Maryland 2012 Recruiting

Maryland Terrapins 2011 ... Head Coach: Randy Edsall

Maryland Terrapins

2011 Record: 2-10

Sept. 5 Miami W 32-24
Sept. 10 OPEN DATE
Sept. 17 West Virginia L 37-31
Sept. 24 Temple L 38-7
Oct. 1 Towson W 28-3
Oct. 8 at Georgia Tech L 21-16
Oct. 15 Clemson L 56-45
Oct. 22 at Florida State L 41-16
Oct. 29 Boston Coll. L 28-17
Nov. 5 Virginia L 31-13
Nov. 12 N. Dame (Land.) L 45-21
Nov. 19 at Wake Forest L 31-10
Nov. 26 at NC State L 56-41

2010 CFN Prediction: 6-6
2010 Record:  9-4

Sept. 6 Navy W 17-14
Sept. 11 Morgan State W 62-3
Sept. 18 at W. Virginia L 31-17
Sept. 25 FIU W 42-28
Oct. 2 Duke W 21-16
Oct. 9 OPEN DATE
Oct. 16 at Clemson L 31-7
Oct. 23 at Boston Coll W 24-21
Oct. 30 Wake Forest W 62-14
Nov. 6 at Miami L 26-20
Nov. 13 at Virginia W 42-23
Nov. 20 Florida State L 30-16
Nov. 27 NC State W 38-31
MILITARY BOWL
Dec. 29 East Carolina W 51-20
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 The Entire 2012 Recruiting Class

Top 5 Maryland Recruits To Care About
Player writeups by Scout.com

1. RB Wes Brown
6-0, 190, Scout.com 11th ranked, four-star running back.

2. RB Albert Reid
5-10, 195, Scout.com 25th ranked, four-star running back

3. QB Perry Hills
6-3, 200, Scout.com 29th ranked, three-star quarterback.

4. QB Caleb Rowe
6-3, 180, Scout.com 30th ranked, three-star quarterback.

5. OG Mike Madaras
6-6, 270, Scout.com 22nd ranked, three-star guard.

The 2012 Class Was Heavy On... The running backs. The defense will end up getting the most help with a ton of great linebackers coming in, but head coach Randy Edsall wants to run the ball, run the ball, run the ball. His ground attack is what made him such a success at UConn, and his first job in his first full recruiting cycle is to beef up the talent in the backfield.

Team Concerns For 2012: The Terps have to find a consistent offense, and again, that’s going to start with the ground game. Almost everyone is back on O except for top back Davin Meggett, while the defense gets everyone back except for corner Trenton Hughes, and gets yet another year out of safety/linebacker Kenny Tate, a future NFL star who’s coming back from injury. The experience will be there across the board. Can the production start to come? For Edsall, it had better.

Looking Ahead To The 2012 Season: Well that didn’t exactly work. Randy Edsall needs to have a few answers in Year Two after a complete and utter disaster following the opening day win over Miami. The first job will be to settle on a quarterback, hoping C.J. Brown is the main man. On the plus side, nine starters are back with all five back up front after being one of the few bright spots. RB Davin Meggett is gone, but speedy Justus Pickett should carry more of the load. The defense was the bigger problem with no production against the run. The pass rush was solid, and it should be stronger with Andre Monroe up the middle to go next to Joe Vellone, who might be the nation’s best returning tackle. MLB Demetrius Hartsfield was fifth in the nation in tackles, but he needs more help. Ten starters return only losing corner Trenton Hughes.

The 2011 Class Was Heavy On … Receivers. Apparently, Randy Edsall is going to start throwing the ball more in College Park than he did at UConn. He brought in four new targets with decent speed and impressive size with Jeremiah Hendy and Nigel King the future of the air show. His offensive line class is small, but excellent with some good guard prospect and a nice center in Evan Mulrooney. Picking up corners Makinton Dorleant and Michael Williams was a plus, and end Quinton Jefferson should be a terror.

2010 CFN Recruiting Ranking: 49. That Class Was Heavy On ... Defense. Wasn't Ralph Friedgen supposed to be a lame duck head coach? This class certainly didn't reflect that with several very good, very promising prospects to provide both instant help and a foundation for the future. Tyler Smith was the key to the offensive class as the quarterback to be groomed for down the road, and Sean Conaboy is a promising guard who should be a steady starter in a few years. The defense was the key starting with linebacker Javarie Johnson, a lightning fast playmaker who'll be all over the field the second he gets a chance. 13 good defensive players signed on, and they need to be factors early.

2009 CFN Recruiting Ranking: 28. That Class Was Heavy On ... linebackers. Maryland continues to stockpile the type of versatile linebackers that eventually move on to play on Sundays. Seven, in fact, are packing their bags for College Park, even though there’s no urgency for any to play right away. From New Jersey to South Carolina, Ralph Friedgen swept down the Eastern seaboard searching for athletic defenders who can play with range. It’s obviously early in the process, but Lorne Goree appears to be the best of a deep bunch.

Nov. 26 at NC State 56 … Maryland 41
CFN Analysis: Because the Maryland season wasn’t enough of a disaster, it had to lose in spectacular fashion. Just when it seemed like the team had something nice to build on in the offseason, instead it became the worst moment in a year of bad moments. … On the plus side, Demetrius Hartsfield was sensational with 18 tackles, and the line came up with good pressure and four sacks, but everything was overshadowed by the fourth quarter. … C.J. Brown should be able to build off this and showed enough over the last half of the year to possibly be a quarterback to work around. His mobility gives the attack an extra dimension, but the turnovers have to stop. The Terps gave it up five times with two picks from Brown.

(AP) RALEIGH, N.C. -- Mike Glennon threw for a career-high five touchdowns, ran for another score and led North Carolina State's rally from 27 points down in the second half to beat Maryland 56-41 on Saturday.

James Washington ran 1 yard for the go-ahead score with 7:08 left for the Wolfpack (7-5, 4-4 ACC).

They trailed 41-14 with 6 minutes left in the third quarter before reeling off five straight touchdown drives during the second-biggest comeback ever in an ACC game -- and a victory that might have been more shocking than last week's upset of then-No. 7 Clemson.

The Wolfpack scored 35 points in the fourth quarter as part of a rally surpassed in an ACC game only by Clemson's comeback from a 28-point deficit to beat Virginia 29-28 in 1992.

C.J. Brown rushed for two touchdowns and threw for another for Maryland (2-10, 1-7), which lost its last seven games under first-year coach Randy Edsall. Davin Meggett's 6-yard scoring run in the third quarter gave the Terrapins their biggest lead.

Glennon finished 36 of 55 for 306 yards with touchdown passes covering 4 and 11 yards to Tony Creecy, 7 yards to Jay Smith, 6 yards to Tobais Palmer and 7 yards to George Bryan for N.C. State, which needed to win seven games to become eligible because two of its victories came against FCS teams.

It took a remarkable rally to make that happen.

Glennon started the comeback with his touchdown pass to Palmer with just under 6 minutes left in the third. Then he threw a second scoring pass to Creecy on the first play of the fourth quarter, pulling N.C. State within 13.

Meggett fumbled on the Terrapins' next play, and four plays later, Glennon sneaked in from 1 yard out to make it 41-35 with 13:28 left.

And when Earl Wolff intercepted Brown's deep pass and brought it out to near midfield, Carter-Finley Stadium was rocking. Glennon's 20-yard pass to Creecy on third-and-9 set up Washington's go-ahead touchdown run.

Maryland went three-and-out and punted back to N.C. State with 5:21 left, and the Wolfpack ran about three minutes off the clock -- helped by a roughing-the-passer penalty on a third-and-6 that kept the drive going. Glennon's scoring pass to Bryan put N.C. State up by eight with 2:18 remaining.

C.J. Wilson then iced it with a 59-yard interception return for a score with 27 seconds to play.

Brown finished 12 of 23 for 166 yards with a pair of 1-yard touchdown runs and a 24-yard scoring pass to Kevin Dorsey for Maryland, a two-touchdown underdog that hadn't beaten an FBS team since the opener against shorthanded Miami.

Dexter McDougle returned a fumble 66 yards for a touchdown and A.J. Hendy took an interception 32 yards for another score for Maryland, which was trying to spoil things for N.C. State for the third time in five years. The Terps kept the Wolfpack out of the postseason in 2007 with a rout in the finale, and beat Russell Wilson's final N.C. State team in the last game of the 2010 regular season to deny it a spot in the ACC championship game.

Early on, it seemed all but certain that it would happen again -- especially after Maryland took two of those giveaways back for easy points.

McDougle started the scoring when James Washington caught a pass and simply dropped the ball for N.C. State's second fumble. The Maryland cornerback scooped it up and had an easy path down the sideline for the touchdown roughly 6 1/2 minutes in. Hendy made it 28-7 with 8 minutes left in the half when he picked off Glennon's pass and breezed into the end zone.

Brown's second short touchdown run pushed the Terps' lead to 21-7 with just under 9 minutes left in the half, and his TD pass to Dorsey made it 34-14 with 33 seconds before the break. Meggett then made it 41-14 with his long scoring run barely 4 minutes into the third.

That sent some fans to the exits -- way too early.

Nov. 19 at Wake Forest 31 … Maryland 10
CFN Analysis: The Terps haven’t had problems running the ball this year, and that continued because of quarterback C.J. Brown, who rumbled for 110 yards on 13 carries. However, he only completed 20-of-42 passes. He spread the ball around well, but there weren’t any big plays. … Demetrius Hartsfield came up with a big performance with 14 tackles and cleaned up plenty of messes from the line. He also came up with two tackles for loss. … The loss makes it seven straight with a trip to NC State to close. It would be nice if the passing game was more efficient, but the Terps’ biggest issue is a run defense that keeps getting gouged. 

Nov. 12 Notre Dame 45 … Maryland 21
CFN Analysis: Maryland keeps sinking lower. Notre Dame is a real, live, good team, but the defense is getting worse. The pass defense hasn’t been too bad this year, but Tommy Rees picked the secondary clean and the Irish ground game pounded away doing whatever it wanted against a run defense that allows 233 yards per game. … Danny O’Brien completed 14-of-21 passes for 132 yards, but he threw a pick six that made the blowout truly ugly midway through the third quarter. … C.J. Brown provided a little bit of a spark, running for a 24-yard touchdown and completing 6-of-10 passes, but the game was already out of hand. … With two games left against Wake Forest and NC State, all that matters is figuring out who can play and who to work around next year. Randy Edsall isn’t having any luck with the running game that should be far better, but the bigger problem is a defense that’s failing to make any key stops.

Nov. 5 Virginia 31 … at Maryland 13
CFN Analysis: The offense might be sputtering, and Danny O’Brien only completed 16-of-36 passes, but he came up with enough yards to make it a game for a half. But he had problems with his accuracy, the turnovers started to flow, and the Terps suffered another blowout. Maryland isn’t good enough to hold up against anyone if it gives the ball away five times, but just as bad was a defense that didn’t come close to stopping the Virginia offense that cranked out more than 100 yards over its average. On a five-game losing streak, finishing up the home slate with an ugly loss is going to linger. The final three games away from home against Notre Dame, Wake Forest, and NC State will almost certainly mean a 2-10 first year from Randy Edsall unless the team can find something it can do right. 

Oct. 29 Boston College 28 … at Maryland 17
CFN Analysis: Just when it seems like things couldn’t get any worse, the Terps play even worse. The defense hasn’t been close to coming up with meaningful stops over the last several games – coming into the BC game ranked 110th in the nation and last in the ACC in run defense – but this was a bad game against a team that isn’t running on anyone. Offensively, C.J. Brown got the start but couldn’t do much to move the offense. Danny O’Brien didn’t do much better, completing just 14-of-35 passes for 165 yards and a touchdown. On a four-game losing streak, the Terps have to beat Virginia next week or there might be a whole other level they can sink to, closing out the year with three straight road games. Right now, just finding something the team can do right on a consistent basis would be a step forward. 

Oct. 22 at Florida State 41 … Maryland 16
CFN Analysis: Florida State isn’t running the ball on anyone, but it didn’t have a problem against the squishy-soft Terp defensive front. The Terps got into the backfield, coming up with four sacks and generating decent pressure throughout, but the big defensive moments didn’t matter much thanks to an offense that couldn’t move the ball early on. The passing game is supposed to be there to keep up the pace and make comebacks, it couldn’t do it. With no running game for the Noles to worry about, they hung back against the pass and didn’t allow much deep outside of a 69-yarder to Quintin McCree. Fortunately, Boston College is up next with a chance to stop the three game slide, but the last win over an FBS team was the opener against Miami. 

Oct. 15 Clemson 56 … at Maryland 45
CFN Analysis: At least the Terps woke up. After a stunningly lifeless loss to Temple and the problems against Georgia Tech, the offense exploded with C.J. Brown showing he’s more than capable of handling the attack in place instead of Danny O’Brien. He threw well, but he added the flash on the ground with 162 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries, but he couldn’t keep the chains moving and he couldn’t control the clock enough in the second half to keep the defense off the field. The D that’s been so soft against the run was a huge problem against the Tigers, and the special teams continue to be a problem with a breakdown on a key Tiger kickoff return for a score, but at least the awful punt return game was decent with Tony Logan making a few nice plays. Unfortunately, up next is a date against Florida State on the road.
 
Oct. 8 at Georgia Tech 21 … Maryland 16
CFN Analysis: And now, on top of all the other problems, the Terps have a quarterback controversy. Danny O’Brien’s brilliant performance against Miami seems like it was ten years ago, and after completing just 1-of-6 passes, the offense had to go a different route. The problem was that C.J. Brown was worse, completing 4-of-17 passes for 36 yards with a pick, while running for 124 yards and a 77-yard score. The offense made it interesting late and the defense came up with a strong game against the high-powered Yellow Jackets, but going forward, if the offense can’t find more consistency and more pop, it’s going to get ugly fast with Clemson and Florida State coming up. 

Oct. 1 at Maryland 28 ... Towson 3
CFN Analysis: This wasn’t the game the Terps needed coming off the Temple disaster. The offense sputtered and coughed throughout the first half and the defense bailed the team out with four takeaways in the second half. Towson has a great FCS defense, but there’s no excuse for Danny O’Brien to only complete 14-of-21 passes for 123 yards and two touchdowns in a game like this. Davin Meggett ran well and O’Brien put the game away, but it was a shaky 25-point win. The punting game was a major plus with Nick Ferrera pinning Towson deep with four kicks put inside the 20. If the Terp offense is going to continue to have problems, field position will be at a premium. 

Sept. 24 Temple 38 ... at Maryland 7
CFN Analysis:  It’s like the Terps didn’t take this game seriously in any way after the loss to West Virginia. This was a total team meltdown with the special teams screwing up, the run defense getting gashes, and the offense way too sleepy and ineffective. Temple might be decent, but this has to be seen as a wake-up call. There won’t be any problems against Towson next week, but the defensive front has to be much tougher in the middle, and the linebackers have to be much stronger tackling – missing stops time and again – before dealing with the road game at Georgia Tech. 

Sept. 17 West Virginia 37 … at Maryland 31
CFN Analysis: The Terp passing game works. For the second game in a row, Danny O’Brien was terrific on the short to midrange passes, and he did what he could to bring the team back in the second half, but he had to press. The running game was terrific, averaging 5.4 yards per carry with D.J. Adams and Davin Meggett each effective, but the defense couldn’t handle the West Virginia passing game early and Maryland had to abandon the ground game, for the most part, in the comeback effort. There were too many mistakes and too many breakdowns in the secondary, and while there won’t be any concerns next week against Temple’s passing game, the Terps have to be able to be tighter. 

Sept. 5 at Maryland 32 … Miami 24
CFN Analysis: Could Randy Edsall handle having a passing quarterback? The answer is a resounding yes. After years of grinding ground games at UConn, he had to adapt to his Maryland personnel, but in a god way. Danny O’Brien threw for 348 yards and a touchdown with a pick as he ripped up the Miami secondary. The ground game wasn’t ignored with 151 yards, but this game was all about the passing attack moving up and down the field. The running attack will start to do more soon, and the Terps could quickly be unstoppable.  

The 2011 Recruiting Class Is Heavy On … Receivers. Apparently, Randy Edsall is going to start throwing the ball more in College Park than he did at UConn. He brought in four new targets with decent speed and impressive size with Jeremiah Hendy and Nigel King the future of the air show. His offensive line class is small, but excellent with some good guard prospect and a nice center in Evan Mulrooney. Picking up corners Makinton Dorleant and Michael Williams was a plus, and end Quinton Jefferson should be a terror.

Five Maryland Recruits You Should Care About
Player writeups by Scout.com

1. LB Delonte Morton
6-2, 240, Scout.com’s 34th ranked middle linebacker

2. C Evan Mulrooney
6-4, 270, Scout.com’s 15th ranked center

3. DE Quinton Jefferson
6-4, 230, Scout.com’s 47th ranked defensive end

4. CB Makinton Dorleant
5-11, 170, Scout.com’s 86th ranked cornerback

5. RB Brandon Ross
6-0, 200, Scout.com’s 95th ranked running back

2011 Entire Recruiting Class

Keith Bowers DL 6-2 260 Fr.-HS West Palm Beach, Fla. (T. Dwyer High School)
Tyrek Cheeseboro WR 6-0 180 Fr.-HS Baltimore, Md. (Milford Mill Academy/Fork Union Military Academy)
Tyler Cierski RB 6-1 255 Fr.-HS Dacula, Ga. (Mill Creek High School)
Undray Clark DB 5-11 185 Fr.-HS Miami, Fla. (Felix Varela High School)
Nataniel Clarke OL 6-4 310 Fr.-HS Washington, D.C. (Archbishop Carroll High School/Fork Union)
Makinton Dorleant DB 5-11 170 Fr.-HS Naples, Fla. (Lely High School)
Ryan Doyle OL 6-6 265 Fr.-HS Wake Forest, N.C. (Wake Forest-Rolesville High School)
Cole Farrand LB 6-2 233 Fr.-HS Sparta, N.J. (Pope John XXIII High School)
Lukas Foreman DB 6-4 195 Fr.-HS Naples, Fla. (Naples High School)
Stephen Grommer OL 6-5 290 Fr.-HS Spartanburg, S.C. (Spartanburg High School)
Jeremiah Hendy DB 6-1 188 Fr.-HS Bowie, Md. (Bowie High School)
Quinton Jefferson DL 6-4 225 Fr.-HS Pittsburgh, Pa. (Woodland Hills High School)
Nigel King WR 6-3 199 Fr.-HS Raleigh, N.C. (Oak Ridge Military Academy)
Marcus Leak WR 6-0 195 Fr.-HS Charlotte, N.C. (Parkwood High School)
Evan Mulrooney OL 6-4 282 Fr.-HS Wilmington, Del. (Salesianum High School)
Nathan Renfro P/PK 6-2 200 Fr.-HS Brentwood, Tenn. (Brentwood Academy)
Brandon Ross RB 6-0 200 Fr.-HS Newark, Del. (Charter School of Wilmington)
Alex Twine LB 6-1 200 Fr.-HS Gaithersburg, Md. (Quince Orchard High School)
Michael Williams DB 5-11 175 Fr.-HS Hyattsville, Md. (DeMatha High School)
Andrew Zeller OL 6-5 280 Fr.-HS Red Lion, Pa. (Red Lion Senior High School)