Three Reasons to be Optimistic this Football Season

With the Big Ten media days here, there is only one thing that can mean and that is that football season is right around the corner. With just less than 40 days till the opening kickoff of the 2022 football season, here are three reasons you should be optimistic about the 2022 Maryland Terrapins.

1. The returning production on offense.

The Terps are ranked tenth in the country in returning production on offense, according to ESPN SP+ rankings. With Taulia Tagovailoa returning to run the offense and then the likes of Dontay Demus, Rakim Jarrett, Jeshaun Jones and Marcus Fleming all returning as well as the addition of Jacob Copeland from Florida to an already stacked wide receiver room, it makes it easier to move the ball up and down the field when you have all that talent and chemistry. The return of the entire starting offensive line from last season, a unit that Locksley tabbed as the “most improved unit on the team” and Corey Dyches who had a limited role last year but expects to have a much larger role being the number one tight end this season. In the running back room, expect it to be a large "running back by committee" approach for the group this season. With Tayon Fleet-Davis moving on to the NFL, it will open up lots of opportunities for seasoned veteran Challen Faamatau, as well as younger guys like Colby McDonald, Antwain Littleton, Roman Hemby, and even possibly true freshman Ramon Brown. With Locksley said during media days, "it's probably the deepest team we've had since I've been back in College Park" with fourteen different players starting at least one game on offense. With all the returning production on offense and the addition of the talented wide receiver like Copeland, it's no surprise Locksley feels this way. Locksley was asked at the Big Ten media days about which layers he think the roster can count on the most and he stated "it starts with our quarterback. Obviously I think there's a belief in Lia. The other area, our most improved unit on our team has been our offensive line. We've got five returning starters that have gotten their teeth kicked in that as young pups and now their juniors, seniors, have lot of game experience. There's no doubt that position group is going to play a major role in the outcome of what our season looks like."

2. Improved specialists

This offseason, one of the most underrated pickups in the transfer portal this season would be the Terps adding kicker Chad Ryland as a grad transfer from Eastern Michigan. Ryland holds the school record at Eastern Michigan for points scored with 309 points. Ryland was ranked as the best kicker in the portal this offseason and the Terps were the lucky winners. Ryland will add to the special teams unit that has not had a consistent solid kicker since 2018 when Joseph Petrino went 12-for-14 on field goals and 40-for-41 on extra points. With the Terps having a kicker like Ryland, expect them to improve in many categories. Last season with Petrino, the Terps had to go for it on fourth down a lot when in opponent territory due to the inconsistency of Petrino. With Ryland, look for the Terps red zone scoring to be a lot better now that they have a kicker with lots of range and is a very accurate kicker. Having Ryland will also help with the kickoff unit. With Petrino, there were not many touchbacks and with how the coverage unit was last season the opposing teams would start with great field position a lot of the time. But now with Ryland unless told otherwise, expect him to get a touchback just about every time.

3. New Defensive Coordinator

Before the Rutgers game last season, Locksley promoted defensive line coach Brian Williams to be the defensive coordinator with former coordinator Brian Stewart parting ways with the program. Under Williams in the Rutgers game and the bowl game against Virginia Tech, the Terps’ defense allowed just 13 points per game. Williams would stay on as the new Ddfensive coordinator after a failed hiring of Kevin Steele who would eventually sign with the Miami Hurricanes. On the recruiting trail, Williams has been an asset in helping Maryland break into Florida’s talent especially during the 2020 and 2021 cycles but his personable touch in the locker room helped motivate Locksley to go in-house to replace Brian Stewart. “The most important game of the year was our Rutgers game and we made him the primary play caller in that game and I just saw the way our players responded to him in the front of the room,” Locksley said on Tuesday. “And then the job he did in the bowl game was phenomenal along with the rest of the defensive staff.” With the Terps replacing both starting safeties as well as Sam Okuyainonu on the defensive line, look for Williams to lead the charge of a new and improved defense in the 2022 season. After giving up just over 30 points a game last season, it will be hard to not improve on that with Williams leading the charge defensively. The biggest question sits in the front seven, which was another aspect that Locksley acknowledged yesterday.

“We've had a lot of injuries. That's kind of been our Achilles heel on the defensive side of the ball. We've had a lot of injuries, you know, Durell Nchami is healthy, one of the best pass rushers in our program.” Locksley did note a pair of true freshmen linebackers in Caleb Wheatland and Jaishawn Barham who will “add tremendous depth” before noting “we need to keep those guys healthy” as Maryland looks to take the next step in conference play.

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