Maryland football enters Saturday’s opener with several proven playmakers on both sides of the ball as Roman Hemby, Tai Felton, Kaden Prather, Ruben Hyppolite and Jordan Phillips are among those leading the way. While fans may not have seen much during his first season with the program, running back Nolan Ray has entrenched himself as a potential breakout player in 2024.
The former three-star out of Brother Rice (MI) arrived in College Park last summer before totaling seven yards on three carries in the season-opener, but it would mark the last time that fans would see him in 2023 after suffering what proved to be a season-ending injury. The buzz around Ray’s potential remained through the fall and once he was cleared to return to the field in the spring, it didn’t take long for him to emerge as a potential big piece of the 2024 offense.
“Nolan Ray is a young guy that really came on this spring and probably made one of the biggest jumps and biggest impacts on our team that people are really excited about,” offensive coordinator Josh Gattis said ahead of fall camp.
As head coach Mike Locksley described the young back as someone “that has shown us he has the propensity to hit the big one,” Ray’s speed has been tough to ignore all offseason.
“Nobody is trying to compete with him right now. He’s sliding,” wide receiver Tai Felton at Big Ten Media Days. “He’s a super fast guy. You guys will definitely see when the season starts. That’s a guy right there.”
After spending a season under running backs coach Latrell Scott and watching veterans Roman Hemby and Colby McDonald lead the way, Ray capitalized on his reps in offseason workouts to establish himself in the running back rotation this fall. “Those guys are vets so just looking at them for guidance, seeing how they went about practice and their day-to-day and how serious they took everything, it just gave me a foundation to go off of,” Ray told IBG.
That veteran presence set the stage for Ray to settle into a revamped position room.
“Just taking time to learn, getting familiar with the playbook, the standard of how we do things and just learning from guys in the room and my coaches [to] make sure I was ready when I was able to go,”
Ray is far from the only one in the room with Hemby and McDonald anchoring the room while freshmen duo DeJuan Williams and Josiah McLaurin carve out roles as complementary young backs. Still, the buzz surrounding the second-year Michigan native drew preseason recognition on Wednesday after being named to the Shaun Alexander Freshman of the Year watchlist, presented to the most outstanding freshman player in college football.
“It’s just a reminder to keep working. It’s motivation,” Ray added.
“Just stacking days, trying to do things the right way, focus on the little details. Once you do that, you start to get a little more confident, implement some of your own game into how you do things. You just start to feel better.”
While head coach Mike Locksley declined to announce his starting quarterback as expected, the consistent storyline on offense has been the commitment to finding ways to run the ball more efficiently in 2024 than 2023.
Roman Hemby enters Saturday just 12 yards shy of 2,400 career all-purpose yards while Colby McDonald looks to build off a season where he proved himself as arguably the most efficient running back in the room. Nolan Ray looks to add to what’s expected to be a revamped rushing attack.
“Just win games and make sure I do my job,” he said. “We got a lot of guys in the room who can run the ball so it’ll take all of us.”
“We’ve been putting in work as a team all camp, all summer so we’re just ready for everything we worked for to pay off.”
Related Links
Σχόλια