MORGANTOWN — There isn’t the typical 12 or 13 games worth of film to dive into for the WVU coaching staff during their preparations for Maryland.
The Terps only played five games in 2020 because of the delayed start for the Big Ten, but even if Maryland played a full slate, the Mountaineers would still be in the same quandary they currently face — the Terps have three new coordinators on offense, defense and special teams.
Maryland head coach Mike Locksley is in his third year, but decided to go through a major overhaul on his staff in the off-season following a 2-3 campaign. Beginning on offense, Dan Enos comes over from Cincinnati after serving as the Bearcats’ associate head coach and running backs coach. Prior, he spent time with Locksley while on the Alabama coaching staff in 2018.
Jordan Lesley is in his first season at WVU’s full-time defensive coordinator, and while he knows what personnel Maryland will likely use, how they line up and how they’ll be used will cause a guessing game.
“There are always things, like a formation or a play, that you’re going to see that you probably haven’t seen,” he said.
“I think in any Game 1, you have to be on your toes, but especially when they have a new [offensive coordinator], but guys are going to be watching you from last year and vice versa from them. They’ve been watching you for a year, and with a new OC, that makes things even tougher.”
New Terps’ defensive coordinator Brian Stewart isn’t totally unfamiliar with the Mountaineers — he was the cornerbacks coach at Baylor under Dave Aranda in 2020, and also worked with the Detroit Lions the two years prior.
“When you get ready for an opponent, especially one with a new defensive coordinator of course in Game 1, you try to fill in the holes as best as you can,” WVU offensive coordinator Gerad Parker said. “But you also try to trust what we’ve worked on and how we’ve chosen to make ourselves better. We’ve talked to our guys a lot about just making our plays work. As we make in-game adjustments, you go with it and try to put your guys in the best position possible to make plays and feel confident.”
Ron Zook takes over as Maryland’s special teams coach, someone with previous head coaching experience at Florida and Illinois. Locksley was Zook’s offensive coordinator with the Illini from 2005-08 and also worked with Zook at Florida from 2003-04.
“You’re kind of guessing for lack of a better term on that,” WVU head coach Neal Brown said.
“You have to have the ability to adjust. More of your game plan goes into what are you are best at. Coming out of fall camp, you rep your whole package. Our defense does multiple things and gives us a bunch of different looks, so it’s not necessarily predicated on what we were good at last year, because the pieces are different.
“We’re guessing at best what they’re going to do defensively. How they played last year and what he’s done in the past when he’s called it, it’s just a guess. We don’t have 100-percent knowledge in what they’re going to do. So we have to focus on our players and schemes that we have the most confidence in and that we’ve had the most success in, and that’s what we’ll use going into the first contest.”
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