Updated Maryland Depth Chart for Virginia: Dorsey, Hartsfield Return to Lineup

Maryland's updated their depth chart for the Virginia game, as is quickly becoming a Sunday tradition. (Hey, Edsall's pretty transparent about that!) The big story for most will be that C.J. Brown and Danny O'Brien are yet again listed together, giving no indication as to which will get the nod on Saturday.

But that really doesn't matter: did you expect anything different? The real big news comes elsewhere: Kevin Dorsey is back in the depth chart, everybody! Huzzah!

Dorsey's been Maryland's best - and sometimes only - receiver on the year, and ever since he was injured against Clemson the receiving corps has fallen apart. I didn't count the number of drops Maryland had against Florida State and Boston College, but it was easily in double-digits and might've been the biggest reason for their poor offensive performance in both games. He's now listed as the starter again, replacing true freshman and main drop-offender Marcus Leak. If he's healthy, things will certainly change for the better for Maryland's passing offense, and perhaps dramatically.

And in other good, big news: Maryland is getting back the Dorsey of their defense in Demetrius Hartsfield, who was leading Maryland in tackles early in the year before getting injured against Georgia Tech. He's listed as the starter at middle linebacker now, replacing freshman Lorne Goree (who, in all honesty, has played pretty well).

But the strangest change, and perhaps most impactful over the long-term: the STAR linebacker spot no longer exists as we knew it. It was formerly (and controversially) manned by converted defensive backs like Kenny Tate, Avery Graham, Mario Rowson, and Desmond Kearse, all of whom were undersized at linebacker. This week, though, the new starter is listed not as former starter Rowson, but instead Darin Drakeford, a bigger, more conventional linebacker who used to start on the weakside.

I don't know of anyone who's really been impressed by the STAR spot. If this ends up being a long-term change in Todd Bradford's philosophy, I think most would consider it a change for the better. Taking Drakeford's spot is Alex Twine, who's gotten a lot of publicity for his play despite being a 17-year-old true freshman who had no other FBS offers.

The only other change I noticed was that Maurice Hampton claimed the starting DT spot outright over A.J. Francis. Not a lot of changes, but the ones that were there were pretty darn big.