Profiles In Terpage - A Countdown to the Football Season: Cole Farrand

A recurring series where we will profile every player on Maryland's roster, counting down to kick-off against William & Mary on September 1. Thanks to OBNUG for the idea.

Today we profile a player who entered spring practice as one of the starters at middle linebacker.

Cole Farrand, Sophomore, Linebacker, #47

via grfx.cstv.com

Stats:

Height: 6'3"

Weight: 245

Major: Letters and sciences

Twitter: None that we could find

Collegiate Stats: Three tackles (one assisted)

High School Stats (Senior Year): 78 tackles, two forced fumbles, one fumble recovery, one interception returned for a touchdown, three touchdown receptions

Recruiting Ratings: Two stars by Rivals (#29 in Nj.), Scout, 24/7 (#36 in Nj., #20 ILB)

High School: Pope John XXIII

Hometown: Sparta, Nj.

High School Highlights:

How'd He Get to College Park?

At Pope John, Farrand was a two-sport star, starting at linebacker for three years and setting school records in discus and shot put (breaking his own record at 57 feet, 3 inches). Maryland was his only offer, but he received interest from Michigan, Michigan State and Penn State.

Farrand played tight end and linebacker in high school, and was named second team all-state and first team all-state private school in 2010. He was also a two-time first team all conference player and was named conference all-academic after his senior year.

Last year, Farrand was expected to redshirt, but instead played sparingly in the last nine games of the season, mostly on special teams. He recorded tackles against Clemson, Wake Forest and Notre Dame.

Nickname:

Cole "Cole-Train" Farrand

Career Highlight:

Getting two stops on fourth down to clinch a victory over rivals Sparta in his senior year.

Career Lowlight:

Burning his redshirt to play sparingly on special teams.

Dream Season:

Farrand holds of Lorne Goree and Abner Logan, keeping the starting MIKE spot and re-igniting Maryland's tradition of long-haired middle 'backers.

Nightmare Season:

Farrand falls behind both Goree and Logan, seriously putting his future as a contributor with the program in check.

2012 Prospectus:

As we've mentioned, Cole Farrand entered spring practice as the top dog at MIKE linebacker, in one of the bigger surprises of the depth chart release. Everyone knew Demetrius Hartsfield was going to be the starter at one of the inside positions, but the conventional wisdom said that Lorne Goree would be joining him as a starter in the middle. Instead, we have Farrand, who the coaches have always been high on, but didn't exactly jump off the screen in his nine games last season.

In all honesty, it would be a surprise to see Farrand have the starting job this fall. Randy Edsall did a similar thing last season, where he listed an unproven second year player (Clarence Murphy) as the starter, probably to motivate an older player (Isaiah Ross, who ended up getting hurt). In that case, a true freshman (Keith Bowers) ended up taking over and doing well. Again, that's a possible scenario, as Abner Logan and Brock Dean will both be challenging for playing time up the middle.

Cole Farrand should be a contributor for Maryland this year. The coaches have always spoke highly of him, he's incredibly strong, and he was productive in one of the best football programs in the state of New Jersey. The real question is whether most of his contributions will come as a starter, or as a special teams player. Our bet is on the latter.

Up Next:

Our next player was a surprise freshman All-American last year (the surprise was how good he was, not that he was named to the team).