DeAndre Lane was Maryland’s leading receiver in the team’s Week 1 rout of Howard, recording a team-high 73 yards on five receptions. But he sat out last week’s game against Florida International with a concussion. He was listed as one of the starting wide receivers on this week’s depth chart, but it wasn’t confirmed until Thursday that the senior would return to the field at Central Florida. Here’s the Washington Post’s Roman Stubbs:
Terps WR DeAndre Lane will play Saturday at UCF after missing last week with concussion. Taivon Jacobs is still out. No word on his return.
— Roman Stubbs (@romanstubbs) September 15, 2016
However, redshirt junior Taivon Jacobs won’t be with him. Jacobs missed nearly all of fall camp with an undisclosed injury, and didn’t suit up for either of Maryland’s first two games.
The disappearance of the Jacobs brothers is perhaps the most perplexing subplot of the Terps’ season. Taivon and brother Levern were two of Maryland’s top three receivers in 2015 by both catches and yards. Neither one has caught a pass in 2016. Levern has been healthy and on the field for both contests, but the balls simply haven’t come his way. His contributions have come as a blocker on the outside and on special teams.
It’s hard to imagine him getting phased out of the passing game completely, though. Perhaps it’s just a glitch in probability that zero of Maryland’s 35 completed passes have been to last year’s leading receiver. As it stands right now, D.J. Moore leads the team with 10 catches, followed by Teldrick Morgan with 6 and Lane and running back Ty Johnson with 5 each. Nine Terps, including Will Likely and Perry Hills, have exactly one catch.
On the weekly depth chart, Lane is a co-starter in the slot with Likely (who we probably won’t see too much); Moore and Malcolm Culmer are on the outside. Levern Jacobs is listed as Culmer’s backup, so maybe it’s his turn to get on the statistical board.
As for Taivon, it’s anyone’s guess when he returns.
In other news
Maryland basketball missed out on five-star forward Jaren Jackson, who committed to Michigan State Thursday. It won’t be fun seeing him play for a conference rival, but maybe it’s for the best; the Terps already had a “J. Jackson” on the roster with small forward Justin, a freshman in 2016-17. They also missed out on Josh Jackson, a five-star guard who committed to Kansas. There’s a demented world in which Maryland lands all three, and it’s safe to say confusion would ensue.
Jackson might be off the table, but here’s who the Terps are still looking for in the class of 2017.
It’s mentioned in this piece that D.J. Moore is Maryland’s go-to receiver. Here’s what we wrote about him yesterday.
We did a podcast about what we saw in the FIU game and what we’re looking to see going forward.
Several Maryland sports are in action Friday. Women’s tennis is at the Tribe Invitational, hosted by William & Mary; volleyball plays Oklahoma and USC in the Pac-12 Challenge in Los Angeles; and women’s soccer visits Rutgers. Maryland field hockey hosts Indiana at 1:00 p.m. Saturday, and men’s soccer welcomes Penn State at 5:00 p.m. Sunday.