Randy Edsall

In the last few years of the Ralph Friedgen era, Maryland struggled to lure the top local talent to College Park. That's something new coach Randy Edsall, who transitioned Connecticut from Div. I-FCS to a BCS bowl, will try to change as he places his stamp on the football program. It's really not fair to judge Edsall by his "first" recruiting class at Maryland because of the uncertainty surrounding Friedgen's job status all season and Edsall only getting a month to clean up the mess after he was hired in early January.

On his way to Virginia in January, Johnathan Thomas decided to make a quick stopover at Maryland. The three-star running back from St. John's Prep in Danvers, Mass., got a tour of the campus and met with coach Randy Edsall , who offered him a scholarship “right on the spot.” “He showed great interest in me. I was their No. 1 running back prospect,” Thomas said Sunday. “That just made me want to really think about the place and see what they had to offer. And I got to see what they had to offer.” Four months after this trip to College Park, Thomas decided to accept Edsall's offer.

Many angry Maryland fans handed out a big red "F" when the Terps hired Randy Edsall to be their football coach last month -- mainly because they wanted Mike Leach and his high-flying offense. But Yahoo's Matt Hinton liked the move, giving them a "B" for the hire. "Edsall's not exciting; fans aren't going to start flocking in droves for 8-4 runs to the Champs Sports Bowl," Hinton wrote in this post on his Dr. Saturday blog. "But if he gives Maryland the decade Friedgen did -- that is, six eight-win seasons, seven bowl games and rare conference championship -- this is a good hire.

In a perfect world, Randy Edsall can envision the day when the Maryland football team plays before packed crowds at Byrd Stadium, when the Terps challenge perennial powers in their league, when he and his staff attract most of the top high school talent in the state as well as from other parts of the country. Then Edsall quickly snaps out of that world and gets back to reality. And back to work. This is Edsall's reality right now: the Terps have won just six games in his first two seasons since he replaced Ralph Friedgen, four of the victories coming in the first six games of last season before injuries decimated his team, particularly at quarterback.

Maryland unveiled a 22-man recruiting class today in College Park. Here are some notes from Randy Edsall's news conference. ** It was a “pretty uneventful” Signing Day, Edsall joked before discussing the Maryland decisions made Wednesday by Friendship Collegiate Academy linebacker Yannick Ngakoue, Suitland wide receiver Taivon Jacobs and Avalon School defensive back Jacquille Veii . “I think that makes a big statement,” the...

I have been critical of many things Maryland football coach Randy Edsallhas said and done over the course of his first season in College Park, but the moves he made in replacing his team's offensive and defensive coordinators are to be applauded -- on a number of fronts. First, new offensive coordinator Mike Lockley is a huge upgrade over any assistant Edsall has brought on when it comes to recruiting. Locksley, too, consistently raised the performance of his offense in the four years he held the coordinator's position at Illinois under Ron Zook.

In a perfect world, Randy Edsall can envision the day when the Maryland football team plays before packed crowds at Byrd Stadium, when the Terps challenge perennial powers in their league, when he and his staff attract most of the top high school talent in the state as well as from other parts of the country. Then Edsall quickly snaps out of that world and gets back to reality. And back to work. This is Edsall's reality right now: the Terps have won just six games in his first two seasons since he replaced Ralph Friedgen, four of the victories coming in the first six games of last season before injuries decimated his team, particularly at quarterback.

Maryland coach Randy Edsall said Sunday that freshman receiver-returner Stefon Diggs must learn to keep his emotions in check when the opposing team provokes him. ”He can't go and do what he did there,” Edsall said, referring to an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty assessed against Diggs during Maryland's 33-13 loss to Georgia Tech on Saturday. Diggs appeared to toss the football at a Yellow Jackets player in the first half. “He's got to understand that there will be people that will try to get inside his head,” Edsall said.

Maryland football coach Randy Edsall offered condolences today to former Terp and current Raven Torrey Smith, whose younger brother, Tevin, was killed in a motorcycle accident. Edsall said Maryland's football program was thinking about Smith and his family and “praying for them.” Smith, who played for former coach Ralph Friedgen, remains close with  current and former Terps players. He trains with many of them during the offseason and returns occasionally to College Park.

What's that old saying? “If I didn't have bad luck, I'd have no luck at all.” After losing its second starting quarterback to the same injury -- an anterior cruciate ligament tear -- Maryland is left to start again at quarterback. I'll have a story for tomorrow's paper on the two guys left standing -- Caleb Rowe and Devin Burns. They are very different sorts of players. Rowe is a pocket passer. Two teammates described him to me today as a "gunslinger" because of the way he whips the ball downfield during two-minute drills in practice.

It's not enough to give Stefon Diggs more touches this season. Maryland coaches also want to give him more of a leadership role. Coach Randy Edsall said after Friday night's spring game that the team has named the receiver-returner as one of 10 members of its leadership council. The team won't use permanent captains in the fall. Rather, it will name captains game by game. It sounds like Maryland really wants Diggs invested in the team. Not that he wasn't last season. But it's difficult for freshmen - still transitioning to college life - to play leadership roles.

Maryland quarterback C.J. Brown - who has had two season-ending injuries in his college career - has been granted a medical hardship waiver permitting him a sixth season of eligibility, according to the school. The waiver will allow Brown to return for another season after 2013. “It's really good news, and I feel good for him," Terps coach Randy Edsall said. "I'm glad we got that taken care of now, and that's something we don't have to worry about. When I pulled him out of the meeting and told him, he was thrilled and excited about it.” Brown, a team captain whose father was a Michigan State quarterback, was the presumptive starter last August when he tore an anterior cruciate ligament while making a cut during a preseason practice.

Randy Edsall has been committed to growing Maryland's brand ever since he took the job in College Park more than two years ago. The state flag was already printed across the Byrd Stadium end zones when he arrived on campus, but that wasn't enough. The football coach unveiled state flag-inspired "Maryland Pride" uniforms for his first game on the sideline and replaced the Terps moniker with Maryland on both the field and jerseys. On Saturday afternoon, he'll unveil another part of his plan.

Randy Edsall is a football coach, not a marketing guy, but he's got the lingo down. Ask him why the Maryland football team is practicing Saturday at Dunbar, and he says it's all about growing the Terps brand in this area and throughout the rest of the state, too. "What we need to do is make sure we're going out and meeting the people and being visible in the Baltimore community, rather than expecting people to come to us," he says....

With senior quarterback C.J. Brown rehabbing a torn anterior cruciate ligament, transfer Ricardo Young took all of the first-team snaps at the position as Maryland opened its spring practice schedule Saturday at Byrd Stadium. It was a chance for the junior to get valuable repetitions under center. "I felt like I threw the ball really well today," Young said. "I need to clean up on some details. Getting proper depths on drops. Just finishing off. I'm in a beginning stage right now. " Young transferred from New Mexico to play under Maryland offensive coordinator Mike Locksley , who was previously the Lobos head coach.

Baltimore Sun reporters Jeff Barker and Don Markus and editor Matt Bracken weigh in on the three biggest topics of the past week in Maryland sports.   Who could be some of the surprise players to emerge from spring practice for the Terps? Don Markus: Listening to Randy Edsall talk about his team at a news conference Monday, there are several potential candidates. I think one of the most interesting stories headed into the team's first practice Saturday is freshman cornerback and return specialist Will Likely, who enrolled a semester early after graduating from high school.

If you were wondering if Randy Edsall was a "name-on-the-back-of-the-jersey guy," you now have your answer. The Maryland football coach told The Washington Post on Friday that the team will unveil its new Under Armour jerseys in late August, and they will not have the last names of players on the back of them . “I am not a name-on-the-back-of-the-jersey guy,” Edsall said. “To me, it's all about the name on the front. It's all about Maryland. To me, it's about being a team and let's just worry about being Maryland and taking care of business that way. It's a team sport we are playing.

Attendance at Byrd Stadium on Saturday for Maryland football's 28-17 loss to Boston College was a season-low 29,945 fans. That's paid attendance, not the actual number of lunatics who braved slushy conditions -- weather that would make postal carriers rethink their occupation -- to watch the Terps lose to the then-one-win Eagles. Asked about the turnout , Maryland coach Randy Edsall called out the fans -- and name-checked the Orioles. “I think whenever you support a team, or you have a team that you like, you support them regardless,” Edsall said on Tuesday, according to Jakob Engelke of Inside MD Sports . “There's only seven games a year [at home]

With the start of spring practice five days away, Maryland football coach Randy Edsall spoke Monday at an afternoon news conference on a number of topics in regard to this year's Terps. There were a lot of questions regarding the quarterback situation coming off a year in which the Terps lost their top four at the position with season-ending injuries. Edsall said redshirt senior C.J. Brown, who was supposed to be the starter last season before suffering a torn ACL last summer, will take part in individual drills and possibly 7-on-7 drills in the spring.

Will Likely bypassed second-semester high school senioritis in favor of a head start on his 2013 college classmates by enrolling at Maryland last month. The transition from Belle Glade, Fla., to College Park has been smooth so far for the four-star cornerback, save for one obvious exception.  “I've been freezing. Nah, I'm just playing,” Likely joked Wednesday after Maryland's annual Signing Day news conference. “I'm adjusting to the cold. It's not that serious. I dress up. My mom calls me every morning, makes sure I'm dressed up. So I've got to abide by those rules, even though I'm gone.” Likely is the Terps' lone high school-aged early enrollee.