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With ACC Media Day going on, it is time to get moving on taking a look the Maryland Football team.  I am going to start with the special teams for a couple of reasons.  One, they are the unit with the most locked in players, and secondly, they are one of the smaller units, and I have a lot going on tonight.

So lets first start with the kickers.  We here at Turtledroppings have always felt the kickers are the heart and soul of the team.  Well, not really, but Nick “Das Boot” Novack was one of our favorite Terps of all time.  So lets look no further than place kicker to get this seasons previews going.

Nick Ferrera , now a sophomore, will be the starting kicker, as he was last year.  Hopefully, he doesn’t have to fill in as the starting punter as well, like last year.  If we focus on the kicking, as a freshman, I think all of us fans are truly looking forward to watching his career for the next three years.  During his first season for Maryland he hit 18-25 fg’s including a career long of 50 yards.  He was also 25-25 on extra point attempts.  That was enough to garner his some Freshman All-American awards.  If that wasn’t enough, as previously mentioned, he also filled in for an injured Travis Baltz.  During his punting duties he averaged 39.8 yds per punt, and had three downed inside the 10.  Considering he was a freshman filling in, those numbers were nothing to sneeze at.  Mike Barbour will back up Ferrera on the place kicking, and kick off duties.

Back to punting, Travis Baltz returns from a broken finger (the second of two injuries for Travis last season).  While he is healthy, he is one of the conferences top punters averaging 40.7 per punt last season, and 40.9 for his career.  As a senior, I think we can expect the same quality punting we have seen over the previous three seasons.

See how easy the special teams are?  Now we get to look at kick returners, and Maryland has the top in the ACC with Torey Smith.  He had over 1300 yards last season averaging 25 yards per game while scoring two touch downs.  When your offense is ineffective, your special teams can get things going.  With Torey Smith back there, there is always a threat for a big play.  Expect to see more of the same this year, and this year only.  Smith is on pace to graduate this December, and he has already looked to get a grade from the NFL scouts.

The one possible question on special teams could be punt returner.  Likely,the position belongs to Tony Logan, who manned the position most of last year.  Redshirt freshman Dexter McDougle impressed during the spring at both punt returner and kick returner.  If Logan has any trouble catching the ball McDougle would be the first to step in.  McDougle is likely to get some touches on kick off when, not if, the opposing team tries to keep the ball away from Smith.

So there you have it a quick look at who is going to be handling the special team jobs for the Terps.  One thing the  Maryland Football program has had under Friedgen is quality special teams, and with so many players back at these positions, this, along with linebackers, may be the easiest unit to preview.  Be sure to keep checking in as we work our way through the entire Maryland Football Depth Chart.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 27th, 2010 at 5:10 am and is filed under Maryland Terps Basketball, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.