Terrapins football wide receiver D.J. Moore knows he can’t be “slouchy” when he enters Gossett Team House each morning.
It’s no use feeling down or unmotivated. Soon after Moore steps through the doors, a coach usually calls out, “Good morning!” Plus, there’s music playing everywhere, from the cafeteria to the weight room.
Linebacker Jermaine Carter Jr. has realized the same. At 5 a.m., he said, the building is buzzing as though it were 2 p.m.
“Everybody has energy in the building, and the players feed off of it,” Carter said. “Hopefully it’s going to make us better.”
That newfound enthusiasm has carried over to the field, where the Terps started spring practices for the first time under coach DJ Durkin this week. While the team is only two days into the next phase of the offseason, the up-tempo scheme and high energy have signaled a culture shift under the new staff.
“The energy is way up since last year,” Moore said. “Like every time we step in the door, everything’s just loud, going crazy, but organized at the same time.”
This is the first week Durkin’s squad hasn’t been confined to meeting rooms and weightlifting. The first-year leader now has a chance to watch the Terps on the turf.
He’s set up about eight to 10 cameras that capture all angles of the field to use for video review and evaluation. After practice Tuesday, Durkin said he had already begun reorganizing his depth chart.
“I want them to know practice is important — what they do is being evaluated,” Durkin said. “The tape is their resume, and they’ve got to make their reps count.”
Positioning on the initial depth chart was based on player performance during winter workouts. About 12 to 14 Terps graded out at Durkin’s “champions level.”
Carter, who finished 2015 with a team-leading 103 tackles, was one of them. While the rising junior is still memorizing defensive coordinator Scott Shafer’s terminology, he said moving around in practice — rather than talking it through in meetings — has made learning the new scheme easier.
Moore was another player who caught Durkin’s eye.
He has worked with Rick Court, the team’s strength and conditioning director, since the end of the season to increase his lifting weight and speed because he felt “a little bit little for the Big Ten” as a freshman. It’s helped him keep up with offensive coordinator Walt Bell’s hurry-up system.
The pace is “something new from last year because we was up-tempo, but this year we like really fast,” Moore said with a smile. “Whenever the ball is placed, we’ve just got to get up and go.”
Durkin admitted the coaches’ approach to the new playbook would be flexible. They want to play to the strengths of their inherited players, rather than forcing the Terps to fit a mold.
But one thing Durkin won’t change is the level of conduct he expects.
“They’re going to learn how we function, how we meet, how we practice, how we work out,” Durkin said. “There’s no compromise on that.”
The shift is evident in one of Durkin’s mantras: “Your act should speak so loudly we can’t hear what you’re saying.”
That much was evident as he repeatedly cleared his throat when speaking to reporters on Tuesday. It was only the Terps’ second day of practice, but the rookie coach was already losing his voice.
“You can still hear him,” Moore said, “because they’re all loud.”
