By Joe Atmonavage
The Maryland wide receiver corps continued their impressive offseason Saturday during an intrasquad scrimmage at Byrd Stadium for Fan Appreciation Day.
As Maryland enters their inaugural season in the Big Ten, they will bring along one of the best group of receivers in the nation. Deon Long and Stefon Diggs headline the crew, but with players like Taivon and Lavern Jacobs, Marcus Leak, and Amba Etta-Tawo behind them, depth will not be an issue.
“All our guys make plays. With all those guys it makes it very easy,” said quarterback Caleb Rowe on running an offense with so many weapons.
Long and Jacobs shined in the scrimmage, showing off their big play potential.
Long caught a dart from Rowe on a simple slant route and took it 50-plus yards for the first touchdown of the afternoon.
Jacobs broke open over the middle in the third quarter and caught a pass from Rowe and took it in for a touchdown.
Diggs, a preseason first team All-Big Ten receiver and the most heralded of the group, surprisingly played with the second team in the beginning of the scrimmage.
“It is just things we wanted to take a look at,” Edsall said in regards to Diggs working with the second team. “We have evaluated all throughout camp.”
With C.J. Brown sitting out the scrimmage to give other the quarterbacks more reps, fans got to see the potential backup quarterbacks in action. Rowe, Shane Cockerville, Perry Hills, and Will Ulmer split time behind center.
Rowe threw two touchdowns, but was intercepted twice. It appears Rowe is penciled in as the number two quarterback as he took the majority of first team snaps in the scrimmage, but Edsall would still like to see the junior quarterback be more consistent.
“I thought Caleb was very inconsistent today,” Edsall said. “I don’t think he made a lot of good decisions out there. That is one of the things I wanted to see. I wanted to put him out with the ones [first team] and get him some work.”
The Terps defensive backs took advantage of the shaky quarterback play, intercepting a total of four passes.
Safety Sean Davis intercepted a Rowe pass in the first quarter. JuCo transfer Denzel Conyers and freshman Josh Woods both picked off Hills. Jeremiah Johnson intercepted a Rowe pass and returned it for a touchdown untouched.
Davis has impressed Edsall throughout training camp and carried that into the scrimmage.
“Sean has had a good camp. You saw him stand out today and do some things. It is probably not surprising that he played as well as he did,” Edsall said.
The game ended on a high note as the freshman Ulmer found Malcolm Culmer for a touchdown on the final play.
Before the team has the day off tomorrow, they signed autographs for the fans, who came out for the scrimmage as part of Fan Appreciation Day.
