I am pleased to announced that we at Terrapin Station have become a part of the Fansided blogging network, and up and coming sports blog network that has a lot of great content and nearly every team. We are very excited for this change and hope that this brings newer content and an even wider audience to Terrapin Station.

The site will remain at the same URL (terrapinstationmd.com), so you’ll still find us at the same place. I encourage you to look around, check out the other blogs, and click on the all those lovely advertisements to check out what these great products have to offer.

NOTE – The old old URL (mdterrapinstation.wordpress.com) will no longer contain updated posts, everything will be at terrapinstationmd.com.

Thanks,

MGMT

The video says Happy Holidays, but Merry Christmas. I know they’re trying to be PC, but as a Jew, Christmas is the only holiday going on right now and they’re playing Christmas music in the video. It’s fine, believe me, we had our fun earlier this month.

Have a great day, folks.

Matt Bracken posted his weekly recruiting roundup today (which is always fantastic, by the way), and there was one tidbit that caught my eye. Bracken quoted the Naples (Fla.) Daily News, who reported that Maryland commits Makinton Dorleant and Lukas Foreman are sticking around, and here was part of that:

“Mike Leach is a great coach and will bring a high-powered offense,” said Dorleant, who has ran a 4.37 seconds in the 40 yard dash. “Coach [Don] Brown told me he’s staying, and if he’s there, I’m there. If he were to go, I’m sure Coach Leach or whomever they hire would come talk to me. I’d see what he has to say.”

Defensive coordinator Don Brown has told Dorleant he’s staying. That is fantastic news. Obviously, it all depends on whether the new head coach wants to retain Brown (although it’s hard to see why he wouldn’t), but it looks like Brown is not planning on leaving for Vanderbilt at this moment. He’s done wonderful things with this defense, and it’s an incredibly exciting unit that blitzes a lot and forces a ton of turnovers. Here’s to hoping he stays with the Terps for a long, long time.

Also from that recruiting roundup, the Jeremiah Hendy saga continues. Earlier, it was reported that he decommitted. Later, he told Scout.com that he was still solid with Maryland. Now, ESPN is reporting that he has opened up his recruitment.

Defensive back Jeremiah Hendy (Bowie, Md./Bowie) committed to Maryland in late April, but recently opened his recruitment back up when Terrapins offensive coordinator James Franklin was named head coach at Vanderbilt.

Franklin was the primary recruiter of Hendy for the Terps.

Brian Pensky umterps.com

In his sixth season with the Maryland Terrapins, head coach Brian Pensky was honored by Soccer America as their Women’s Soccer Coach of the Year. Pensky is Maryland’s first recipient of this national award.

In arguably the Terps’ best season to date, they reached as high as No.3 in the polls, posted an 18-2-3 record, and earned a No. 1 seed in the ACC and NCAA Tournament, which is a first for the women’s soccer program. Pensky also led them to a second consecutive undefeated season against non-conference teams and their first ever win over the North Carolina Tar Heels, one of three top 10 teams they beat this year.

Pensky was also named ACC Coach of the Year a few months ago.

Turtle Air Raid!

Maryland has hired DHR International, a search firm, to help them in their search for Mike Leach. I mean their next head coach. Here’s the search committee:

• Pat Richter, former athletic director at the University of Wisconsin (lead consultant)
• Randy Eaton, senior associate A.D. and chief financial officer (chairman)
• Dr. Linda Clement, vice president for student affairs
• Barry Gossett, university benefactor and assistant treasurer of University System of Maryland Board of Regents
• Larry Grabenstein, chairman of Maryland Gridiron Network and past president of Terrapin Club
• Cheryl Harrison, senior associate A.D., development
• Robert W. Smith, university alumnus and benefactor
• Dr. Charles Wellford, faculty athletics representative and faculty member in department of criminology and criminal justice

Nothing but quotes here, courtesy of D1scourse.

“A lot of people kind of overspeculated — whatever you want to call it. When the news happened, it was shocking. I didn’t do any interviews, but people around me were saying we weren’t going to overact. Before I even decided to come to Maryland, before I signed, my family sat down and said if I’m going to commit here, I’m going to graduate from here. My goal is still to graduate from the University of Maryland and continue to play three more great years no matter which direction we go in. I think I have to kind of assume a leadership role. Whatever decision Kevin Anderson decided to go in, I’m going to support it, because it’s not something I can control.

“With Franklin leaving first, he was a huge reason I came here. He recruited me, obviously. I can’t say enough about how important he was in my develop, because we really saw eye-to-eye from day one on the game of football, life, whatever. … I’m here. I’m here to stay. Whatever we do, I’m behind it.

“I think everything that’s going on, whatever I say or do, I can’t control what’s going to happen, so I have to sit back and see and kind of evaluate things. Today was emotional for me. Being back in the huddle with everyone, practicing and preparing, reminded me of why I came to Maryland and why I love it so much. It was fun just to play football and not worry about all this stuff. That was special today. This is the best day for me in the last two weeks.”

What a mature approach to all of this. So glad he decided to stick around.

In a day where teams around the ACC struggled, Maryland did exactly what they had to do, soundly defeating the NJIT Highlanders 89-50.

Pe’Shon Howard started in place of Cliff Tucker, and six Terps scored in double figures in an absolute trouncing. Dino Gregory and Jordan Williams led all scorers with 14 apiece, and Williams added 12 rebounds for his 10th double-double of the year. Gregory also had nine rebounds and three blocks.

Coming off the bench for the first time this year, Tucker scored 11 points with six assists and four steals. Also providing good efforts were Sean Mosley and Adrian Bowie, who scored 13 and 11, respectively. Mosley also had a very good game defensively, adding in two dynamic blocks.

James Padgett had his best game of the season, scoring a season-high 10 points. Terrell Stoglin was surprisingly held to single digits, finishing with eight points, and Howard only scored four in his starting role. Stoglin and Tucker each made two of three from long range, and Bowie made three of six three point attempts.

NJIT had no answer for the Terps, inside or out. Maryland outrebounded the Highlanders 35-23 and had ten blocks compared to NJIT’s 3. The Highlanders shot a dismal 33.3% from the floor, compared to Maryland’s 56.6%.

Elsewhere in the ACC, teams struggled. Virginia fell to Seattle, and Georgia Tech fell to Siena, Miami beat Rice by only six, Boston College defeated Bucknell by four, NC State avoided humiliation against Delaware State with a two-point victory, and Clemson beat College of Charleston (remember them?) by seven.

Really, there was not much to learn from this game. Maryland played one of the worst teams in the country, and beat them like they should. No one really stood out (although it was nice to see some of the starters who had struggled recently get their game back a little), and no one really disappeared. The Terps get a week off before their next game, against Northern Florida.

Now we have a post up from the Sun, and now that I’m back from dinner, let’s briefly talk about the impact of Danny O’Brien’s decision to stay at Maryland.

“I’m going to stay. I came to Maryland to graduate from Maryland. That’s still my primary goal.”

O’Brien is undoubtedly one of the best freshmen quarterbacks in the country, so it’s great news. He’s a class act and an incredibly talented passer – both mentally and physically. Even though he’s built as a pro-style, west coast quarterback (with true freshman Tyler Smith as more of a spread guy), O’Brien has the mental quickness and throwing accuracy to adjust to the new system, assuming Mike Leach is hired. So let’s take a quick look at the weapons Leach would have to work with, with O’Brien in the shotgun.

Assuming Torrey Smith is gone (and let’s face it, that’s a fair assumption), Adrian Coxson, Ronnie Tyler, Kerry Boykins, and Kevin Dorsey would likely be the starting four at wideout. Fringe candidates include Quintin McRee, Tony Logan, Alex Fletcher, and any freshmen that come in. That’s a pretty deep group, and one that O’Brien and Leach would be able to play with very efficiently.

Coxson has to be thrilled right about now. Transferring from Florida due to homesickness, he came to Maryland to be closer to home. Now he has the chance to put up Michael Crabtree-esque numbers with one of the best quarterbacks in the country and one of the best passing offenses in the country.

What will be interesting, however, is the adjustments necessary on the offensive line. The spread offense dictates a specific kind of lineman, so we’ll see if the starters are left as expected, or if some unknowns breakthrough with the right skill set for the offense.

Using the incredibly useful Rivals recruiting database, what follows is commits who were recruited primarily by one of the four assistants reportedly leaving with James Franklin to Vanderbilt.

Charles Bankins:

Ryan Doyle, OT – Doyle told me his commitment was “still good”.

Nigel King, WR – IMS reported King will not change his decision, “regardless of what happens with the coaching staff.”

Dontez Tyler, DE – A source tells me Tyler has decommitted and will re-open his recruitment. After Ryan Malleck, Tyler becomes the second casualty of the coaching change.

John Donovan:

Brandon Ross, RB – IMS has an article with a paywall on him, so we don’t really know anything, although I’m sure Ross isn’t too fond of the Air Raid as a running back.

Ryan Malleck, TE – As mentioned earlier, he has already decommitted.

Evan Mulrooney, OL – He told me he has to “talk things over”. IMS has another article up on him with a paywall.

Lee Hull:

Marcus Leak, WR – There has been no news on this front.

James Franklin:

Figured Franklin would fall in this category as well.

Jeremiah Hendy, CB – Hendy was previously reported to have decommitted, but is apparently still on board with the Terps.

Nate Clarke, OT – Sources tell me he is still planning on going to College Park.

Larry Mazyck, OT – No news on this front.

Delonte Morton, RB – No news here.

Tyrek Cheeseboro, WR – No new news.