Why strong staff connections to Terrez Worthy's coaches impacted portal commitment to Maryland football

Ahmed Ghafir
1 day ago
3 min read

Thursday marked a pair of public portal commitments for Maryland football with linebacker Stephen Dean III making his decision public less than 48 hours after departing College Park, but he would be the second of the two announcements.

Terrez Worthy, a 5-foot-11, 170-pound running back out of Temple, didn’t initially plan to transfer to a school close to home after spending the last two years of his college career just 2.5 hours away from his hometown in Salisbury, Md. “I really didn't want to stay close to home. I kind of been home for the past couple years, like close to home for the past couple years and I kind of wanted to change,” he told IBG.

Yet Maryland was the one school that Worthy was willing to make an exception for “even coming close to staying home” with a spot still left to fill in the running back room ahead of the 2026 season. That kept Maryland in the market for another running back as Worthy took a brief visit to campus two weeks ago to meet the offensive staff along with a tour of Jones-Hill House.

“Seeing what they have to offer and like, equipment and stuff like that. It's all high tech stuff, like it's all great stuff. But again, yeah, I loved everything about the coaches, and everything they had to offer. It was just amazing, man, it was amazing.”

Maryland inked former USC running back Harry Dalton III in the winter where he will likely factor into the rotation alongside Iverson Howard and behind DeJuan Williams, though Worthy also offers experience as a returner. Given Maryland has notched one touchdown in the return game and struggled to generate explosive plays consistently, Worthy becomes a candidate to step into that role after averaging 20.5 yards per kick return in 2024.

“What they wanted to do is just kind of give me around the facility and just meet the coaches and stuff like that,” Worthy said of the. “They just kind of wanted to see how I liked it and if they liked me. Just wanted to kind of get me around. They already know what I have to offer.”

A big part of why Maryland knows what Worthy can offer is due to relationships.

Prior to his two seasons at Temple, Worthy spearheaded the offense at Lackawanna College - coached by former Maryland and NFL lineman Mark Duda - after posting 1,492 yards and ten touchdowns on 203 carries to lead the NJCAA in 2023. During his two seasons at Temple, Worthy was coached by Tyree Foreman, a former Virginia running back who spent one season coached by Andre Powell, now Maryland’s running backs coach, over 20 years ago. Yet those relationships helped Maryland do their homework on the late portal addition , who arrives

“So they had a relationship and kind of spoke about me and that's what we spoke about a bit. And it was kind of like a full circle moment, because again, playing at Temple with that coach that I committed to, Tyree Foreman, he spoke about Virginia, UVA all the time,” Worthy added. “Every single meeting and that's all he talked about, UVA, UVA, UVA, UVA. So then kind of getting to meet his coach who coached him at UVA was just kind of like a full circle moment.”

“They didn't need to know much about what I have to bring. They were kind of just trying to get me in, see if they like me, see if I was going to be a good fit.”

After rushing for 425 yards and four touchdowns while adding another 65 yards on 16 catches in 2024, Worthy appeared in only four games during the 2025 season to preserve his final season of eligibility in 2026.

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