The 2010 Football Season has not even begun, and the University of Maryland has already suffered a number of significant losses.
Today it was announced via InsideMDSports.com that TE Lansford Watson would miss the season with an MCL tear in his knee:
Coupled with the concussion that Devonte Campbell is dealing with, and the broken finger suffered by Will Yeatman, and the Terps suddenly need more production from Matt Furstenburg. Earlier this Summer, Patrick Stevens of D1scourse.com, and Peter Volk of Turtle Sports Report both told me they felt that Furstenburg was the best blocking TE out of the trio of himself, Watson, and Campbell.
Here is the profile Matt Bracken of The Baltimore Sun provided on Furstenburg when he signed with the Terps:
“Furstenburg graduated from Hunterdon Central High School in Flemington, N.J. in 2007 without any DI football scholarship offers. Instead of taking a DIAA offer or playing lacrosse in college, Furstenburg decided to do a post-graduate year at The Hun School. Before he even played a down, Maryland offered a scholarship in August, and Furstenburg (now a four-star prospect per Scout.com) promptly committed.”
Unfortunately Watson has not been the only loss for MD.
The Terps came into this Summer feeling good about their depth at Linebacker. As September nears, Avery Murray has left the program and Ben Pooler suffered an ACL injury ending his year.
In next man-up philosophy, this provides opportunity for David Mackall to emerge as the backup to Alex Wujciak.
Bracken interviewed Mackall’s Prep-school Head Coach:
“I’ve never been around Shawne Merriman, but to us, he seems to be a Shawne Merriman type of player,” Fork Union coach John Shuman said of Mackall, who graduated from Edmondson last spring and signed with Maryland one year ago. “He led our team in sacks and tackles for loss. … He’s big, fast, physical and just an intense guy. He played every snap and got all our guys ready to compete.” Shuman said Michigan, Purdue and Rutgers “tried to jump in” and get Mackall to switch his commitment, but the 6-foot-3, 230-pounder has already enrolled in classes at College Park.”
Mackall has always been labeled as a guy with a lot of physical skill, had that extra time at Prep-school, and enrolled early at MD. Still, he was a DE in HS and Prep, and was practicing at OLB in the Spring. You have to wonder how comfortable he will be now shifting to MLB.
There have been a number of other nicks and bruises through-out the roster. The other-injury I have found most disappointing occurred to Red-shirt Freshman DT De’Onte Arnett. Arnett had a cyst removed on his ankle, and will miss at-least the first couple of weeks.
Here are links to Arnett’s UMTerps.com and Rivals.com profiles:
http://www.umterps.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/arnett_deonte00.html
http://rivals.yahoo.com/maryland/football/recruiting/player-DeOnte-Arnett-72237
At least he will be back at some point.
In July we discussed the departure of RB Caleb Porzel:
http://baltimoresportsandlife.blogspot.com/2010/07/dissapointed-in-loss-of-caleb-porzel.html
Despite all of that negative news, there has been some positives in the last few days.
InsideMDSports.com was the first to report the transfer of University of Florida Wide Receiver (Baltimore City College) Adrian Coxson:
http://www.insidemdsports.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1357:coxson-to-transfer-to-maryland&catid=42:football&Itemid=81
The Terps recruited the 2010 receiver hard, and it is good to see those efforts pay off when the player decided to leave the Gators.
There are also reports existing that Coxson’s former Gator teammate Strong Safety Jordan Haden might also join the Terps. The MD native left Florida this past week.
Here are a couple of bios for Haden (the brother of the Cleveland Browns 2010 1st round pick Joe Haden):
http://rivals.yahoo.com/florida/football/recruiting/player-Jordan-Haden-69634
http://gatorcountry.com/pagetwo/swampie/2009/06/11/jordan-hayden/
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Chris Stoner founded Baltimore Sports and Life in 2009. He has appeared as a radio guest with 1090 WBAL, 105.7 The Fan, CBS 1300, Q1370, WOYK 1350, WKAV 1400, and WNST 1570. He has also been interviewed by The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Business Journal, and PressBox (TV). As Owner, his responsibilities include serving as the Managing Editor, Publicist, & Sales Director.