Couple more thoughts on MD - Locksley brought in Scottie Montgomery (ECU and Duke Asst.) as offensive coordinator, Joker Phillips (Ky) as WR Coach and Asst. OC, John Papuchis (NC) Special Teams and LB, and Jon Hoke DC and Safeties (most recently TB Bucs but lots of experience in both college and pro) . All these guys have vast experience and it seems as if Locksley has surrounded himself with a very experienced coaching staff.
Defensively MD added a couple of important LB transfers Shaq Smith (Clem) who is playing the JACK and Keandre Jones (Ohio St.) who is playing SAM and both should provide immediate help and are a good fit for the 3-4 alignment. Oluwatimi and Howard are both seniors at NT, DT and Lawtez Rogers is the DE. The secondary returns SR Tino Eliis at CB and added transfer RSSR Transfer Marcus Lewis at the other corner. Antoine Brooks SR returns at FS (Second Tm All Big 10) and Soph Jordan Mosley is at SS. Joseph Petrino is the PK (12/14 FG in 2018) and Colton Spangler FR is the new punter.
I thought Matt Canada did a very admirable job, amidst all the distractions and tragic death of Jordan McNair last year. He is very innovative in the running game, with creative use of jet sweeps and misdirection plays. However, Kasim Hill really regressed as a QB and MD really struggled with any consistency in the passing game last year. Hill unfortunately was hurt again, and evidently unhappy at MD as he entered the transfer portal and will play at Tenn. Tyrell Pigrome really improved and brings a change of pace to the offense with his running ability from the qb position. I expect that he will see some playing oppty this year, and certainly can provide a different look and tempo.
The jury is still out on this team, and a lot of the pundits think they will be hard pressed to win 4 games. I think they will definitely improve in the passing game with Jackson, and as mentioned the depth and talent at RB is very good. The OL is a big ? especially LT and LG where two freshman Duncan and Christie are starting. I think this could be problematic when they play the better BIG teams (Mich, MSU, OSU) but fortunately those are at the end of the schedule so the young players hopefully will have gained some valuable experience. Syr, Temple, Rutg, Indiana are probably all winnable games for them and the rest of the schedule is more difficult. I'm not sure what to expect of the defense overall as they add (3) transfer starters. I think 5-7 would probably be a pretty successful year in Locksley's first at MD. They definitely need to add more quality players on the LOS on both sides of the ball and develop some tangible depth there.
I watched Cuse/Liberty and came away unimpressed with Devito at QB for the Orange. Syr defense played pretty solid but then again Liberty really didn't provide much of a challenge. I'm not really sure what to expect this week in the game, but I would probably have to say Syr Def is probably the best unit that will be on the field.
