Maryland Terrapins Season Preview | Billy Edwards Jr. Breakdown, Another Winning Season?, & more!

all right do next up in our big 10 preview is the Maryland terpens who had their third straight winning season last year in 2023 going eight and five uh winning the Music City Bowl as well um that actually they haven't had three straight winning seasons in over in about two decades right so it's been a really really good three-year stretch for Mike Loxley uh as the head coach but if they're going to make it four in a row they got to find an answer at quarterback because fouryear starter Talia Tonga vioa is now gone they have an ongoing quarterback battle right now between uh Billy Edwards Jr who was last year's backup and NC State transfer MJ Morris um they do have some nice skill position players uh to help out uh the new starter like uh Roman heni who we'll talk about in a little bit their running back uh wide receivers Ty Felton and Kaden Prather are pretty good receivers as well and they have some really good talent on the other side of the ball too uh in their secondary which I think D is really the biggest strength of the team is the secondary they had a top 20 coverage grade in the country last year at 89. two and they bring back three defensive backs who played at least 300 snaps last year uh and they added a really really good Corner in the transfer portal uh in Bowling Greens Jaylen husky who had an 83.1 uh PFF grade for the Falcons last year at Bowling Green so really good secondary last year they bring back three guys from that unit and they added jayen husky as well so really good secondary I think that's their biggest strength of the team the biggest weakness though and we'll get into it they have a complete unknown at quarterback back man complete unknown because For the First Time in 5 years Talia tongoa will not be the starting quarterback for uh Maryland the battle to replace like I said before is going to be between Richard Jr Billy Edwards and NC State transfer MJ Morris both those guys earned sub 55 passing grades in backup roles last year though MJ Morris did it on 106 more dropbacks so when they were out there none of neither of them looked really good but we think right now D the starter will probably be Billy Edwards Jr we'll of course keep an eye on it as we head into uh to fall but uh tell me more about him as the projected new starter for the terrains yeah so we saw him a little bit last year it's very clear that he's he's a pretty good athlete right look it's not going to be easy to replace the big 10's alltime leading passer by the way in tell tagaloa but you know I mean you can see he's got traits right he's got good speed about 220 pounds and if you take out Neil Downs he's forced a Miss tackle on 13 he's forced Miss tackles I should say on 52 career rushes so like he's a good runner you can very clearly see he's a good athlete he's got a pretty good arm like he would fit best as just like that dual threat piece who you can work you know I think a lot on bootlegs on design rollouts and design Run game and kind of kind of have to manufacture your way through it he's not as good a pure passer as tagaloa was now that's going to be the issue because they did go in there and they trounced Auburn in their bowl game and he ran for I think if not 100 yards pretty close to it they did it with the Run game and they showed they could win with that but he only completed six of his 20 passes in that game against Auburn and only one of them went beyond 10 yards and that ball was actually tipped and should have been picked off so there are serious serious issues at least from what we've seen so far with Edwards accuracy throwing the football it is he it's not he doesn't really set his feet very well in the pocket the ball is kind of it's almost random where it's going I'll be honest with you like he's got a good arm he's got traits but if he doesn't significantly improve his accuracy and his foot his footwork from where it is now then I could see MJ Morris getting a shot they're going to build an offense around the Run game okay that includes edwards's feet and that includes the running back you mentioned Roman heni who honestly should help them in both fastet you know good receiving back to a really good check down option uh 77.7 rushing grade last year as well like these two guys together are going to have to be the engines of this offense right read option game design Run game for the quarterback heni I think you know in the screen game and things like that can help them out a lot you know you talk about similar receiving numbers last year getting pretty close up there to a Bucky Irving who's now in Tampa Bay with the Buccaneers you know these are the types of things it's going to be much more conservative right talio was a downfield passer he wanted to grip it and rip it throw down field that's not going to be the case with this Maryland team they need to run the football with these two guys to succeed absolutely man second most receiving yards among all power five backs last year but like I said behind Brookie Irving and you know the year before he had 988 rushing yards and 315 receiving yards this guy's a really very versatile back so I think he's going to be the uh the focal point of Maryland's offense next year defensively I mentioned that secondary is is their biggest strength and I think uh Glendon Miller is a big part of that their safety um he was the most valuable player on Maryland's team last year and one of the 20 most valuable safeties in the country according to pff's wins above average metric 83.4 coverage grade top 20 in the power five um although he's listed as a safety in our database he actually spent most of his time at slot corner for uh for Maryland three interceptions and 32.9 passer rating allowed from the slot both those marks were top three in the power five as well so athletic player really good footwork and he's one of the better slot Defenders that we have in college football right now all right DL bottom line time now I mentioned before Maryland had three straight winning seasons which they they haven't done in 20 years do you think it would be four this year what are we expecting out of the terrains in 2024 I'm a little worried Max I I think I think there look there's a road where they can put together the Run game and the defense and and kind of do things a bit like Ruckers does it you know where it's like they didn't have a whole lot of the passing game last year but they're Wicked physical and they play good defense and and you have you know Ruckers has Kyle manun guy who had probably put ahead in the rankings of Roman heni but you know they're going to have to scratch and Claw I I'll be honest with you I I think losing taga aloa it's it it's big right that's you you know that's the best quarterback Maryland's had in a long time maybe ever the big 10's all-time leading passer um you know he was pretty good from the pocket he could improvise a little bit he just gave them that dimension in the passing game that gave him a chance right I I don't know really what they have in their passing game right now it it's tough whether it's Billy Edwards or MJ Morris it's like two guys with small samples you know Edwards we saw can really run the ball he can but can you get away with that with that style and just not being able to throw the ball Maybe at all I I mean it's I'm a little concerned for this team offensively I'll be honest with you yeah so am I man I I really am too really is just because of that quarterback situation because I mentioned before I I like what they have um at receiver I like what they have at running back but they need stability at quarterback man and um if they actually don't if they have another winning season this year it'll be the first fouryear stretch of winning season since the 1980s so really uh really great stretch there for Mike Loxley but they have great talent on both sides of the ball I I think in terms of receiving core and running back and and like I said the secondary before but um they could surprise some teams because of that but they need to find out who the quarterback's going to be and Billy Edwards Jr or MJ Morris they got to show a lot more than what they showed in backup roles because when they came in for the respective teams they did not look that great at all as passers so um that's the big question for Maryland you mentioned before I was it's almost a cop out to say oh it depends on the quarterback because it does for every team but this is one of those schools man was like it really depends on the quarter qub back because if you get a stable quarterback then yeah absolutely could surpris a lot of teams have another winning season but if not could be a rough year for the terrains that's what we got for our preview of Maryland heading into 2024 again we are doing this for every one of the 70 power five teams entering 2024 so make sure you subscribe to the channel so you don't miss a single one [Music]