Well, folks, it’s September.
Over the last few weeks, we’ve looked at Maryland football’s quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, tight ends, offensive line, defensive line, linebacker and secondary corps.
With kickoff less than a week away, we’re wrapping up our preview series with a look at the Terps’ special teams.
A year ago, this column was called “Maryland football’s special teams could be an under-the-radar strength.” While Maryland’s season largely went awry, the Terps’ special-teamers put their unit on the map: In 2025, kicker Sean O’Haire was a first-team All-Big Ten honoree, and punter Bryce McFerson was a second-team All-Big Ten honoree.
Those two return as undisputed starters in their positions. They will bring a standard that will give head coach Mike Locksley the full array of options on fourth down.
Outside of that pair, though, there will be several new faces in the third phase for the Terps. Some will look to maintain a level of consistency; others will be looking to help Maryland regress to the mean in critical situations.
NAMEYEAR2025 STATSBryce McFersonRedshirt Senior56 punts, 44.2 yards per punt averagePhilip NoyesRedshirt Sophomore38 kickoffs, 58.5 yards per kickoff average (8 touchbacks)NAMEYEAR2025 STATSSean O’HaireRedshirt Sophomore29-29 PATs, 21-24 FGsEli FulcherFreshmanHigh School (not rated)Daniel LeahyFreshmanHigh School (not rated)Passing of the torch at long snapperPerhaps the most important question regarding Maryland’s special teams situation revolves around the player charged with getting the ball to McFerson and O’Haire.
Ethan Gough walked onto Maryland football in 2021 and snapped the ball in 52 games over a durable, 5-year career, earning an honorable mention All-Big Ten nod in 2025. His departure means the Terps will rely on a long snapper who’s never played a collegiate down in 2026.
Redshirt freshman Luke O’Hare is the more probable starter for the Terps given he already had a year to acclimate to kicker and punter as Gough’s backup last year. Kohl’s Kicking named the DeMatha alum a five-star recruit and the No. 13 overall long snapping recruit in the class of 2025. If he ends up earning the nod, expect the clever O’Hare-to-O’Haire comments to be relentless.
Maryland’s other long snapping option is freshman Rory Knipp, who was a consensus five-star recruit in high school and earned Special Teams Player of the Year honors in 2025. The Pittsburgh native turned down offers from Bowling Green, Buffalo and Temple to join the Terps.
Who’s putting the ball in the back of the end zone?In 2025, the Terps struggled to force their opponents into touchbacks.
Maryland got a touchback on just 17.7% of its kickoffs last year. The next-lowest rate of touchbacks in the conference was 43.5%.
It wasn’t a matter of Maryland choosing to leave its kickoffs short. In a press conference midway through the year, Locksley said as much. He chose the Terps’ strongest leg, backup punter Philip Noyes, whose kickoffs ended up bottoming out somewhere around the 6 or 7-yard line on average.
Enter a pair of freshmen, one of whom could be the missing piece the Terps need.
Freshman Eli Fulcher recorded an 84.4% touchback rate through his career at Oak Grove High School in North Carolina. The one-time soccer player has also hit a career-long 52-yard field goal in high school.
Fellow freshman kicker Daniel Leahy could also factor into the Terps’ kickoff duties. Following the success of O’Haire, Maryland returned to the well of Irish kicking, bringing the 6-foot-6 Leahy in from Dublin’s Blackrock College.
The former rugby player, son of another former rugby player, only began playing football in March of 2025. As a result, there’s little known about him. Film shows he’s got a leg, though.
Returners to be determinedMaryland’s return game left much to be desired last year. The Terps returned just 18 punts and 17 kicks last year — while it’s impossible to diagnose the chicken-and-egg influence of its returner options, the numbers looked grim. Maryland tied for 89th in the FBS in yards per punt return and was 126th in yards per kick return.
Just three members of Maryland’s current roster returned punts last year — and one of those was linebacker Daniel Wingate, who is highly unlikely to line up there for the Terps. Safety Messiah Delhomme, who was credited with two returns, was part of the Terps’ secondary and thus may not be an ideal returner. That idea is compounded factoring in his craftiness as a kick blocker: Delhomme was just one of 11 players nationally to block two kicks last year.
Running back Iverson Howard was the Terps’ leading returner on kickoffs. He returned a team-high seven kicks for a team-high 108 yards, with all of those returns coming in a four-game stretch in the middle of Big Ten play.
Defensive back Ricardo Cooper Jr. was named Maryland’s Special Teams Player of the Year at the team’s year-end awards banquet. He made a greater impact as part of the kick coverage team, but he did have two punt returns and four kick returns last year, averaging four yards per return on the former and 18 yards per return on the latter.
An infusion of new hands could be what is needed. Graduate running back Terrez Worthy is one to watch — he averaged 20.5 yards in 23 return attempts as Temple’s kick return specialist in 2024. So too is wide receiver Justin DeVaughn, who redshirted last year but competed at a national level in the 110m hurdles for Maryland’s track and field team. If the program can find a way to keep DeVaughn, listed at 5-foot-9 and 166 pounds, durable, his speed would be a tremendous asset.
Maryland could also just decide not to return kickoffs at all, with newer rules in the game proving generous for fair catches. Roughly 20% of FBS teams returned one or fewer kickoffs per game. That quotient included undefeated national champion Indiana; it also included 0-12 UMass. With the Terps needing to find improvements in the fine margins, every option will be at Locksley’s fingertips.
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