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Maryland freshman receiver D.J. Moore, who wears No. 1, has at times resembled another recent Maryland wideout who has worn that number. Is Moore the second coming of Stefon Diggs? That's a bit much, but the Terps probably only need Moore to be Moore. And so far, that's meant some good things. Like this:
And like this:
It's safe to say Moore already has big-play ability, and six games into the season, his numbers may not say he's lighting up defenses (11 receptions, 193 yards and two touchdowns), but some underlying metrics like Moore a lot.
According to SB Nation's Bill Connelly and Football Study Hall, Moore is second in quite a few categories among Maryland's wide receivers: Catches (11), yards (193), yards per catch (17.6) and yards per target (9.2). Not to forget, that Moore is third on the team in catch rate (52.4 percent) on all of his targets.
While catching just about 50 percent of the passes thrown his way isn't all that impressive on its own, it looks better in light of Maryland's team-wide 44 percent completion rate.
Moore has been targeted 21 times by Maryland quarterbacks, tying him with Avery Edwards as QBs' second favorite target after Levern Jacobs. The elder of Maryland's two Jacobs brothers has clearly emerged as Maryland's top receiving target, but Moore is actually averaging the most yardage per target – 9.2 – of any regular Maryland receiver.
The full numbers for Maryland's pass-catchers, via Connelly, are below:
| Player | Pos. | Ht, Wt | Year | Targets | Catches | Yards | TD | Yds/ Catch |
Yds/ Target |
Catch Rate | Target Rate |
| Levern Jacobs | WR | 5'11, 188 | JR | 43 | 22 | 222 | 2 | 10.1 | 5.2 | 51.2% | 25.6% |
| D.J. Moore | WR | 5'11, 205 | FR | 21 | 11 | 193 | 2 | 17.6 | 9.2 | 52.4% | 12.5% |
| Avery Edwards | TE | 6'4, 234 | FR | 21 | 10 | 103 | 2 | 10.3 | 4.9 | 47.6% | 12.5% |
| Taivon Jacobs | WR | 5'9, 165 | SO | 20 | 7 | 127 | 1 | 18.1 | 6.4 | 35.0% | 11.9% |
| Amba Etta-Tawo | WR | 6'1, 200 | JR | 18 | 10 | 97 | 0 | 9.7 | 5.4 | 55.6% | 10.7% |
| Wes Brown | RB | 6'0, 210 | JR | 14 | 8 | 77 | 0 | 9.6 | 5.5 | 57.1% | 8.3% |
| Malcolm Culmer | WR | 5'11, 185 | JR | 9 | 5 | 63 | 1 | 12.6 | 7.0 | 55.6% | 5.4% |
| Jahrvis Davenport | WR | 5'9, 193 | FR | 5 | 1 | 46 | 1 | 46.0 | 9.2 | 20.0% | 3.0% |
| Kenneth Goins Jr. | RB | 5'9, 233 | JR | 4 | 2 | 14 | 1 | 7.0 | 3.5 | 50.0% | 2.4% |
| Brandon Ross | RB | 5'10, 210 | SR | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 50.0% | 2.4% |
| Derrick Hayward | TE | 6'5, 240 | SO | 3 | 2 | 10 | 0 | 5.0 | 3.3 | 66.7% | 1.8% |
| Ty Johnson | RB | 5'10, 184 | FR | 3 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 7.0 | 2.3 | 33.3% | 1.8% |
| DeAndre Lane | WR | 5'7, 175 | JR | 1 | 1 | 16 | 0 | 16.0 | 16.0 | 100.0% | 0.6% |
| P.J. Gallo | TE | 6'2, 250 | JR | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0% | 0.6% |
It's been a challenging season for Maryland in a lot of ways. But Moore sticks out as an obvious bright spot, and interim coach Mike Locksley will surely try to find ways to keep him involved. Even though Moore has a high three-star recruiting pedigree, the early signals are that he might have not been touted highly enough.