Guard Andrew Gonnella was the lone senior starter on the Terps’ offensive line.
With an attack predicated on its passing game, the success of quarterback Danny O’Brien and the Terrapins football team’s offense depends on the largely glory-less job performed by the five individuals protecting him.
But before the start of the season, that group was perhaps the team’s biggest question mark on the offensive side of the ball. With experienced tackles Justin Gilbert and Pete DeSouza out indefinitely with injuries and only one senior, former walk-on guard Andrew Gonnella, starting on the line, it seemed the Terps’ offensive success would hinge on an offensive line whose ability was uncertain at best.
Two games into the season, they’ve delivered. The Terps are one of just five FBS teams to have not allowed a sack, a figure made more impressive by the fact that O’Brien has dropped back to pass 96 times in the team’s two games.
“The offensive line is doing an amazing job. I can’t commend them more,” wide receiver Kerry Boykins said. “I think Danny’s touched the ground once or twice in two games. They’re molding together, taking pride in protecting the quarterback and making it easy for the receivers. We just run the routes; we know the protection is there.”
The Terps’ offense features a constant shuffling of personnel on and off the field. With the frenetic pace their hurry-up offense employs, skill-position players are constantly coming in and out of the game to stay fresh.
O’Brien and his offensive line — Gonnella, tackles R.J. Dill and Max Garcia, guard Josh Cary and center Bennett Fulper — have remained constants, however.
And with the Terps averaging nearly 20 more snaps per game than they did last season against two athletic defenses in Miami and No. 16 West Virginia, the relatively mistake-free efforts of the offensive line have only been magnified.
“I wouldn’t trade the O-line for anyone in the country,” O’Brien said yesterday. “It’s hard for those guys playing 92 snaps [sic] in one game. They’re just in great shape. They finish the game just as strong as they started.”
“Receivers, we’re switching out every now and then, but [the offensive line] is in there, they’re running the 90 plays a game,” Boykins added. “They’re going beyond expectations.”
At the center of the line’s success is Garcia. The sophomore left tackle entered the season having never started a college game, but with Gilbert and DeSouza out, he was forced into a pivotal role.
To this point, Garcia’s kept pass rushers off O’Brien’s blind side. On Saturday, despite being charged with the unenviable task of containing one of the nation’s best defensive ends in West Virginia’s Bruce Irvin, Garcia continued his solid play and rendered Irvin largely ineffective.
Irvin, whose 14 sacks last season were good for No. 2 in the country, recorded just three tackles.
“He’s only going to get better,” O’Brien said of the true sophomore. “For him to come in and play against arguably one of the top two D-ends in the country, that’s a good challenge, and he stepped up.”
Despite their success, coach Randy Edsall said he’s far from content with the overall play of his linemen. The Terps have been stopped for a loss nine times in their two games, and while Edsall lauded the group’s play in his weekly news conference yesterday, he made clear they’ve been far from perfect.
“We still need to get more push up front,” Edsall said. “I thought that we ran the ball better in this past game, but some of that was because [West Virginia] was dropping off so much in coverage.
“We’re a work in progress. We’re nowhere near where we want to be or where we think we’re going to go. I just want to see those guys get better and more push. Yes, in the first two games … there has been productivity there, but we can still get a whole lot better than we were after these two weeks.”
cwalsh@umdbk.com
