Maryland football’s NFL draft hopefuls have started the combine with mixed results

After a challenging Maryland football season that included multiple outside investigations and a coaching change, three Terps participated in this week’s NFL Draft Combine, and they’re almost done with the process.

Since the calendar turned to March, offensive lineman Derwin Gray and defensive end Byron Cowart have completed drills and interviews, and safety Darnell Savage Jr. will complete drills and measurements on the final day of the combine on Monday.

Neither Gray nor Cowart excelled positionally at Lucas Oil Stadium, outside of the bench press, but each measured well. Gray was first up, going through his drills and measurements on Friday, while Cowart was tested on Sunday.

Gray was one of 57 offensive linemen to undergo testing, being viewed as an offensive tackle in the group. He ranked No. 12 among the group in weight, at 320 pounds, and arm length, at 34.375 inches. He also ranked No. 16 in the group with 26 reps on the bench press, and his 5.26-second 40-yard dash ranked 29th in the group.

Cowart was one of 12 defensive ends to be tested on Sunday, clocking in as the heaviest at 298 pounds and tied with TCU’s L.J. Collier for third-largest hands at 10 inches. Cowart excelled at the bench press, with his 26 reps tying Michigan’s Rashan Gary and beating all ends not named Nick Bosa. However, he was one of the slowest ends at the 40, posting a 5.16 40-yard dash time that ranked 10th.

Savage represents Maryland’s best chance for a high draft pick, projected to go between the second and fourth rounds. He’ll get a shot to help himself out with solid drill performances on Monday. Other Maryland draft prospects Tre Watson, Ty Johnson and Damian Prince will have to wait until Maryland’s pro day to put themselves back in front of a group of scouts. Here are Gray’s and Cowart’s full results.

(h/t to Andrew Winn of SB Nation’s Notre Dame blog One Foot Down for compiling the results. Follow him on Twitter @andrewwinn)

In other news

In front of program greats and a sellout crowd, Maryland men’s basketball couldn’t pull out a win over No. 9 Michigan on Sunday. Here are Lila’s best shots from the night, though.

Neither Bruno Fernando nor Anthony Cowan got going against the Wolverines, making it tough to win. The loss proved a disappointing miss on a potential signature win and makes it more complicated for the Terps to snag a double-bye in the Big Ten Tournament.

Here’s Amy’s recap of the night:

The loss came a day after Maryland celebrated its 100th season in Baltimore with a crop of program greats in attendance.

Here’s The Washington Post’s Barry Svrluga on the loss, and what makes it a little frustrating.

The loss was also the ending of a mixed weekend of Maryland sports.

Women’s basketball returned to the top of the conference, snagging the outright Big Ten title by beating Illinois on Saturday and securing its place as the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament.

Baseball opened the weekend with a win over Louisiana-Lafayette, but dropped both halves of its doubleheader Saturday and lost the series.

Softball posted some milestones in a 1-2 weekend, as Sydney Golden picked up her 200th strikeout in a loss to UNC on Saturday before the offense went wild with 10 runs in the top of the eighth inning to propel Maryland to a 17-9 win over UNC-Greensboro and its most runs scored since 2015.

Men’s lacrosse missed a shot to likely move into the No. 1 ranking, falling in overtime to No. 17 Notre Dame.

Women’s lacrosse continued to take care of business as usual, though, breezing past Hofstra Saturday.

And tennis has now lost three straight matches, including two at home this weekend, and fell to 2-7.