Terps: Spring Game Recap

Ahhh, the Maryland Football Red & White Spring Game. The first opportunity fans get to see their beloved Terps on the gridiron since the end of the previous season.

Last year, Maryland caught some people by surprise by being much more competitive than expected while pulling off two big wins over Minnesota and Penn State in what was a shortened season due to the pandemic.

The Terps scored a combined 80 points between those two wins, which has fans even more excited entering the 2021 season. On the defensive side of things, it wasn’t always great, but the Terps certainly had their moments on that side of the ball while also identifying some key, young players to build around.

Last Saturday’s spring scrimmage was a good one for anyone who enjoys defense, as the final score was 12-10 in favor of the White Team. But there were some offensive standouts and a few things to get excited about from all three phases of the game.

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Here’s what I noticed:

White Team was O-heavy, Red Team was D-heavy

The first thing I noticed when I looked at the rosters for this game was that rather than try to split the two teams up evenly from a talent standpoint, it appeared Mike Locksley opted to go with a different approach.

Most of the players expected to make an impact on offense for Maryland this season played for the White Team. Most of the defensive standouts played for the Red Team. I actually like this because it makes it look like a real scrimmage when the White Team is on offense and it’s essentially a “reserves” scrimmage when Red was on offense — with a few exceptions in both cases.

Demus clearly top dog at WR, likewise for Jacobs at RB

Senior wideout Dontay Demus Jr. proved to be Taulia Tagovailoa’s favorite target by racking up 8 receptions for 98 yards. That’s nearly 28% of Tagovailoa’s 353 passing yards (35-for-47) on the day. The White Team showed little interest in running the ball at all (which hopefully isn’t indicative of what we can expect from this offense this year) so all of Maryland’s top receivers have their numbers a bit inflated. H-back Tayon Fleet-Davis hauled in 8 receptions for 55 yards, tight end Chigoziem Okonkwo had 6 receptions for 81 yards, and sophomore Rakim Jarrett finished with 6 receptions for 45 yards. All were impressive, none more so than Demus.

If the Terps do opt to run the ball this season, it looks as though Isaiah Jacobs could be the lead dog in the backfield. Jacobs carried the ball just seven times for the Red Team, but he averaged 10 yards per carry on his way to 70 rushing yards for the game, including a 26-yard scamper. It will certainly be a running back by committee in College Park, but Jacobs appears to be the most traditional, three-down back the Terps have and he looked good on Saturday, albeit not against Maryland’s best on defense.

Chris Coley Jr. stood out on defense for White Team

Whoa, where did this guy come from? Jacksonville, Florida, to be exact. Coley is a 6-foot-1, 170-pound freshman defensive back who was all over the field on Saturday. The newcomer finished the game with 5 tackles and an interception off of sophomore quarterback David Foust.

While we’re talking about the White Team’s defense, I have to also give a shoutout to redshirt sophomore defensive back Deshawn Holt. Holt led his team with 6 tackles while also recording a sack and recovering a fumble.

Jordan Mosley stood out on defense for the Red Team

What Coley and Holt did on Saturday was impressive, but even more so was what Jordan Mosley did for the Red Team’s defense. That’s because Mosley was matching up against a far superior offense but he had just as much impact on the game. The senior defensive back led his team with 8 tackles while also recording 2 pass breakups and forcing 2 fumbles. Mosley also recovered a fumble on Saturday.

Sloppiness and too many turnovers all around

Speaking of all these turnovers the defense was causing, they’re great…for the defense. But a bit of a concern for the offense. There were a total of five turnovers in the game — one interception and four fumbles. One interception by a backup quarterback is nothing to worry about, but c’mon Terps, you have to hold onto the ball. You’re never going to win a game where you fumble it five times and lose four of them.

Besides the turnovers, Maryland’s two scrimmage teams also combined for 8 penalties for 78 yards. This is astronomical, but it’s not great. And many of the penalties were silly ones. But, this is the time to work these things out, so let’s keep expectations in check.

Only TD came on a trick play

There was only one touchdown in this game and it came on a trick play — a halfback pass from senior running back Challen Faamatau to sophomore wide receiver Nick DeGennaro. It was a heck of a play design that worked flawlessly. And this wasn’t any 5-10 yard pass that DeGennaro worked some magic with and took to the house. Faamatau aired this baby out and it traveled 30 yards before it was caught. The play resulted in a 41-yard passing touchdown.

Special Teams looking special

When you have a 12-10 game, you have to figure special teams factors in pretty heavily. With junior punter Anthony Pecorella kicking for the Red Team and senior kicker Joseph Petrino kicking for the White Team, the two combined to hit 4-of-5 field goals. Although none of them were over 36 yards and the miss was from just 43 yards, you have to be able to make the easy ones.

This feels like an underwhelming thing to say, but both punters — Pecorella and Colton Spangler — looked solid too. Each had at least one punt over 50 yards and Pecorella nailed five inside the 20.

Spring Awards (Not just reflective of the spring game)

D’Qwell Jackson Headhunter Award: Beau Brade, Johari Branch, Mosiah Nasili-Kite

Torrey Smith “I Like to Practice” Award: Evan Gregory, Joseph Boletepeli, Rex Fleming

Yannick Ngakoue Defensive Lineman Award: Sam Okuayinonu, Ami Finau

Bob Pellegrini Offensive Lineman Award: Spencer Anderson, Jaelyn Duncan, Amelio Moran

Bob Ward Most Improved Freshman Award: Glendon Miller, Corey Dyches, DeaJaun McDougle

Domonique Foxworth Community Service Award: Anthony Pecorella, Brian Cobbs

Ferrell Edmunds Most Improved Player Award: Darryl Jones, Deshawn Holt, Mason Lunsford

Steve Suter Commitment to Excellence Award: Taulia Tagovailoa, Ruben Hyppolite, Isaiah Hazel

Neil O’Donnell Leadership Award: Jakorian Bennett, Sean Greeley, Eric Najarian

Bruce Perry Offensive Back Award: Tayon Fleet-Davis, Challen Faamatau

Scott McBrien Outstanding Non-Scholarship Player Award: Sean Greeley, Greg Rose, David Brownless, David Foust

Lewis Sanders Defensive Back Award: Deonte Banks, Kenny Bennett

Eric Barton Linebacker Award: Lawtez Rogers, Kobi Thomas

DJ Moore Wide Receiver Award: Dontay Demus Jr., Rakim Jarrett

Stefon Diggs MVP Award (Picked by media after spring game): Jordan Mosley

Kris Jenkins Most Valuable Lineman (Picked by media after spring game): Lawtez Rogers