More praise for freshmen from Maryland coach Edsall
After Maryland’s 28-3 victory over Towson, Maryland coach Randy Edsall awarded game balls to Justus Pickett (offense), James Vollano (defense), and Austin Walker (special teams).
Pickett, a freshman, rushed 14 times for 82 yards and scored the first touchdown of his career. Vellano, a junior, had a huge statistical game for an interior lineman (nine tackles, 1 ½ sacks, 2 ½ TFL). Walker, a senior, forced a fumble on a Towson kickoff return, which was recovered by junior Alvin Thomas, and set up the Terrapins’ final touchdown.
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“After looking over the film, I felt we did some really good things,” Edsall said in his Sunday teleconference. “I thought our special teams were better. I thought defensively we weren’t consistent enough. Too many big plays against us.”
Maryland was out-gained by FCS Towson, 378-335. On offense, the Terps posed little downfield threat as sophomore quarterback Danny O’Brien (14 of 21, 123 yards) stuck with mostly short stuff. Rather than improving after impressive offensive games against Miami and West Virginia, the unit appears to be regressing.
“We’ve had to play other people because we’ve had injuries,” Edsall said. “We’ve had some young men that weren’t out there because we’ve had to have some disciplinary actions. Other than those situations, I think we’ve tried to do pretty much the type of things.”
In a continuing theme, Edsall had more praise for his freshmen. In addition to Pickett, fullback Tyler Ciersky scored the first touchdown of his career and linebacker Lorne Goree had his first interceptioon. In his first start, safety Titus Till had 11 tackles. Linebacker Mario Rowson made a big play on fourth and one, throwing Towson back Terrance West for a four-year loss. Tyrek Cheeseboro (2 tackles) and Alex Twine (one tackle) contributed on special teams.
“Some people might not like to put four freshmen on the kickoff coverage team,” Edsall said. “But they’re the best guys.”
Edsall especially likes the work of Cheeseboro, one of the team’s fastest players.
“He plays just like he practices. He’s a great example to a lot of people on this team,” Edsall said. “He goes out there and has enthusiasm and loves playing the game. The most important thing is those are the things I saw in practice.”
Now the hard part. Maryland’s next three games will be against ranked teams – at Georgia Tech, at home against Clemson, and at Florida State. Solving the option offense of the Yellow Jackets will be an enormous challenge for a Maryland defense that includes nine freshmen on the two-deep depth chart. Tech (5-0) leads the nation in rushing offense (378.2 yards per game) and passing efficiency (260.5 rating), and is second in scoring (51.6 points pg) and total offense (587 ypg).
“It’s a tough challenge,” Edsall said. “We’re gonna spend some time today getting our guys acquainted with that offense.”
