Maryland Injury Report for Florida State: Drakeford Expected Back

Ah, the weekly "So this is how bad things are" post. Surprisingly, though, things aren't as bad as they've been. The new damage this week: reserves Avery Graham and Tyrek Cheeseboro are both out for the season, Kevin Dorsey is out for the game, Pete White is now listed as probable, and ... well, that's it, as far as new injuries go. Pretty tame.

And there's actually some good news: Darin Drakeford is completely off the injury report and is expected to make his return this week. He's missed the last several games after a strong opener against Miami, and his return would be much-appreciated for Maryland's battered linebacker corps. The other 'backers, Demetrius Hartsfield and Kenny Tate, are each listed as doubtful.

But Drakeford coming back is an important first step back toward defensive solvency. The defense has been decimated by injuries, particularly the linebacker corps, which has gone full-backup and full-freshmen the past two weeks. The thing is, the freshmen performed pretty well. They tired out as the games went on, especially against Clemson, but given that there was minimal depth there, that's to be expected. When the starters finally do come back in large numbers, Maryland will actually have proven depth there in the form of Alex Twine, Lorne Goree, and Mario Rowson.

Elsewhere, Andre Monroe has been upgraded to questionable, which is encouraging after the start he had. 

Dorsey's loss hurts, but we've gone over it before - he'll be replaced by Marcus Leak, and it's more or less a roll of the dice given Maryland's wide receivers situation. As for White ... he's replacing Andrew Gonnella at LG, and if he can't go Maryland will be reaching to third-string. He's probable, so I don't expect it to be a problem, but you never know.