Starting offensive tackle R.J. Dill is the latest player to leave the Maryland football team, his father confirmed on Monday. Dill, the Terrapins’ most experienced player with 33 starts, is the third player to leave since the end of the season and 15th scholarship player to depart after the hire of Randy Edsall last January.
Accompanied by his father, Dill met with Edsall on Sunday night. “We all agreed that it was best for R.J. to leave Maryland,” said Robert Dill. The 6-foot-7, 300-pound Dill will graduate on Dec. 21 with a degree in economics. He plans to continue his football career and pursue graduate studies.
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“We wish R.J. well in his future athletic and academic pursuits,” Edsall said in a statement Monday night. “We appreciate the commitment and effort R.J. has given to the Maryland football program.”
Dill’s brother, Patrick, is a senior quarterback at Trinity (Pa.) who has received interest schools such as Michigan State and Boston College. Robert Dill dismissed the possibility that the brothers could end up at the same school, but said it would be a “father’s dream.”
It was no surprise last week when sophomore defensive end David Mackall and sophomore running back D.J. Adams left the program. Both had been suspended from games this season. But Dill’s departure was unexpected. He was a fixture in the lineup and there was no hint of his discontent. Late in the season, he talked with optimism of the prospects for 2012, saying that the experience gained by young players this season would pay dividends in 2012.
As a freshman, Dill was forced into the lineup when he “had no business being on the field,” he said last month. But the experience he and others gained in the injury-riddled season of 2009 helped the Terps rebound from 2-10 to 9-4 in 2010.
