Entering this season, who did you think the best player on the Terrapins football team was?

Maybe Danny O’Brien, the reigning ACC Rookie of the Year, who looked like the best quarterback in the conference? Or perhaps defensive force Kenny Tate, who had shaped up to be a top pick in the NFL Draft?

You might have picked either. Most people did. Almost two months into the season, it now looks like most people’s choice was dead wrong. The best player on the team isn’t tossing touchdown passes or laying out receivers with big hits. A lot of the time, he’s just in the trenches, holding a block so another teammate can make a play. It isn’t always flashy, and it’s almost never pretty.

The best player on the team, if you need another hint, is defensive tackle Joe Vellano. Just don’t tell him that. The only thing the redshirt junior is better at than racking up tackles is handing the credit off elsewhere and talking about how he needs to get better.

Ask him how he feels about the prospect of being labeled the team’s top player, and he gets a little uncomfortable.

“Yeah, that’s, yeah, I mean, I don’t even really look at it like that,” Vellano said. “Just trying to do what I can.”

Vellano won’t say it, but it’s true. In a season full of disappointment, he’s been one of the few bright spots. He’s been bright enough to launch himself into the discussion of best defensive tackles in the nation. He’s made several midseason All-America lists, including as a first-teamer on college football guru Phil Steele’s list.

What has Vellano done for the Terps? Just about everything. He’s sacked the quarterback. He’s halted offenses in the backfield. He’s even scored a touchdown, rumbling for a 30-yard score after recovering a fumble against Miami.

But more than anything, he’s made tackles. Lots of them. Fifty-two, to be exact, good for second best on the team. He makes tackles at the defensive tackle position line like a middle linebacker might — and it’s not just tackles at the line. He’s been making plays all over the place.

When the Terps played Clemson, they didn’t have an answer for speed demon Sammy Watkins, who racked up 345 all-purpose yards in a win. Vellano, who weighs a solid 285 pounds, somehow caught him from behind in the fourth quarter.

“I play hard, that’s kind of my biggest thing,” Vellano said. “I’m not the biggest, I’m not the fastest. But I try to learn throughout a game and I just play as hard as I can.”

People notice. After all, that’s what caught coach Randy Edsall’s eye when he took over as coach earlier this year.

“When you watch Joe on film, you always saw a guy that played extremely hard, and I think Joe has taken his game even to a higher level. I think he’s improved this year, and I think he’s really understanding even more, not that he didn’t before, just the technique of playing defensive line,” Edsall said. “And he’s doing a good job. That’s why I named him a captain. Because of that work ethic, because of the way he plays the game.”

Take Vellano’s effort against Georgia Tech earlier this year, for instance. The Yellow Jackets run the triple option, an offense that gives defenses fits. Teams dread practicing for it, and playing against it is even worse. Among the mess of runs and pitches and cut blocks, it’s easy for a defensive lineman to get lost in the fray.

Vellano didn’t. He was stout against the option last year versus Navy and had 20 tackles against Georgia Tech, the most by a defensive lineman since the NCAA began compiling single-game tackles in 2005.

“Teams need to stop running the triple option against us,” fellow defensive tackle A.J. Francis said. “The two times he’s played against the triple-option he has 30 tackles, two sacks and like five [tackles for loss].”

“We kept hearing his name being called,” said Paul Vellano, Joe’s father, who played the same position and wore the same number for the Terps in the early ’70s. “Like, Jesus, how many tackles are you getting here? Tackle by 72, Joe Vellano. Tackle by Vellano. Tackle by Joe Vellano. Tackle by 72, Vellano. It’s like, What the heck?”

Paul is a big reason why Joe is here today. He says his dad’s playing days in part convinced him to become a second-generation Terp. He’s also one of the big reasons for Joe’s not-about-me, aw-shucks mentality.

“I always taught him and brought him up, like, Hey, don’t act like you’re surprised to be there, that you’re surprised that you made a sack. That’s your job. You’re like a back running, making a touchdown,'” Paul said. “That’s great. That’s what you’re designed to do. That’s what you’re supposed to be doing. You’re supposed to make tackles and supposed to hold a block or to fill holes.

“When you get there, OK, fine, that’s great. Give yourself a little clap and get back to the line.”

Maybe Vellano got his blue-collar style from his days on the ice. He played hockey for years, up until the middle of high school. With practice at 6 a.m., playing four or five games a week, 50 to 60 games a year, Vellano traveled all over upstate New York and New England.

Back then, he even got some glory.

“I used to be the guy that could actually score, that’s why I liked it” Vellano said. “I was always playing line, or playing basketball setting picks and that kind of stuff. Hockey, I used to play center, so I used to score a lot of goals.”

But Vellano’s days on skates are over. Now he’s in cleats, trudging through the trenches and making plays for the Terps. He hopes he has a future in the NFL in store. After this year, he’s likely caught the eye of some professional scouts.

Will he ever admit he’s become the best player on the team? Probably not. Even through a stellar 2011 season, he says he has things to work on.

“I’m nowhere near as good as I want to be,” Vellano lamented Tuesday.

What does he remember from his 20-tackle game against Georgia Tech? A missed tackle.

That’s just how Vellano is.

“It’s crazy how many more plays I could have made,” Vellano said. “Football, you never quite arrive. You just got to keep going every day.”

schneider@umdbk.com