As Maryland's camp begins, a popular topic over the next few weeks will be just which true freshmen have a chance to contribute.
After all, 10 true freshmen made it onto the field last year.
The early guess as the best place to look for an impact is safety, where the Terrapins have only three guys who have any game experience: Starters Kenny Tate and Antwine Perez, and sophomore Eric Franklin.
However, Maryland brings in three freshmen at safety --- the highly regarded Titus Till, as well as the physically imposing Matt Robinson and the quick Desmond Kearse.
"If you just look at them, physically all three of them are 6-2, 6-3," safeties coach Kevin Lempa said. "They're all tall, lean and they all ran in the 4.5s. That's very unusual for one guy [Robinson] who's 220, the other guy [Till] is probably 195, the other guy [Kearse] is 180-something. To run that fast, that's a good thing. They seem really bright, they seem very smart and they're fairly strong. So that's a good combination."
Lempa has pegged Robinson to play at Maryland's rover position, with Till settling in at free safety (behind Tate and Franklin).
Kearse, who probably wasn't as discussed as either Robinson or Till in terms of immediate help, could figure in at the pup/dog spot Tate was supposed to play considerable time at last year.
"He's a guy who comes off the edge and has great quickness," Lempa said. "We're going to look at him seriously about that. His tape in high school showed great burst. He had 70-something --- [a] ridiculous [number] --- sacks [in his career]. I don't care what level you are. I'm excited about those three guys. I'm waiting to see what they can do."
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