ACC Spring Football Wrap: Maryland

Maryland went through its first spring under new coach Randy Edsall and second-year QB Danny O'Brien excelled...

Reviewing Key Spring Issues: 1) Edsall era begins – The first spring with a program under a new coach is learning process, and especially so for a program that just spent a decade under the tutelage of Ralph Friedgen. The transitions came on both sides of the balls with shifts on offense to a more up-tempo style modeled after Oregon, and on defense, putting DBs at linebacker and linebackers on the defensive line.

2) New defensive coordinator and scheme too – Todd Bradford took over this spring, but didn’t reveal much when it came to the spring game…a game where the first team defense had 35 points scored on them. Edsall said postgame, “The thing is, you've got to remember we didn't let them do anything. We just basically played a couple coverages and really one front the whole time, we had no movement.”

3) Finding targets for O’Brien – The 2010 ACC rookie of the year found one especially in senior Ronnie Tyler, who caught a spring-game-opening 65-yard touchdown pass and later added another TD for a 99-yard receiving day. WRs Kevin Dorsey and Quintin McCree had four catches each for a combined 57-yards.

Spring MVP: QB Danny O’Brien (Sophomore, 6-3 215, 2,438 career passing yards with 22 TDs/8 INTs)

Breakout Offensive Player: WR Ronnie Tyler (Senior, 5-9 185, 571 career receiving yards on 48 receptions)

Breakout Defensive Player: DB Anthony Green (Senior, 5-11 190, had a 51-yard pick-six and one more interception in spring game)

Key Injuries: Offensive tackle Justin Gilbert (out until October after knee surgery).

Spring Game Notes: 1) First team O dominates first team D – The O’Brien led offense took advantage of a vanilla defense put out by the Terps’ first team defense. O’Brien was 16/23 for 199 yards passing, two touchdowns and two interceptions on the game. The Red offense put up 322 offensive yards with two rushing and passing TDs each.

2) Terps establish the run – The Red squad had Maryland’s top two returning rushers from 2010 (Davin Meggett and D.J. Adams) and they ran it 34 times for 123 yards. Terps ranked 82nd in the country in rushing offense last season.

3) No competition for O’Brien at QB – Backup C.J. Brown started to push the incumbent O’Brien during spring practice according to Edsall, but the 6-3 200 junior Brown couldn’t get it going in the spring game - 9/24 on passing attempts for 96 yards and an interception.

Quotable: Randy Edsall on QB Danny O’Brien “I thought that he's gotten better as we've gone through each practice and each week this spring. He had the one play today where he's trying to throw the ball out of bounds and he just didn't put enough on it, just didn't get it there. When he makes that kind of mistake, he comes off and he knows exactly what the situation is and what happened.”