Maryland WR D.J. Moore named First Team All-Big Ten

Maryland football’s D.J. Moore earned First Team All-Big Ten honors Wednesday morning on the back of an outstanding season.

With four different starting quarterbacks, Moore racked up eight touchdowns and 1,033 receiving yards on a program-record 80 receptions; each led the Big Ten. The junior also caught a pass in every game this season, extending his streak to 33 consecutive games with a reception.

Moore is the first Maryland receiver to earn first team honors since Torrey Smith in 2010 and the first Terp at any position to earn first team honors since Will Likely and Yannick Ngakoue in 2015.

His numbers are gaudy, but even they can’t describe how dominant Moore was this season. Just when the world thought his toe-tapping catch at Indiana or his long catch-and-run at Nebraska last season were spectacular, he made those plays seem ordinary this season.

In Week 1, he picked up right where he left off last season, catching seven passes for 133 yards and a touchdown, including one in the fourth quarter on third and 19 from then-backup Kasim Hill to keep Maryland’s upset hopes afloat.

Moore followed that up with one of the most impressive all-around games from a single Terp player in recent memory in Week 2. The junior caught seven more passes for 97 yards and two touchdowns, but also added a 21-yard run on a broken play in which he broke at least five tackles.

Even when things got tougher during conference play and it was a third- or fourth-string quarterback throwing to him, his production didn’t drop. He still made leaping catches in the end zone and he still fought through tackles to get there.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

After the final game of the season, Moore said that he does feel like he’s ready for the next level, but didn’t say whether he’d come back to Maryland for another season or not. In any case, this was one of the best seasons ever from a Terp receiver, and he’s undoubtedly deserving of this honor.

Junior left tackle Derwin Gray and junior running back Ty Johnson earned honorable mention honors Wednesday morning too.

Gray started all 12 games at left tackle for Maryland, helping block the way for the Terps’ 1,940 rushing yards. Perhaps his biggest direct contribution to any one game was his first career field goal block in Texas, which was scooped up and run back for a touchdown to extend Maryland’s lead.

Johnson was once again Maryland’s leading rusher; he had 875 yards on the ground. His 6.4 yards per carry and 132.7 all-purpose yards per game ranked third and fourth, respectively, in the Big Ten. The junior passed 2,000 career rushing yards this season, becoming just the 13th Maryland player to do so, and his 1,592 all-purpose yards are the seventh-most in a season in program history.