Wide receiver Levern Jacobs steps out of bounds after a catch in the Terps’ 31-20 loss to Marshall in the Military Bowl on Dec. 27, 2013, at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis.
It didn’t take long for Stefon Diggs to make his decision. Four days after the Terrapins football team’s season ended with a 45-21 loss to Stanford in the Foster Farms Bowl, the junior wide receiver declared for the NFL Draft.
The Gaithersburg native’s choice to forgo his final year of eligibility left the Terps without their top two targets. Diggs and senior Deon Long accounted for 1,367 of the team’s 2,863 receiving yards in 2014.
Still, coach Randy Edsall seemed to have plenty of talented field-stretching options to fall back on: Marcus Leak, who carved up the Terps’ second-team defense for three touchdowns during the spring game April 11, finished behind Diggs and Long with 297 receiving yards in 2014. And Juwann Winfree showed flashes of talent as a freshman, hauling in four catches for 80 yards and a touchdown against Michigan State on Nov. 15.
“All the receivers stepped up this spring and did pretty good,” defensive back Antwaine Carter said April 11. “I felt like I was going against top-notch receivers throughout this whole spring. They not no doubters. They going to make their name this year.”
In a span of less than three weeks, though, Leak and Winfree both decided to withdraw from this university, leaving the Terps’ wide receiving corps in shambles with the Sept. 5 season opener against Richmond less than three months away.
Now, the top spot on the depth chart belongs to rising senior Levern Jacbos, who missed the entire 2014 campaign with a suspension. The Terps’ No. 2 option? Jacobs’ younger brother, Taivon, whose redshirt freshman year was wiped out in the first week of the season when he suffered a right knee injury.
Instead of generating hype this offseason, the storylines surrounding Edsall’s team have been of departures and full of question marks. Four-star quarterback Dwayne Haskins made waves May 15 when he committed to the Terps, but he’ll be spending 2015 throwing passes for Bullis School as he wraps up his senior year of high school.
That doesn’t mean the Terps can afford a letdown from last season’s 7-6 showing in their inaugural Big Ten season.
With Caleb Rowe and Oklahoma State transfer Daxx Garman expected to battle for the starting quarterback job with dual-threat C.J. Brown gone, offensive coordinator Mike Locksley could install a pro-style offense built around either option’s big arm.
READ MORE: Maryland QBs Hills, Cockerille lack consistency in spring game
And that would mean relying heavily on the Terps’ wide receivers.
Levern Jacobs has proven he can excel in the past. When Diggs battled through injuries in 2013, Jacobs led the Terps with 640 yards and 47 catches. He was expected to receive significant playing time alongside Diggs and Long last year, but he was suspended on Aug. 29 for the entire 2014 season for violating the student code of conduct after a second-degree assault charge from a July 19 incident in College Park.
READ MORE: Terps suspend A.J. Hendy, Levern Jacobs for 2014 season
The next day, Taivon Jacobs suffered the knee injury during the Terps’ 52-7 season-opening rout of James Madison.
It’s time for the Jacobs brothers to put 2014 behind them. Five of the Terps’ top seven pass catchers from last season are gone. The other two are running backs Wes Brown and Brandon Ross.
Terps fans shouldn’t have to wait for Haskins’ arrival to be a competitive team. But unless the Jacobs brothers can provide production down the field, the Terps might struggle putting points on the board.
Many expected Leak to carry that burden this year. And after an up-and-down career, it appeared that the Charlotte, North Carolina, native was ready for the spotlight.
“Toward the end of the spring, you’ll start gelling together,” Leak said April 11. “You want to just keep at it throughout the offseason, summer workouts, so when you come back to camp you want to just keep improving every day.”
But when the Terps convene for summer practices, Leak won’t be there. Neither will Winfree, Diggs or Long.
Someone will need to take advantage of that opportunity.
