Maryland football will have a new look on offense for the 2023 season.
The Terps lost key pieces on that side of the ball, most notably receivers Rakim Jarrett, Dontay Demus Jr. and Jacob Copeland to the upcoming NFL Draft.
The offensive coaching staff features changes as well with three new assistants: Associate head coach/co-offensive coordinator/tight ends coach Kevin Sumlin, offensive coordinator Josh Gattis and running backs coach Latrell Scott.
The Terps hosted their annual Spring Media Day on Tuesday, where coach Mike Locksley and all of the assistant coaches spoke ahead of the team’s first practice of the spring season.
The following are takeaways from the session.
Replacing Lost Talent
With the departures of Jarrett, Demus and Copeland, the Maryland offense will lose nearly a third of its receiving production from a season ago.
While graduate student Jeshaun Jones elected to stay for one final year in College Park, the rest of the unit is unproven; junior Tai Felton is the only other returning receiver on the roster with more than 250 career receiving yards.
The Terps did bring in Tyrese Chambers and Kaden Prather from the transfer portal — the two come into College Park with nearly 3,000 combined receiving yards in their careers at FIU and West Virginia, respectively.
Even with the entrances of the two established receivers, it won’t be easy to replace the talent lost to the draft.
“That production I think will be shared; where you had two or three guys pretty much get the brunt of the work, [now] there’ll be a lot more competition for those balls and snaps as playing time,” wide receivers coach/passing game coordinator Gunter Brewer said.
Deep and Skilled Running Back Group
Locksley said that the running back room is more talented than it was a year ago. If that’s the case, then that’s a scary thought for opponents.
Maryland ranked in the middle of the pack in the Big Ten in rushing last season, and it did so with such a young group. All three of the Terps’ top-three rushers were underclassmen, led by Roman Hemby.
Now a redshirt sophomore, Hemby will look to build upon his 2022 campaign that featured two Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors and four 100-yard rushing performances. He finished with the seventh-most rushing yards and yards per carry (989 and 5.3, respectively), and the sixth-most rushing touchdowns (10) in the conference.
Hemby is the headliner of a unit that features Antwain Littleton II, Colby McDonald and Ramon Brown — all contributors who rushed for over 120 yards last season.
“It’s an ultra-talented group of guys who have been — so far — even better people,” Scott said. “A lot of times [when] we get to deal with skill guys, there’s a little bit of attitude…but it’s a blue-collar group of guys and they want to get better.”
Experienced Assistants
Three offensive assistants from Locksley’s 2022 coaching staff departed for jobs at other programs in the offseason: Offensive coordinator Dan Enos, running backs coach Elijah Brooks and co-offensive coordinator/tight ends coach Mike Miller.
That left openings for Locksley to fill, and he had one thing in mind when doing so: Experience.
“We brought in coaches that have been head coaches, successful head coaches, won big games, been a part of big games,” Locksley said. “We brought in coaches that have received major accolades for the job they’ve done at different places.”
The most notable of the new assistants is Sumlin, the former head coach at Houston, Texas A&M and Arizona. Sumlin was most recently the head coach and general manager for the Houston Gamblers of the USFL, bringing over 30 years of experience to College Park.
Gattis brings over 13 years of experience with him and won the Broyles Award in 2021. Scott possesses over 20 years of coaching experience at the collegiate level, including eight seasons as a head coach at the FCS and Division II levels.
