Donohue, Douglas, Brown All Leave Terrapins, Wreak Havoc on Backfield Depth

With scholarship reductions and a new regime, defections had to be coming. Well, here are a few: junior linebacker Ryan Donohue and junior RB Gary Douglas are both leaving Maryland's football program, joining graduating fullback Haroon Brown in leaving the Terrapins.

None of the three losses are giant, but they each hurt. Douglas was stuck behind senior Davin Meggett and sophomore D.J. Adams, and passing Adams would be unlikely at best. He's pretty much stuck in permanent back-up mode for his next two years, and I can understand if that isn't a promising proposition. The problem is that Maryland is now left depth-less at running back: there's Meggett, Adams, redshirt freshman and converted cornerback Jeremiah Wilson, and ... that's it. For now, at least. If one of Adams or Meggett goes down to injury (or, god forbid, both) Wilson's inexperience, both in general and in playing RB, would be far from ideal.

As for Brown, he's had a rollercoaster of a career and is just deciding to graduate. That would be fine normally, but Taylor Watson, the normal starting fullback, is also graduating this summer. That means the odds-on favorite to start at fullback is Rahsaan Moore, another redshirt freshman. Past him, there's minimal depth.

Luckily, freshmen come to the rescue in both cases. Two of the most highly-regarded prospects in the Terrapins' last haul were RB Justus Pickett and FB Tyler Cierski. Pickett will have a chance to catch Wilson as the #3 back, and Cierski will have a great chance at passing Moore. Neither would surprise me, and both will provide some much-needed depth and talent at the positions. That said, entering the year relying on notoriously unpredictable freshmen isn't exactly desirable, even if it might be a little necessary.

Donohue, meanwhile, saw playing time his freshman year at linebacker and I thought he had potential to be a Wujciak-type. Despite being stuck behind Darin Drakeford in the immediate future, he would seem to be the frontrunner for fourth linebacker, a spot that gets plenty of playing time (ask Ben Pooler back when he was healthy). That's a bit of a surprise. But with Lorne Goree already in the program, two DBs (Mario Rowson and Desmond Kearse) moving to LB, and three incoming freshmen at the position, depth isn't a huge concern.

And that's the football news o' the week.