley said postgame. “As with the young team, we'll continue to fix the things that show up on tape, make the corrections and improve our team.”

In the second half, both Maryland and NIU came out with the same game plan: Run. With six minutes left in the third quarter, it would be NIU who broke off the first big run right up the gut of the Maryland defense for a 74-yard touchdown, trimming the lead to 13-9.

“We just got to get him on the ground,” said sophomore linebacker Trey Reddick postgame as he looked back on the play.

That proved to be the last glimmer of optimism for Northern Illinois’ offense as the Huskies wouldn’t get another first down until less than three minutes left in the game, when the lead was extended to 20-9.

NIU ended the game with 48 rushes for 180 yards, and despite having a 74-yard run, only averaged 3.8 yards per carry. NIU’s leading rusher was redshirt-senior Chavon Wright, who finished the game with 27 rushes for 90 yards.

The two most impactful players in the run game for the Terps were linebackers Daniel Wingate and Trey Reddick. Both linebackers reached career highs in tackles, with the junior Wingate ending with 14 tackles and the sophomore Reddick, who had a career high of four total tackles, ending the day with 11 tackles.

“We just had to come out and show that we can stop the run, and it’ll just help us play bigger opponents and stop the run versus them,” Reddick added postgame.

Up the middle, for the Terps' defensive tackle Cam Rice was a major component in the Terps’ run defense. The 303-pound graduate student was clogging wholes in the Terps' defense all game, finishing with six total tackles.

“We knew that they were going to come in and check our oil in the run game. I liked the way Cam was able to be physical at the line of scrimmage. A couple of times, we had some guys out of their gaps, and that is the thing that will get fixed on tape,” said head coach Mike Locksley.

“Cam is the energy on that side of the ball for us. Really like the way he played inside, created some pushback.”

From the secondary, senior Jalen Huskey is also a playmaker when it comes to the Terps' rush defense. He made his presence known early in the game on a jet sweep he sniffed out for a tackle for loss. Huskey had a 75.5 PFF run defense grade against FAU in the season opener and a grade of 73.4 last season, but his angle on the Huskies’ long touchdown run serves as a learning lesson for the veteran.

On the offensive side of the ball, Maryland coming off a season where they averaged the 19th fewest rushing yards per game in FBS at 110.6 with the arrival of new offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton cementing the emphasis to the ground game.

In their first game of the year against FAU, Maryland ran for 112 yards on 30 rushing attempts, with the longest carry coming from DeJuan Williams with a 17-yard carry.

In the game against NIU, they were less reliant on the pass, finishing the first half with ten pass attempts compared to week one’s 33 first-half pass attempts. By the end of the game, the Terps began to sway away from the run game, relying more on Malik Washington in the third and fourth quarters. The Terps ended the game averaging 3.1 yards per attempt on 28 attempts, while Washington finished four yards shy of matching is week one passing total.

Redshirt-sophomore Nolan Ray and redshirt-freshman DeJuan Williams carried the load for the Terrapins. Ray finished the game with 11 rush attempts for 50 yards, while Williams finished with ten rush attempts for 20 yards.

“The run game was inconsistent. I thought it got better. If you look at the yards per carry, it has improved, but the consistency of it is another thing that can help [the offense],” Locksley said after the game.

“In the second half, we focused on a run game, which allowed us to use a little clock and help take the defense off the field. And it was intentional on our part because I wanted to get the run game going. I thought we were able to run the ball okay, but we still got to be better. And I expect us to get better.”

The run game wasn’t a game-changer on the Terps' side, with the longest run coming on a jet sweep to Octavian Smith Jr for only 11 yards.

A significant part of the Terps’ poor run performance was due to the runs between the tackles. The Terps' offensive line didn’t create enough push against the heavy box presence from NIU.

In Maryland’s first two non-conference games in the 2024 season, they averaged 188 yards per game on the ground. In the 2025 season, they are averaging 99 yards per game against their first two non-conference opponents.

“When you play a young quarterback, you’re going to get eight-man boxes,” said Locksley on the offensive run game, “we have good running backs that have done it sometimes navigating the wrong gap.”

Maryland will now look to build momentum in its final non-conference game of the season when they host Towson next weekend for a noon kickoff.

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