Secondary struggles: Maryland ‘back to the drawing board’ with young defensive backs

Maryland rides a 13-game nonconference winning streak into Saturday night’s showdown with Virginia, a streak that’s in jeopardy if a sophomore quarterback carves up the Terrapins’ secondary for the second straight week.

Michigan State signal-caller Aidan Chiles effortlessly put up 363 yards passing and three touchdowns in the Spartans’ 27-24 upset in College Park last week. Though the secondary registered three interceptions, a resilient Chiles still successfully fired and hit his targets at will.

“We have talented players on the outside. They’re young,” Maryland coach Mike Locksley said. “So how do we help them grow without mitigating the risk of what happened on Saturday?”

Their task isn’t any easier against Virginia sophomore Anthony Colandrea, who’s coming off his own 300-yard, three-touchdown performance at Wake Forest.

“He’s one of those guys that we’ve got to contain,” Locksley said. “Because if you let him start running around and extending plays, it’s a tough cover for anybody, whether it’s a freshman or a first-round draft pick.”

Veteran safeties Glendon Miller and Dante Trader Jr. are the backline linchpin of the defense, with Miller already notching three picks this season. But in front of them is a revolving door of cornerbacks — five in total, including three freshmen — all of whom struggled against an equally young Spartans offense. 

“I think that’s the part where we got to keep somebody over the top,” Locksley said. “We got to keep somebody in the middle field, or sometimes just play man coverage and let these guys, that they’re talented enough to run around and cover people.”

Cooking up criticism

The defense — heralded as the Terps’ backbone — along with Locksley got plenty of fan criticism following the loss. 

Social media isn’t always accurate, though it can be a type of thermometer. The temperature isn’t boiling among Maryland supporters, but it’s hot, and the complaints aren’t anything new after another home loss to a Big Ten underdog. 

A sampling of criticism on social media sites had many wondering if the best was truly ‘ahead,’ and forced comments to be limited on Maryland’s X post of the game’s final score.

Locksley has been bullish on his program’s goals of winning Big Ten and even national championships. Though he claimed this week to not see and hear outside critics, Locksley was bold enough leading up to the season to tie his team’s potential success in big home games —especially against ranked conference opponents — to greater attendance, making his case multiple times for more fans to show up.

If that was a tough task before, it’s going to be an even harder ask now, with the proverbial air out of the balloon long before October.

“There’s always going to be critics, and we feel like that’s what comes with the sport,” Maryland running back Roman Hemby said. “So him taking it on and doing what he does to be a tremendous leader to us — it’s what we do, as well, to kind of pay it forward and keep our heads on straight throughout everything that goes on throughout the season.”