PressBox: Edsall's Terps Off To 'A Good Start'

Edsall's Terps Off To 'A Good Start'

By Matt Zenitz

COLLEGE PARK -- As the final horn sounded Tuesday, signaling the end to Maryland's first day of preseason practice, Terrapins coach Randy Edsall quickly gathered his team together, giving them feedback on the first day of practice while also voicing his goals for the rest of preseason camp.

"I just told them that it was a good start, but that we still have a lot of work to do," Edsall said. "The message is consistent all the time, though. We want to be mentally tough, we want to be physical and we want to be able to make sure that we don't beat ourselves, and we've got to come out here, work and pay the price in order to win."

The head coach referred to the practice as a typical first day, although he did say it was great just to be back out on the field and that the team was able to get a lot of accomplished, especially in terms of installing plays.

"We weren't perfect," Edsall said. "This is a good starting point, though, and now we'll just take off from here."

Maryland returns 12 starters -- seven on defense and five on offense -- from last year's team that finished 9-4 and capped the season with a dominant, 51-20, victory against East Carolina during the Military Bowl.

Quarterback Danny O'Brien, who returns after earning ACC Rookie of the Year honors as a redshirt freshman last year, helped coordinate 7-on-7 passing drills 2-3 times per week during the summer, something which he says helped the team be prepared for the beginning of preseason practice.

He also said that with the work it put in during the summer, Maryland's offense has a much better grasp of new offensive coordinator Gary Crowton's offense than it did during the spring.

"We got a lot of work in on our own this summer," O'Brien said, "and I think we've definitely picked up from where we left off during the summer. As an offense, we made plays [Tuesday] that we wouldn't have made in the spring, whether it was blocks we made, reads we made or just routes that we ran better. That's a big positive. We're making progress."

He did say the Terrapins still weren't 100percent where they want to be yet, but he expected the team to make consistent progress leading up to its regular-season opener against Miami Sept.6.

Maryland practiced in shorts and shells Tuesday, and will for most of the next week, but Edsall said he was looking forward to getting the team in fullpads, indicating that would allow him to get a better evaluation of both individual players as well as the team as a whole.

"Everyone should be an All-American in shorts," Edsall joked. "It's a physical game, and you can't see the physicality and you can't see the things you need to see when you're just out here in shorts."

NOTES
Junior Justin Anderson has been moved from defensive tackle back to defensive end, where he started 13 games last season after playing defensive tackle as a freshman in 2009. The 6-foot-5, 275 pound Anderson posted 22 tackles, including 5.5 for a loss, two sacks and a forced fumble last year. …Heralded defensive back recruit A.J Hendy, meanwhile, has made the switch from cornerback to safety. He will compete for a back-up role behind starters Matt Robinson and Eric Franklin.

Posted Aug. 10, 2011