Since joining the Maryland football program in December, coach DJ Durkin has emphasized competition.
During spring practice, he wouldn’t guarantee starting jobs to last year’s first-string players. He instituted Champions Club to reward the Terps who showed the most effort and discipline. He scheduled fall camp practices during the hottest times of the day to see who could push through the sweltering conditions.
And Saturday, following the Terps’ 21-point loss to Minnesota, their second consecutive defeat after opening 4-0, Durkin called for his team to play with an edge.
With injuries mounting and the conference slate becoming more demanding, the first-year coach is harping on competitive preparation entering this weekend’s primetime clash with Michigan State.
“Football’s a game — you talk about it all the time — man-down, man-up,” Durkin said in the Gossett Football Team House auditorium. “It’s a rough, tough sport. Tough guys play it. We need more tough guys. Just bounce up and go keep playing.”
Durkin called for the aggression while answering a question about cornerback Will Likely’s injury, which the senior suffered less than a minute into the second quarter.
Likely limped to the sideline after muffing a punt inside Maryland’s 20-yard line, and Minnesota took over and scored three plays later to take a 7-0 lead. The Terps’ defensive leader and special teams ace, meanwhile, never returned to action.
On a conference call Monday morning, Durkin didn’t give an update on Likely’s health, aside from disclosing the 2015 first-team All-American punt returner suffered a knee injury. He said Likely would undergo more tests later in the day.
“We definitely need Will,” cornerback Alvin Hill said after the game. “The fact that he pulled out of the game, it definitely made us have to recap, have to understand, ‘OK, we just lost a big guy.'”
Defensive backs RaVon Davis and Elijah Daniels were reserves behind Likely at the slot corner spot in last week’s depth chart, and the two appeared against the Golden Gophers but did not record a statistic.
Even if Likely is unable to play against the Spartans, Davis and Daniels will have to earn playing time. The Terps grade each player in practice, and Durkin said starting spots or promotions because of injury aren’t guaranteed between games.
Last week, for example, wide receiver/defensive back Tino Ellis started in place of JC Jackson, who had opened the Terps’ first defensive series on the field for the previous four games.
Durkin said Ellis, a freshman four-star wide receiver, “practiced better” than Jackson, who transferred to the Terps before fall camp and worked with Durkin as a freshman at Florida in 2014.
The first-year coach was pleased with the DeMatha Catholic High School product’s first extended college action after seeing the majority of his minutes in relief during blowout victories earlier in the season. Ellis made a tackle and had two pass breakups, including one in the end zone late in the second frame.
“He won the job in practice,” Durkin said. “He was playing aggressive, defending the ball well.”
Ellis, along with the rest of the Terps, will spend the week preparing to face a Spartans program that made the College Football Playoff a season ago. But when the players compete for the roles they’ll play Saturday at Maryland Stadium, Durkin said he wants to see more urgency.
“We have so much investment to the program, so we just have to show the younger guys that it means so much to us,” linebacker Jermaine Carter Jr. said. “They’re going to see that because we’re leading by example. They’re just going to give better effort.”
