Tag: Maryland

Preview: Michigan vs. Maryland

Taylor Burton is Miss Maryland 2014

Rush Offense vs. Maryland Rush Defense
Despite a preference for running, Michigan is #78 nationally with 154 yards/game on the ground. They average 4.51 yards/carry, good enough for #57. The offensive line is improving, and head coach Brady Hoke claimed that the Northwestern game was their best performance of the season. The leading rusher is De’Veon Smith (487 yards, 5.1 yards/carry, 6 touchdowns), who finally overtook Derrick Green, a player that has been out since the Rutgers game. Smith looked good when he was decisive and hitting the hole hard against Northwestern, and he looked bad when he was trying to dance in the backfield. Drake Johnson (6.2 yards/carry, 2 touchdowns) has seen an uptick in his carries over the past couple weeks, but a fumble against Northwestern sent him into the doghouse. Maryland is #99 in rushing defense and gives up 198 yards/game, but their 4.32 yards/carry mark against them is #69. Junior strong safety/cornerback Sean Davis (6’1″, 190 lbs.) is their leading tackler with 94 stops, and senior inside linebacker Cole Farrand (6’3″, 245 lbs.) is second with 91. Sophomore outside linebacker Yannick Ngakoue (6’2″, 250 lbs.) leads the team with 12.5 tackles for loss, and undersized fifth year senior defensive tackle Andre Monroe (6’0″, 265 lbs.) is just behind him with 11. The only defensive lineman in the two-deep that is bigger than 275 lbs. is senior Darius Kilgo, the backup nose tackle in the Terrapins’ 3-4 look. This should be a manageable front to handle, talent-wise, and Michigan has some experience going against 3-4 defenses from the season opener against Appalachian State.
Advantage: Michigan

Hit the jump for the rest of the preview.

Pass Offense vs. Maryland Pass Defense
Michigan is #114 in passing yardage with 169 yards/game, and they’re 115th in passer efficiency. The passing offense is essentially broken. Quarterback Devin Gardner completes just over 61% of his passes but has thrown 13 interceptions with only 8 touchdowns. The leading receiver is Devin Funchess (50 catches, 595 yards, 4 touchdowns), who averages pedestrian 11.9 yards/catch. Amara Darboh (30 catches, 403 yards, 2 touchdowns) has turned into a favorite, and tight end Jake Butt (13 catches, 148 yards, 1 touchdown) is an underused threat. Michigan has allowed 19 sacks, which is 51st in the country. Maryland is tied for 28th in getting to the quarterback with 27 sacks altogether, led by Monroe (8 sacks) and Ngakoue (5.5). They also are 33rd in passer efficiency rating defense. Even so, the Terps are 86th in passing yardage allowed (239 yards/game). Sophomore cornerback William Likely has 5 interceptions, which he has returned for 141 yards and 2 touchdowns (against Syracuse and Iowa). Since I don’t do a separate special teams section, I’ll mention here that Likely averages over 32 yards/return on kickoffs and almost 11 yards/return on punts, including a score. Likely is dangerous, and Michigan is bad in this phase.
Advantage: Maryland


Rush Defense vs. Maryland Rush Offense
Michigan is one of four Big Ten teams in the top eight nationally in rushing defense, behind Penn State (#1) and Wisconsin (#5), and ahead of Michigan State (#8). The Wolverines are #7 and allow 103 yards/game. The last opponent, Northwestern, ended up with -9 total rushing yards. Jake Ryan (90 tackles, 13 tackles for loss) has grown more comfortable in his middle linebacker position, and weakside linebacker Joe Bolden (79 tackles) has matured somewhat, too. The most improved player this year might be nose tackle Ryan Glasgow, who has 20 tackles and 3 tackles for loss while clogging the middle. Unfortunately, Michigan lost their best defensive lineman when senior Frank Clark was kicked off the team earlier this week for a domestic violence incident. Junior Mario Ojemudia (24 tackles, 7 tackles for loss) slides into Clark’s vacated weakside end spot. Maryland is #113 in rushing (114 yards/game) and led by sixth year senior quarterback C.J. Brown (6’3″, 210 lbs.), who has 375 yards, 5 touchdowns, and a 3.2 yards/carry average, which isn’t bad for a quarterback who takes some sacks. Neither of Maryland’s backs is very effective, with redshirt sophomore Wes Brown (6’0″, 210 lbs.) averaging 3.4 yards and redshirt junior Brandon Ross (5’10”, 205 lbs.) averaging 4.1. Fifth year senior center Sal Conaboy (6’3″, 295 lbs.) is the best lineman, and the rest are not particularly big, experienced, or accomplished.
Advantage: Michigan


Pass Defense vs. Maryland Pass Offense
Michigan is #25 against the pass (198 yards/game) and #68 in passer efficiency rating defense. Clark was the team’s best pass rusher despite being second on the team in sacks behind defensive end Brennen Beyer (5.5 sacks), a guy who lacks some athleticism but wins battles by being relentless. Ojemudia has 3.5 sacks in a backup role, so he may provide a bit of a spark at some points. Defensive tackle Willie Henry can get after the quarterback, too, but he has been playing less lately after an injury he suffered against Rutgers. On the back end, Michigan has just 5 interceptions on the season, which is tied for 111th. Corner Jourdan Lewis is the only defensive back to notch an interception, and fellow corners Blake Countess and Delonte Hollowell have been picked on. Hollowell, in particular, will be targeted if he enters the game as a backup or dime corner. Meanwhile, Maryland is #66 in passing (230 yards/game) and #90 in passer efficiency. Brown completes fewer than 53% of his passes, averages just 6.2 yards/attempt, and has a subpar 11-to-9 touchdown to interception ratio. On top of his issues, they will be missing star receiver Stefon Diggs (lacerated kidney) and backup Juwann Winfree (suspension). Senior Deon Long (6’1″, 180 lbs.) will be the top target and has 38 catches for 450 yards and 1 touchdown. Redshirt junior Marcus Leak (6’0″, 210 lbs.) averages 15.3 yards/catch and has 3 touchdowns, but he has failed to record a catch in three of the last four games and has just 2 catches for 23 yards in that entire span. Ross is a threat out of the backfield, but overall, this should not be an intimidating receiving corps. Maryland has allowed 27 sacks, which is tied for #103 in the country. Long might make some plays, but this should not be a phase that the Terrapins win.
Advantage: Michigan


Roster Notes

• Players recruited by Michigan include RB Wes Brown, QB Shane Cockerille, WR Stefon Diggs, LB Clarence Murphy, LB Yannick Ngakoue, OT Damian Prince, WR Will Ulmer, WR Juwann Winfree
• Wide receivers coach Keenan McCardell was a two-time Pro Bowl receiver, most notably for the Jacksonville Jaguars and Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Last Time They Played . . . 

• Michigan is 3-0 historically against Maryland, including the last time they met, which was 1990
• Elvis Grbac went 15/25 for 2 touchdowns and 1 interception
• Jon Vaughn had 22 carries for 89 yards and 2 touchdowns
• Desmond Howard caught 3 passes for 59 yards and 1 touchdown
• Neil Simpson led the team with 10 tackles
• Vada Murray, Martin Davis, and Lance Dottin each had 1 interception
• Michigan won by a score of 45-17

Predictions

• Michigan holds Maryland under 100 yards rushing
• De’Veon Smith goes for 120 yards and 2 touchdowns
• Michigan’s defense actually defends the pass for a change
• Michigan 23, Maryland 17

Poll Results: How will Maryland and Rutgers affect the Big Ten?

Last week I asked the question of how the addition of Maryland and Rutgers would affect the Big Ten overall.

Negatively: 58%
Positively: 28%
Not at all: 18%

I don’t think most Big Ten fans are happy about Maryland and Rutgers entering the equation, but I do imagine that it will be good for those two schools themselves.  I can see why they jumped on the idea.  New Jersey produces a ton of football talent, and now those kids can stay right at home and play while their families watch from the stands.  Playing in the Big East didn’t have the same ring to it, which is why so many of those kids would go far away to play ball.  Michigan, for exampled, pulled in several kids from New Jersey over the past few years – Anthony Lalota, Marcus Witherspoon, J.B. Fitzgerald, Brandon Smith, etc. And while things didn’t work out that well in Ann Arbor for, well, any of them, both Lalota and Witherspoon went back home to play for the Scarlet Knights when they couldn’t hack it at Michigan.  Smith didn’t quite make it back to New Jersey – he just transferred to Temple.  Fitzgerald was a career backup at Michigan.  If given the chance, I wonder which of those four would still have chosen Michigan if their home-state Rutgers team played in the Big Ten already.

Maryland also has fairly fertile recruiting grounds in the forms of Baltimore and Washington, D.C.  Kids from those areas go all over the place to play, but mostly the Big East and the ACC up until now.  Maryland, though, got a couple national recruits (Stefon Diggs, Wes Brown) to stay home in the 2012 recruiting class, and perhaps they might stay home a little more often in the future.  There’s less incentive for kids from the eastern seaboard to go to places like Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State.  So while this move might benefit the programs at Maryland and Rutgers, it might thin out the talent in the rest of the conference.  I still don’t think a bunch of elite kids will be committing to the Terrapins, because they simply don’t have the history and track record to be extremely enticing.  But those second-level kids, the low 4-star and high 3-star type of kids might prefer a chance to start at Maryland rather than ride the bench and play special teams in Columbus or Ann Arbor.

Of course, this is a very narrow look at the effect of conference expansion on recruiting, but overall, I do not see this as a positive trend for the Big Ten or college football in general.  At some point the NCAA has to put a limit on conference size . . . or perhaps the Big Ten, SEC, Big 12, and Pac-12 will become the new Division I, while the other members of the current FBS will become a de facto Division I-AA.

Schools in the News: Maryland, Rutgers, Cal, and Tennessee

Stefon Diggs took a very roundabout way of playing for a Big Ten team

I was going to put together two separate pieces on the guys who are committed to the Big Ten’s newest members (Maryland, Rutgers) and the two FBS teams who recently fired their coaches (Jeff Tedford at Cal, Derek Dooley at Tennessee).  Instead, I’ll just combine the two separate posts into one.

First of all, let’s take a look at the guys Michigan could poach from Cal and Tennessee’s 2013 recruiting classes:

Cal: No current commits have Michigan offers
Tennessee: QB Riley Ferguson from Matthews (NC) Butler, WR Paul Harris from Upper Marlboro (MD) Frederick Douglass

Ferguson might not be a bad addition considering how thin the quarterback ranks are at Michigan, but Michigan likely won’t bring in a second quarterback to pair with Shane Morris.  Harris would be a welcome addition, and he has said that he would reconsider Michigan, but I don’t see him getting interested enough to commit to the Wolverines.  Cal has pulled in a few Michigan offerees over the past couple years, but generally, Michigan doesn’t compete against the Golden Bears very often.

Now I want to take a look at the recruiting classes and rosters for Maryland and Rutgers.  I don’t expect that Michigan will pull any of these guys away from the two new additions, but these are the types of kids Michigan has lost to these teams over the past few years:

2013 Maryland commits: QB Shane Cockerille from Baltimore (MD) Gilman
Current Maryland roster players: RB Wes Brown, WR Stefon Diggs, LB Clarence Murphy,

2013 Rutgers commits: ATH Nadir Barnwell from Piscataway (NJ) Piscataway
Current Rutgers roster players: S Johnathan Aiken, WR Leonte Carroo, OT J.J. Denman, DE Darius Hamilton, RB Savon Huggins, OT Chris Muller, S Sheldon Royster, WR Miles Shuler

I don’t really care about the money behind the additions of Maryland and Rutgers to the Big Ten, because I care about the game of football, not the business.  I understand that the Big Ten is trying to grab viewers and markets in D.C., Baltimore, New Jersey, and New York.

However, I think these new entries dilute the strength of the football product on the field.  The Big Ten already gets all kinds of flak for not winning enough bowl games, not winning BCS championships, etc.  Rutgers was a totally irrelevant football program prior to Greg Schiano, who is now with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers; this year they’re hovering toward the bottom of the top 25 and it remains to be seen what they’ll do as Schiano’s recruiting classes filter through.  Maryland had a few good years under Ralph Friedgen recently, but Randy Edsall has them floundering at 4-7 after winning just two games last year.

Maryland puts very few guys in the NFL (Darrius Heyward-Bey, Shawne Merriman, Vernon Davis, uhhhh…) and Rutgers is in the same boat (Ray Rice, Kenny Britt, Mohamed Sanu, uhhh…).  So they’re mediocre teams who produce good NFL talent only occasionally.

Meanwhile, I think this potentially hurts the traditional Big Ten teams’ recruiting in those areas, including Michigan’s.  Some kids from those areas used to want to play in the Big Ten rather than the Big East or ACC, which is partly why they considered teams like Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State.  Now those kids won’t have to leave their home states for the big stage.  Kids from the recruiting hotbeds of the District of Columbia, Baltimore, and various New Jersey cities will be able to stay home, play nationally televised games, and attempt to beat the Michigans and Ohio States of the world.

I also hate the overall idea of expanding the Big Ten to 14 teams.  It’s ridiculous to have a conference with that many teams, because there will literally be decade-long gaps when Michigan won’t play a team in its own conference.  Michigan has no history of playing against Maryland or Rutgers; the Wolverines are 3-0 against Maryland (games were played in 1985, 1989, and 1990) and have never played the Scarlet Knights.  Excluding fledgling Big Ten member Nebraska, I have great memories of games against every team in the Big Ten, even including watching Antwaan Randle-el at Indiana.  Traditions will be created and “Big Ten” fans in 2030 might have fond memories of the Terrapins and Scarlet Knights, but for the next 20 years, these games will seem out of place.

Overall, I’m probably just a curmudgeon who hates change.  Older Big Ten fans probably hate the presence of Penn State in the conference, but I grew up with it, so the Nittany Lions don’t bother me (except, you know, Jerry Sandusky).  But I can’t help wondering what the future of college football holds.  It seems like it’s headed in the direction of a major fracture.  These conferences will continue to get larger and larger until perhaps the Pac-12, Big Ten, Big 12, and SEC create their own beta version of the NCAA, while conferences like the ACC and the Big East could create a pseudo-Divison II.  The one constant is change, but the problem is that we want things to stay the same.

Self-Indulgent Post of the Week: A Visit from Todd Bradford

Maryland defensive coordinator Todd Bradford

As a football coach and fan, I had an interesting experience today.  University of Maryland defensive coordinator Todd Bradford (official Maryland bio here) stopped in to our school to visit our head coach.  When he walked in, I immediately recognized him from the Nike Coach of the Year Clinic, which I attended back in March.

As coaches often do, he was in the area doing some recruiting.  I had a few minutes to chat him up.  We talked a little bit about his presentation at the coaches clinic, I asked him how his spring practices went, etc.  He had some interesting things to say about the team’s preparation.  Maryland opens the season on September 5th with a televised night game against Miami, which ought to be exciting for the Terrapins, who don’t frequently get a chance to play in prime time.

Coach Bradford asked if I’m from the area originally, and I told him I was from Michigan.  He asked where, and when I told him, he said, “Yeah, I know where that is.  I used to coach at Eastern Michigan.  Ypsilanti.”  I said I went to school right next to Ypsilanti at the University of Michigan.  His response was, “I always wanted to coach there.  That’s a great place.  I used to work their summer camps, you know, but once I went to Wisconsin [where he coached defensive backs from 2000-01], I couldn’t work the camps anymore, since they’re in the Big Ten.”

We talked a little bit longer about recruits at my school and in the area, but obviously, that’s not conversation that should be relayed here.  Shortly afterward, I left him with the head coach and carried on with my day.

As you might know, college coaches spend a lot of time on the road trying to create relationships with local programs and schools.  There was a great article about the life of college basketball recruiters in last week’s issue of Sports Illustrated.  We’ve heard about Darrell Funk, Mark Smith, and Fred Jackson making school visits in recent weeks, and those are the types of things they do when spring practices and the fall football season aren’t in full swing.  They hit the road and visit every school they can, hoping that relationships built will help them land a recruit or gain some support in the coming months and years.

Nothing earth shattering happened and the more interesting parts of the conversation should remain undisclosed, but it’s not every day that you get some one-on-one time with an ACC coach.

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