Didn't have much time last night to offer many thoughts on Maryland's spring game (and honestly, I wanted to flee the scene of the pedestrian zoo called Maryland Day, a campus-wide open house that always seemed like a cue to go anywhere else when I was still in school).
It's no surprise there's no starting quarterback named. Both Chris Turner and Jordan Steffy were capable throughout the day, and Steffy's actually looked pretty good in the last two Thursday sessions (he missed Tuesdays because of class; I missed all the Saturdays because of basketball and lacrosse).
That sucker will probably go down to the final 10 days before the season starts. Turner has positive game experience and had a solid enough spring, and the perception of him from fans (and probably some other people, too) while looking through the lens of last season is that he should be the guy to start things off.
That said, new offensive coordinator James Franklin's scheme fits Steffy quite nicely. He will be a factor, and the call more than four months before the season commences is that both Steffy and Turner will start at least once next year. There's no tangible evidence for this, just a hunch.
The running backs will be fine, in part because they're running behind a huge line. The linebackers will be fine, especially after Dave Philistin and Moise Fokou return to try to reclaim their starting spots.
None of the major questions have been answered. The defensive line and secondary remain trouble spots. Three starters are gone from the secondary, and there's a walk-on atop the depth chart at nose tackle. There are definitely positions that walk-ons can logically emerge as viable players: Tight end, linebacker, kicker all come to mind. Defensive line isn't one of them, though to be fair to Olugbemi Otulaja, he played fairly well when called upon last year.
Can that translate over a full season, especially with run cloggers Dre Moore and Carlos Feliciano out the door? Who knows.
The most troubling part of yesterday's exercise was the shaky start to the post-Ray Rychleski special teams era. There was a 10-yard punt, but that can be excused to some degree because it was by a backup.
Less encouraging: Obi Egekeze missed an extra point and clanked a 25-yard field goal off an upright. His attempt at the end of the session was blocked, giving new special teams coach Danny Pearman some things to work on over the summer to tighten things up.
Ultimately, Ralph made the sagest point of the day --- nobody got hurt, so that was the best thing that could have happened. The Terps made it it out of the spring with no long-term injuries. (I was about to write "serious" injuries, but LaQuan Williams and his broken foot would rightfully have something to say about that. After all, that's pretty serious for him.)
The only scholarship player who didn't leave the spring with a chance to play in the fall was seldom-used sophomore linebacker Chris Clinton, who was dismissed from the team last week. That the roster emerged almost completely intact makes Maryland's spring a relative success.
--- Patrick Stevens
