Maryland’s offense enters the 2023 season with plenty of proven talent on offense, but behind Taulia Tagovailoa’s experience at the most important position, head coach Mike Locksley pointed to running back Roman Hemby as a veteran who “epitomizes to me what being a Terp is all about.” “This kid's a tough, smart, reliable guy. Last year, the running back room was the room everybody had questions about, and now it's the strength of ours, and it starts with Roman. You know, his ability to hit the home run,” Locksley said on 106.7 “We've really worked hard this past offseason on that second level, third level cut where once he gets on a safety to win that battle.” Maryland has depth behind its speed back with former high school turned college teammates Antwain Littleton and Colby McDonald providing experience, bolstering the pass protection within the unit. “Behind him, you've got a guy like Antwain Littleton, who nobody's come as far in our program as Antwain has. He came here close to 300 pounds as a running back. He's lost about 70 pounds and last year, really contributed as a compliment to Roman. Colby McDonald's back, another guy that played a bunch of football for us, his true freshman year. Had a little bit of an off year, a year ago, but we've been happy with him. The addition of a guy like Nolan Ray from up in Michigan, really jumped out during camp, and then Ramon Brown, I think has as much talent as anybody in that room.” Maryland’s wide receivers remain in good hands despite losing three contributors to the NFL this offseason, and a big reason why is the portal additions of Kaden Prather and Tyrese Chambers. “We think that has Dontay Demus-type ability and we've seen glimpses of it during training camp and in the spring and have been really happy with the addition of Kaden. When you talk about Tyrese Chambers, the best thing that I've seen with Reese, is he has that ability to come in and has natural leadership,” Locksley added. “Losing Dontay Demus, he was kind of the soul of our team, and I could see Tyrese Chambers being that type of guy. He'll work out of the slot, has the ability to be crafty and option routes and those things. And so, I expect Kaden and Tyrese to really step in and provide some of the experience, but also some of the production we lost. But the room as a whole for me is probably as deep as I've been at the receiver position since I've been back at Maryland.” Maryland’s pursuit of Prather didn’t begin in the portal as Locksley went all-out for the former four-star prospect out of Northwest. In the end, the depth and longevity to Prather’s relationships with the Mountaineers’ staff secured his initial commitment, but it was Locksley’s pitch in high school that ended up resonating years later. “To me, like I said, we recruited him. I think we probably finished second initially to West Virginia and I think the relationship he had there won out initially. To hear him say the reason he came here was because he got to see from outside in the vision that we sold in a recruiting process come to fruition and so it's great having him here on our side now.” Both Prather and Chambers have been able to prove themselves as expected key contributors in Maryland’s wide receiver room, while sixth-year receiver Jeshaun Jones has routinely been looked to as a leader not just within the unit, but on the team. With fall camp wrapping up this week and the team beginning to shift toward game prep for Towson, Locksley has been encouraged with the performances from his expected stars in practice. “To consistently see some of these guys flash in practice or make plays in practice, when they start doing it consistently, as a coach, that's when you feel pretty confident. Because what you do in practice, you typically will do in games,” Locksley added. “It's iron sharpening iron. Typically, in training camp for us at this level, we don't have the preseason games, but we we've got two really competitive scrimmages that we've had. I really, really like the direction of our team. I hope our people can come out and support this team this year.” Maryland will kick off the 2023 season next Saturday as Locksley takes on his alma mater and first-year head coach Pete Shinnick. “I had a chance to talk to him being a former grad there. Seems like he has the right mentality coming in, wants to embrace the local recruits here, which at that level you have the opportunity in this area because of the type of football we play to recruit locally and build a team,” Locksley added. “So, I'm really pumped up to go out and compete. I know our team's excited to go out and compete against Towson and kind of kick off the ‘23 season and there's no doubt that it's a little bittersweet deal watching your alma mater on the other sideline, but you know, we're here to compete and we're here to win and our team's excited about this opportunity coming up in a couple of weeks.” They’ll take the field in the iconic Terp Script uniform this season, while the program announced the debut of Black Script when they host Virginia on Sept. 15. “The only thing that I pay attention to is going to Terp Script was something that I grew up on and any Maryland football fan that's followed over the years knows that when they've wore Terp Script or when we've wore Terp script on our helmets, we've had great years,” Locksley said. “In the mid-80s teams that I grew up a fan of rooting for here to the early 2000 teams that coach Friedgen coached that I had a chance to be a part of. It's iconic in terms of it says Maryland football. So, for me, that's it.” Related Links Staff attrition (+)
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