Brett Shepherd has left Maryland football, Testudo Times has confirmed.
Shepherd played mostly on special teams during his first two years in College Park, totaling seven tackles in 18 games. The rising junior was slated to be a contributor in this year’s linebacking corps.
Maryland has six new faces at linebacker this fall, which may have influenced Shepherd’s decision, assuming this is a transfer to seek playing time elsewhere. Grad transfer Tre Watson was already favored to start in the Terps’ base 4-2-5 scheme, which employs only two linebackers, while five other freshmen are all talented enough to be gunning for playing time.
Jordan Mosley enrolled in January and has already impressed, though he may be sliding to safety by the time actual football starts. Fa’Najae Gotay may be slotted for a similar move, but Nihym Anderson, Chance Campbell and Ahmad McCullough should all have something to say about that second linebacker position before all is said and done.
Shepherd was a former three-star linebacker out of Buford High School in Georgia. He had offers from North Carolina, NC State, Iowa, Missouri, Iowa State and others when he committed to the Terps in the Class of 2016.