Maryland football head coach Michael Locksley made one thing clear Wednesday when he addressed the media before the first practice of fall camp: Maryland will be a “defensive-led” team in the post-Taulia Tagovailoa era.
The Terps enter August without a clear-cut starting quarterback for the first time since 2019. Locksley, entering his sixth year as the program’s head coach, said Tagovailoa’s successor won’t be announced until his team takes the field in its season opener against UConn.
In the meantime, Locksley will turn to his veteran defense for leadership as the Terps search for a fourth-straight bowl game appearance, a feat they haven’t achieved since 1982-85.
The defensive unit returns seven of last year’s 11 starters — but junior Jaishawn Barham isn’t one of them. The star linebacker transferred to Michigan after a somewhat-underwhelming 2023 campaign, but was expected to make a jump for the Terps this season.
Without arguably their most talented player from last season, Maryland looks to a hungry group of upperclassmen ready for their turn to “take the bull by the horns,” defensive coordinator Brian Williams said.
“We have some guys where it’s their time to lead,” Williams said. “They’ve been in the program for a few years now and have really made a contribution … guys that have continued to be the forefront of our leadership. They know what it takes to get it done.”
Williams mentioned defensive linemen Tommy Akingbesote and Taizse Johnson, linebackers Ruben Hyppolite II and Kellan Wyatt and safety Dante Trader Jr., who are all upperclassmen, as examples of this leadership mentality.
The defense must prepare for new challenges in a freshly-expanded Big Ten conference, though. The Terps will take on powerhouses in USC and Oregon this season, both for the first time in program history. Those programs scored the second- and fourth-most points per game in the country last season.
“If you’re a competitor, you want that,” Williams said. “You want to have to deal with the fact that now our competition stretches all the way to the other end of the country in a new time zone … there’s an excitement there. It gives you a little more added push, I’m sure it gives the guys a little more push to do more.”
Maryland isn’t expected to light up the scoreboard as it adjusts to its new quarterback, whoever that ends up being. The quarterback competition has been treated by some as a three-man race between redshirt junior Billy Edwards Jr. and redshirt sophomores MJ Morris and Cameron Edge, but Locksley warned against counting out down-the-roster options like redshirt freshman Champ Long and true freshman Khristian Martin.
He alluded to Jalen Hurts, who started at Alabama as a freshman four-star recruit when Locksley worked in Tuscaloosa.
“We’re going to give everybody a chance to win the job,” Locksley said. “I want the best guy. I’m not just taking the guy that I feel safest with, because [if] you want to get over the eight [win mark] you can’t keep doing the same things. You’ve got to be willing to take some chances.”
That quarterback will also have to navigate a new-look offensive line. The unit lost six players that played 10 or more games last season, including left tackle Delmar Glaze, who was selected in the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft by the Las Vegas Raiders.
Maryland brought in four linemen from the transfer portal: redshirt senior Josh Kaltenberger from Purdue, redshirt sophomore Aliou Bah from Georgia, redshirt junior Isaiah Wright from Buffalo and junior Alan Herron from Division II Shorter University.
Wright will likely miss the 2024 season with a lower leg injury, though, according to Inside the Black and Gold, but the other three are expected to immediately contribute. Redshirt sophomore Andre Roye Jr., who played in five games last season, is also expected to step up.
“You’ve got to slow cook that position,” offensive coordinator Josh Gattis said. “Communicating takes time, gelling together … all the young men in that room have done a tremendous job this summer growing and bonding.”
