D1scourse.com

For Terps' tight end Campbell, breaking up was not hard to do

Devonte Campbell invested a month recovering from a medial collateral ligament tear suffered during camp.

He made a new friend in the process: An exercise bike set up alongside Maryland's practice fields.

OK, that's not entirely accurate. But the sophomore tight end spent enough time on the bike he gave it a name.

"I forget what I named it," Campbell said. "It was something crazy, like Shirley or something."

Shirley --- or whatever he wound up calling it --- is in the past. Campbell is finally healthy and ready to contribute when Maryland (4-1, 1-0 ACC) visits Clemson (2-3, 0-2) on Saturday.

It will be Campbell's season debut, and it comes at a crucial time both in the Terrapins' season and also for their tight end corps.

Both Campbell and Will Yeatman missed time in the first five weeks because of injuries, and redshirt freshman Dave Stinebaugh stepped into the void of playing time. But Stinebaugh suffered his own MCL tear, and he's expected to miss the next five weeks.

That could mean some sort of playing time already for Campbell, who emerged as a viable tight end option  late last season. He had five catches for 14 yards while starting the last four games in 2009, and will join Yeatman and Matt Furstenburg in Maryland's tight end rotation.

"We hope so," offensive coordinator James Franklin said. "Again, you''re talking about a guy who hasn't played. so I don't expect him to play 60 plays, but he will have a role."

And really, that's all Campbell really wants at this stage.

He was the third of four tight ends to miss some time during camp, suffering his MCL injury a week after practice started. Lansford Watson was already done for the year with an ACL tear, and Yeatman broke an index finger a few days into camp. Ryan  Schlothauer later dealt with nagging injuries.

"it's very interesting to say the least," Campbell said. "It's almost like we're doomed to only have two or three in practice. I think it's just making us tougher as a unit. I think it will wind up working out good for us in the long run. It's getting a lot of guys reps. It's putting us all in situations we probably wouldn't have been in."

Campbell's new situation, it turned out, was spending more time on an exercise bike than he ever could have imagined. It comes as little surprise a guy with a quirky but highly amusing sense of humor would not only help pass the time by naming his immobile ride, but also would relay the tale.

"I had my own personal little station, where it was 'OK, no one's using this bike, this is my bike, this is where I'm going to be three-fourths of the practice. That's my exclusive bike,'" Campbell said. "I was getting a little bit too intimate with it. I actually had a bike workout that killed me one day. It was pretty insane."

Eventually, Campbell returned, and he was expected to play by late September. But he suffered a shoulder injury just after resuming practice to delay his season debut by a few games.

That first appearance is finally upon him this week, and he finds himself as refreshed as anyone on the roster.

"it's made me more humble," Campbell said. "I look back on it and I kind of had a lot of expectations, but nothing's really guaranteed. [It] pretty much humbled me. I'm anxious to be out there and glad to be at practice. I'm pretty much glad to be out there with the guys. It really rejuvenated my game and changed my attitude in its entirety because before then, it was just go out there, get the job done and go home. Now it's like a whole new enjoyment, a whole new [appreciation that] you could really not be here. It really pushes you to go harder in practice."

The oddity of the year isn't lost on Campbell, who realizes Maryland probably won't play in front of a larger crowd in 2010 than the one it will encounter in Death Valley. It's the latest step in a "loopy season," one that is finally getting underway in mid-October.

And Shirley --- or whatever her name is --- won't be around for the festivities. Not that Campbell is enduring any separation anxiety.

"Oh, no," Campbell said with a grin. "Not at all. Not at all."

It turns out breaking up isn't hard to do after all.

No easy answers for Maryland's tight end troubles

Navy was already going to show up to its Sept. 6 opener against Maryland without any tight ends on its active roster.

At this rate, so is Maryland.

The revelation of Devonte Campbell's knee injury last night --- one that is likely to keep him out of at least the Terrapins' first game, if not a few more --- is just the latest development to hamper what figured to be an improved unit this year.

Lansford Watson is done for the year, an MCL tear taking him out in the first week of camp.

Will Yeatman, nearly two years removed from his last game at Notre Dame, is recovering from a broken finger.

Campbell, who missed a week with a concussion, is now out, too, leaving the Terps without the most versatile player in the unit heading into the opener.

What's left are players who are mostly untested (Matt Furstenburg), still probably a little undersized (Dave Stinebaugh) and generally unknown (Ryan Schlothauer). In some form or fashion, all three have to be considered likely possibilities to play in 11 days.

Furstenburg has one catch for nine yards, and did start last year's opener at California. Stinebaugh and Schlothauer have never taken a college snap. It's an understatement that Maryland is uncertain just what it can expect at the position.

The short-term answer could simply turn out to be a lot of wide receiver sets, since Maryland's injury bug hasn't zapped that unit just yet.

Or it might mean using more fullbacks (although that's relative, since Taylor Watson is still rehabbing a knee injury and won't be back).

Furstenburg, in particular, stands to gain from the injuries. Campbell and Watson entered camp as the most experienced options, and Furstenburg seemed ticketed for a season of blocking and perhaps not a whole lot else.

Not anymore. And to his credit, he's enjoyed a strong camp while attrition impacted his unit.

But just to be safe, maybe he should ask for the position's name to be changed. At this point, it's clearly tempting fate to be a tight end in College Park.

Bankins wants tight end pecking order to evolve quickly

Charles Bankins' first season as Maryland's tight ends coach wasn't what he was accustomed to.

The unit wasn't particularly impressive in the spring. It slogged through camp. It was barely noticed in the fall.

Tommy Galt, a fifth-year senior whose forte was blocking, played well. Beyond him, there simply wasn't much production from a group that seemed stuck in a perpetual logjam.

"You're talking to a guy who's had a national championship and a guy that had two backs go over 1,000 yards for two seasons at Hampton University," Bankins said. "I'm used to guys competing to be the top players at their position in the country or in the conference or what have you. I think it might have been the first or second time I've coached that I didn't have an all-conference player. It was kind of different."

OK, so the still untapped talent of guys like Devonte Campbell and Lansford Watson didn't come together last season. But that wasn't the most frustrating part of the season.

Bankins waited for someone --- anyone --- to emerge as the Terrapins' clear-cut top tight end.

And waited.

And waited.

And after months of hoping it might happen, Maryland was 2-10, the season was over and the unit was still unremarkable.

Bankins hopes he won't need nearly as much patience this season.

"We're going to have one guy that's going to step up and be the bell cow, and then the rest of the guys are going to know their role and get it done," Bankins said. "I don't know who the bell cow is going to be, but that's our plan. I told them by the end of the first two weeks of camp, somebody's got to rise to the top. I'm not kumbaya, feel-good, democratic. I'm a Darwinism guy --- survival of the fittest."

The best candidate for that could be Campbell, but Watson will have a say as well. So, too, will Will Yeatman, who played tight end for Notre Dame in 2006 and 2007. Another credible option is holdover Matt Furstenburg.

All but Yeatman were part of the unit last year, which means Bankins has invested as much in reshaping his unit's outlook as trying to polish and improve its skills.

"We got to get out of that as a position and has a team that I just wait my turn and it's time to go," Bankins said. "Every day you have to compete. ... It was like 'I'm afraid to buck the crowd.' I told them you guys are like a union here --- 'We can only work 60 hours. That's it. We're not working anymore.' Hold on and come back to the group. Like I said, I'm a Darwinism guy."

There are signs the unit is, for lack of a better term, evolving. Campbell is more versatile. Bankins said Watson, despite some knee swelling early in camp, is more upbeat than in the past. And Yeatman, with his previous experience and eagerness to return to football after a two-autumn hiatus, is pushing his new teammates as well.

"As a group, we've been more positive," Bankins said. "I think they're excited about the opportunity. They see in goal-line, we typically go three backs and two tights. They're like 'We should go two backs and three tight ends.'"

That would allow plenty of the fittest to survive. And maybe that could happen.

Ultimately, though, Bankins would like to see one set starter. If so, maybe things will start getting back to normal for him --- and Maryland's offense as well.