A 'star' who’s not yet there for Terps

It's fitting that the name for Kenny Tate's linebacker-safety hybrid position is "star." That's what Tate has shown the potential to be — a star. The best defensive player the Terrapins football team has. A physical, hard-hitting ball hawk. A game-changing playmaker.

But after three games as the Terps' "star," Tate has been anything but.

Even though he's racking up decent numbers, he doesn't look like the same player at the new position. He's getting swallowed up by linemen on blitzes, taking on more big blocks and generally not having the type of impact he's had in the past. The player known for crushing hits and big interceptions has been practically invisible.

Tate himself admits he isn't pleased with his play, and coach Randy Edsall has called his performance "average." But neither is blaming the new position for his struggles.

"I feel like I haven't played up to my potential," Tate said. "I'm definitely comfortable in the position now; it's nothing that changed. It's not really a factor. I feel like, for myself, I haven't been preparing well enough. I know the defense, I know what the offense is going to do. I just feel like I need to get in there and do a little bit more within the scheme of the defense."

Maybe Tate is just having an unlucky start to his senior season. Maybe he needed to get a few bad games out of his system. Maybe he's playing out of position.

With the defense playing as poorly as it has through the season's first month, it's just hard to tell. We do know this, though: Tate's move to linebacker from safety this March did make sense at the start. He had always been an in-the-box, close-to-the-line safety with an impact in the running game, so why not see what he could do as a linebacker?

So far, it hasn't been much. The Terps' best defender has been a non-factor.

Edsall, for his part, doesn't seem interested in revising his plan. With safety Matt Robinson out for the year with a shoulder injury, the door was open for the first-year Terps coach to put Tate back at his original position. He wouldn't even have had to admit to anything; he could have saved face and said it was out of necessity.

But this week, he announced the Terps had opted to leave Tate at linebacker and replace Robinson with Titus Till, a redshirt freshman.

"Yeah, we considered that," Edsall said. "But again, I didn't think that was going to be the right move for our team based on when you look at the big picture. You just don't look at one person when that happens. You got to look in terms of how you're making one move with Matt [Robinson] not being in there, but if you go and take Kenny and you move Kenny there, now you're making two moves."

The linebacking corps is thin, and putting Tate back in the secondary would make it even thinner. But Tate's impact at safety might make the move worth it. His play in the secondary could be enough to compensate for the weaker linebacking unit. He's proven how good he is at safety, and has yet to show that he can do the same at linebacker. So is it really that much of a downgrade?

"I feel comfortable that Kenny will start playing better, and I feel as though Titus going in there, he can do the job," Edsall said.

Given how bad the defense has been this year, is it really not worth even trying to see if it would change anything?

Give Tate credit. When asked if his new position is to blame for his struggles, he refuses to take the bait, insisting again and again that he simply needs to play better and that switching back to safety isn't on the table.

"[Edsall is] the coach. If he puts me back there, then I'll be playing safety. But it really hasn't crossed my mind," Tate said. "We'll see if through the course of the season, if that calls for me to play safety, then I'll go back to safety."

Tate's saying all the right things. But you couldn't blame him if he wasn't happy at the new spot. After being an all-everything safety, why play another position? He most likely projects as a safety in the NFL, and a high draft pick at that. If he's going to be an NFL safety, maybe he should be a college safety, as well.

Regardless, something needs to change for the Terps' defense. At this point, with the team ranking 103rd in the nation in points allowed per game, what does it have to lose?

schneider@umdbk.com