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Maryland football will be without a key member of its offensive line for the majority of the season.
In the first half of the Terps’ 20-17 loss to Temple Saturday, Maryland senior right guard Terrance Davis suffered a knee injury. The former four-star recruit out of DeMatha Catholic High School was down for a short period of time before he walked off the field with a limp and was replaced by redshirt freshman Austin Fontaine.
Davis sprained his MCL and is expected to be out four to six weeks, head coach Mike Locksley announced Tuesday.
The Temple Hills, Maryland, native is the Terps’ most experienced offensive lineman, with 30 starts under his belt. Sean Christie is the second-most experienced player on the line with 27 starts, while Johnny Jordan and Marcus Minor have eight and seven starts, respectively. Jaelyn Duncan is the least experienced of the group with only two starts.
“We already were thin there, but when you lose a player of Terrance’s caliber — he’s a three-year starter for the most part, was playing at a high level for us — it’s still a next man up mentality,” Locksley said. “The depth is not necessarily where we want it to be, but we still have enough able bodies. And now we just got to get these guys again playing fundamentally, a little cleaner than what we played on Saturday.”
Now as Davis recovers, Fontaine will remain in the two-deep, while Ellis McKennie will move into the right guard position to help an offensive line that allowed four sacks and multiple quarterback hits against Temple.
Davis returned to the lineup this year after an injury-riddled junior season, which included him sitting out of the 2018 spring practice following offseason surgery and a limited role against Maryland’s first three opponents. He then started the next six games at right guard before missing the final three matchups of the season with an injury.
Now he’ll be out for the start of Big Ten play, but could possibly see a return for the tail-end of the season.