2021 Maryland football has a chance to separate itself from its 2022 counterparts

(Photo Courtesy of Maryland Athletics.)

Four weeks of football accept passed and Maryland football is yet perfect. Of course, 4-0 is far from indicative of the play that transpired in the opening four competition, but head jitney Mike Locksley and visitor accept achieved something special — a offset the programme hasn't enjoyed since 2016.

Strangely enough, Maryland'south 2022 group is the exact team this yr'due south team does not desire to be.

But five years ago, Maryland football game was starting time a new era. A doomed, somewhat uninspired era under Randy Edsall had just ended and new coach DJ Durkin was tasked with providing  hope for a program and then familiar with futility.

In 2016, Durkin had the fortune of being left with the remnants of "The Movement," a DMV to UMD pipeline that Locksley and Edsall had forged in the years prior, landing Maryland some of the best recruits in the surface area. These athletes included receiver DJ Turner, defensive dorsum Tino Ellis, linebacker Jermaine Carter Jr. and several others.

The results were a demanding 4-0 start to the season, one that included a 50-7 victory over Purdue, a Large Ten foe, and a cumulative scoreline of 173-58 against their get-go four opponents. Outside of the promising showtime, 2022 was a year tarnished by mediocrity. Of the next 9 games, Maryland managed to win merely 2 and the intense loftier of the early flavor regressed to a familiar hopelessness from years past. From there, the Terps continuously grew worse in Durkin's second and terminal yr.

Today, in twelvemonth three of Locksley's tenure, there's an explicit standard to attain and maintain and a fervor to improve — fifty-fifty with a flawless record.

"These kids know that they didn't play up to the standard and they were eager to arrive," Locksley said of the Terps win over Kent State, "peculiarly with a brusque calendar week and get the corrections necessary."

For a team faced with like circumstances of the 2022 team that enjoyed virtually the same kind of early on flavor, non-briefing success, the mindset Locksley has in identify provides an opportunity for his current group to ensure 2022 is somewhat unlike.

Against the Big Ten sqauds teeming with talent that litter the rest of Maryland's schedule and specifically No. 5 Iowa, a archetype Big Ten powerhouse that lives through its running game and stout defense, a persistent, dissatisfied mindset could evidence to exist handy.

Regardless of the upshot or the opponent, it'south clear Locksley has his bunch assail a path of improvement on a calendar week-to-week basis. And the talent of Iowa certainly gives Maryland an early take chances to learn from the nation's best.

"I call back where we spend our time and what nosotros need to learn is how not to trounce ourselves," Locksley said. "… get back to playing the standard of football we want to play on offense, which is not having to cocky inflicted wounds, sacks, drops, penalties, interceptions, fumbles, those are all controllable variables that that nosotros can control on our offense."

Not only do the Hawkeyes have an defensive line that can pose problems for Maryland'southward thin but recently touted offensive line group and a set of ball-hawking defensive backs that can pester both Taulia Tagovailoa and his deep receiving core, just it plays with a brand of discipline on the defensive side that Maryland has however to capture — a brand that the Terps could learn from every bit the ranked Buckeyes and Nittany Lions await in the weeks to come.

The stage is massive and the opponent is tough but the potential to acquire and become an even meliorate team presents itself in an intimidating form.

Maryland and its criminal offence in particular accept shown, so far, that the pieces can work. Tagovailoa and Dontay Demus Jr. have a cemented themselves as a one-two dial, the receivers outside of Demus are perfectly capable to exist threats of their own, the running back room is deep and the men manning the trenches have managed to go on their quarterback upright.

"And for the states going against a team like Iowa that doesn't beat out itself very oftentimes. on offense, we got to play clean [and] we got to execute," Locksley said.

Iowa, and its nationally regarded defence, will do everything in its capacity to march into Maryland Stadium and throw a wrench in all of the progress and promise of Maryland and its crime.

And the Terps, if they're whatsoever different from their 2022 peers, will have to find a style to abound regardless of who remains undefeated at the finish of the dark.

"We feel similar it's a big opportunity for our programme," Tagovailoa said, "The biggest matter is preparation. Non actually focusing on the outside, the build upwards to all of us, not just continuing to do what we've been doing."

Week V'south contest volition air on Fox Sports 1 at viii p.thou ET.

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Source: http://wmucsports.net/2021-maryland-football-has-a-chance-to-seperate-itself-from-its-2016-counterparts/

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