Three questions for Maryland football ahead of 2025 season

Ahmed Ghafir
Jun 29
4 min read

After taking a look at three reasons for confidence ahead for the 2025 season, we take a look at the three biggest questions for Maryland football ahead of fall camp in one month.

Improvement along the OL?

With potentially four new starters along the offensive line, Maryland will need to find a way to win the trenches after failing to do so in 2024. And there's arguably no bigger question than that.

Maryland finished 11th in the Big Ten in sacks allowed in 2024 with 26, though half of those came against the three ranked teams faced and 23 through all of conference play, and saw a shakeup midway through the season after Brian Braswell was relieved of his duties. After serving as the assistant offensive line coach in 2024, Damian Wroblewski takes over the unit with Hal Hunter chipping in as the offensive tackles and tight ends coach as they look to gel together a more experienced unit individually.

The early reviews point to Rahtrel Perry capable of stepping in at left tackle while Michael Hershey takes over at center after a season of rotating in behind portal addition Josh Kaltenberger. Isaiah Wright, who drew the bulk of his reps at guard through the spring, was a key offseason portal addition heading into 2024 with confidence in the Buffalo transfer, who remains a strong candidate to take over Isaac Bunyun’s spot at left guard. Maryland also beat Auburn for OT Carlos Moore, a key spring portal addition who can play both guard and tackle but could find himself at tackle with Alan Herron shifting inside to guard. The mentioned five could very well materialize into the starting five by August 30 as the grouping boasts 83 career starts heading into fall camp beginning July 30.

Phil Steele ranked Maryland’s offensive line tied with Purdue for the worst unit in the Big Ten, but noted the return of Wright along with the unit being “much more experienced. They will have their best numbers in years.”

If Maryland can outperform and find its groove, the offense will have a chance to find the balance that has been often pointed to as the missing piece over the years during Big Ten play.

“That's why this conference is called the Big Ten. It's all about the big people up front. And we feel great about the depth that we have in the competitions that we have for the different positions on our offensive line,” OC Pep Hamilton said in the spring.

Young team

With just eight seniors or graduate players and seven returning starters from 2024, Maryland is ranked 132nd nationally and 17th in the Big Ten in experience in Phil Steele’s annual preseason magazine. It’s an understandable concern given the veteran leadership that has led the team over the last three seasons, along with a pair of quarterbacks involved in the quarterback competition entering their first season with the program. While several of the transfers are able to step into key roles like WR Jalil Farooq, CBs Dontay Joyner and Jamare Glasker and OL Carlos Moore, the chances of seeing younger faces loom large with freshmen like DL Sidney Stewart, DL Bryce Jenkins, DL Zahir Mathis and OT Jaylen Gilchrist drawing buzz as as-advertised additions in their first months (or weeks, for Mathis) in the program. Of course, QB Malik Washington is a big piece of that with all eyes on the former blue-chip quarterback becoming the starting quarterback in 2025 as the face of the program.

Head coach Mike Locksley stressed that spring ball gave his staff a chance to work on installing the systems on both sides of the ball. “All I wanted to do is get through the spring with the installations of our systems. There's a lot of moving parts. We're a really young team going into June 1.”

After welcoming the rest of the 2025 class and signing eight transfers in the spring, the staff will begin putting those pieces together ahead of the start of fall camp on July 29.

Special teams improvement

Bryce McFerson proved to be an upgrade in the punting game, finishing within the Big Ten third in 50+ yard punts (18), third in punts inside the 20 (21) and fifth in yards per punt (45.1) in 2024.

Now Maryland will look to do the same in the kicking game after Jack Howes was one of four Big Ten kickers to make less than 69% of his attempts. After going through spring ball, Maryland looks to a new face as the answer as former Richmond kicker Sean O’Haire arrives in College Park with four years of eligibility left, though he made good on his few attempts as a true freshman after finishing 12-for-12 on FGs and 9-for-9 on PATs along with a pair of 47-yarders and a 50-yard made field goal.

Maryland will also look to become more explosive in the return game after posting the third-worst kick return average in 2024 with just 13.8 yards per attempt as RB Josiah McLaurin looks to lead a host of explosive candidates to hopefully record at least the third special teams touchdown of the Mike Locksley era after Braeden Wisloski vs. UVA in 2023 and Tarheeb Still vs. Virginia Tech in 2021.

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