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Maryland junior Will Likely didn’t have much to complain about last year. The all-conference cornerback led the Big Ten with six interceptions and 15 passes defended during a successful first run through the league. He returned two of those interceptions for touchdowns and added another score on a punt return. But, Likely said, he’s still sick of hearing about hot dogs. As a member of the losing team in Maryland’s 2014 spring game, his postgame meal consisted of franks and beans while the winning side dined on steak and lobster. The greater indignity was listening to half his teammates remind him about the loss throughout the year, no matter how many plays he made to help the Terps to a 7-6 record. “I heard about those hot dogs all summer long,” he said. “You don’t want to be a loser. You’ve got to wait another whole year for the spring.”  Likely gets his shot at redemption (and a good meal) Saturday when Maryland wraps up spring practice a 1 p.m. in Byrd Stadium. Head coach Randy Edsall split his team in half in a way that will pit first-teamers on offense and defense against one another and backups against backups. Edsall said that format creates the best competition with several players recovering from injuries this spring.
Despite missing quarterback Caleb Rowe, who is recovering from ACL surgery, and being cautious at a couple other key positions, Edsall said Maryland has had a productive spring. The top priority was installing the basics of a new 4-3 defensive scheme to better contend with the Big Ten’s run-heavy offenses. “They picked that up really well,” Edsall said from his office overlooking the stadium Friday morning. “They mastered the fundamental and the techniques, and they’re communicating well.” Edsall was as involved in the details of teaching those techniques as he has been at any point in the past decade. Without a secondary coach to start the spring, Edsall ran the defensive back meetings and helped Likely and the rest of that group get used to the new defense. The staff opening (which has since been filled by former UConn assistant Darrell Perkins) allowed Edsall to oversee a key piece of Maryland’s new defense and earned him some more credibility among his veteran players. “I really liked coach Edsall as a position coach,” said senior Sean Davis, who moved to cornerback permanently this spring after racking up more than 200 tackles in the last two seasons at safety. “I always saw him as a head coach, but he was a different type of guy. He knows all the little things and he was very picky with all the little stuff. I was surprised that he could mimic some DB stuff like that. He knows what he’s talking about.” Davis and Likely will be crucial to Maryland’s hopes of stopping the run more effectively in 2015. Their experience allows the Terps to play more man coverage and keep more defenders close to the line of scrimmage. For Edsall, that marks a return to the techniques and coverage he has used in past stops at Connecticut and with the Jacksonville Jaguars. The coach said he has been pleased overall this spring with the progress of his defense, which was a top priority going into March. “I told our coaches we want to make sure our bread and butter – what we’re going to hang our hat on with offense, defense and special teams – gets put in. We have to get our kids to know it like the back of their hand. We’ve been able to do that.” The new defense gets its first test drive, with lobsters on the line, Saturday afternoon.
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