“I don?t know if I have been around many [true freshman] that have played as well as Jeremy did,” said head coach Ralph Friedgen. “He played even better this spring. He is going to have a great career. He is a tough guy, he plays every play and he is just a very good football player.”

Navarre, a 6-foot-3, 263-pounder, came to Maryland as a fullback inspring 2005 and switched to defensive end.

“[This spring] went so well because I was a lot more comfortable,” Navarre said. “I had a whole season under my belt.”

Navarre is looking forward to the new style Cosh will bring to the defense in 2006.

“He is a really run-around guy,” Navarre said. “He really excites the defense. He is not a sit-back kind of coach.”

Henderson, an Aberdeen High School graduate, agrees with that assessment.

“Coach Cosh is always up-tempo and always upbeat, and he brings a lot to the table,” Henderson said. “You see a coach out there like that, and you want to make him happy. You feed off his energy.”

Henderson, the younger brother of Minnesota Viking and former Maryland linebacker E.J. Henderson, is ready to get back on the field after sitting out 2005 with an injured left anterior cruciate ligament.

“I can?t sit there and say my spot is guaranteed,” Henderson said. “Nothing is guaranteed, nothing is promised. It is just a matter of going out there and handling my business and taking care of my responsibilities.”

Youth is served

» In his freshman season, Jeremy Navarre averaged 2.3 tackles per game from defensive end and was 11th in tackles on the team.

» Erin Henderson came to Maryland as a quarterback but quickly switched to inside linebacker.