Chip off the old block

In Monday's win against Navy, Terrapin defensive tackle Joe Vellano, wearing No. 72, doggedly chased ball-carriers across the field, collecting a career-high 10 tackles and two sacks.

After the game, his father and former Terp All-American defensive tackle Paul Vellano, who wore the same number during his career, was inundated with phone calls from friends and former teammates who had gotten a strange sense of déjà vu.

"They kept saying, ‘I saw No. 72 making plays for Maryland, and for a second, I thought you were playing again,'" the elder Vellano, 58, said with a laugh. "Joe had told me that he was going to start, and I was just hoping he would get to contribute. But to see him have a breakout game like that was surprising and exciting. I couldn't be prouder."

Vellano earned ACC Defensive Lineman of the Week honors for his efforts, and defensive coordinator Don Brown called his performance "just what the doctor ordered" for the Terps, who play Morgan State in their home opener tomorrow.

Paul Vellano refused to take credit for any of his son's impressive play, saying Joe was "his own player." But he did concede that in watching Joe make tackles five yards downfield and disrupt Navy's triple option with repeated penetration into the Midshipmen's backfield, he couldn't help but recognize some of the traits that became staples of his own decorated career.

Arriving at the university in 1969, Vellano was one of nine high school All-Americans in a recruiting class the Terps hoped would turn around a program nursing a 14-season bowl drought. As a senior in 1973, he was named a second-team All-American and helped the Terps reach the Peach Bowl, snapping the team's 17-season streak.

He learned plenty during that time, but it was a picture and a slogan on the wall in the office of then-defensive line coach George Foussekis that resonated the most.

"It was a picture of nine guys on our defense all tackling one player, and underneath it read, ‘Happiness is Pursuit,'" Vellano said. "Coach Foussekis would talk about it all the time, and I quickly learned that if you follow the ball and are constantly around it, good things will happen."

So when Joe and older brother Paul, who played football at Rhode Island, showed interest in more than just tackling each other in the backyard, their father lined them up and began showing them the proper defensive stance, how to move their feet and, of course, how to pursue the football.

The advice and coaching helped Joe develop into a second-team all-state player his senior season at Christian Brothers Academy in Syracuse, N.Y. He received interest from schools such as Boston College and Connecticut, but after impressing coach Ralph Friedgen during a summer camp, the Terps offered him a scholarship and a commitment followed soon after.

"We all used to come down for the games when I was little, and we would tailgate with my dad and all of his friends," Vellano said. "I could have gone a lot of places, but I had always wanted to go here, and so when they offered me, I pretty much committed the next day."

The road to success has been long and difficult for the redshirt sophomore, who saw his emergence postponed by injuries. After signing his letter of intent in 2007, Vellano took a grayshirt year and didn't enroll until January 2008, after which he was promptly redshirted.

Terp coaches hoped Vellano would provide valuable depth and compete for playing time in 2009. But in preseason camp, Vellano broke the fifth metatarsal bone in his right foot and was forced to miss the first six games of the season. He worked his way back to full strength in time for the season's second half but injured his shoulder and played sparingly.

Fully healthy for the first time this offseason, Vellano had a chance to move on from anonymity. The Terps had lost stalwart defensive tackle Travis Ivey to graduation, and there was a spot open on the interior defensive line.

Vellano knew there would be competition for playing time, especially from the number of young defensive tackles who had earned valuable experience while Vellano struggled through injuries last season. Once offseason workouts started, Vellano remembered what his father had told him: Always run to the ball. Whenever a play was made, there was a good chance Vellano was somewhere nearby. The rest of the team started taking notice.

"It's a hustle thing," linebacker Alex Wujciak said at ACC Media Day in August. "He is probably the slowest person on the defense but he hustles to the ball and was getting there before guys who are faster than him."

"He is diminutive in size for a defensive tackle if you look at him," Brown said of the 6-foot-2, 285-pound Vellano. "But he has terrific energy, he has great lateral quickness and he is strong. What I learned Monday is that he is also so cerebral about the play at his position. It's really amazing."

At the team's headquarters in Gossett Team House, it's hard to miss Paul Vellano's sizable legacy. A picture of him joins those from the program's other All-Americans along one of the facility's corridors. And in Byrd Stadium's upper level, his name and number hang for all to see.

Joe is well aware of his father's accomplishments and vaunted career. But he doesn't care much about the expectations of living up to his legacy. It seems obvious enough, though, that as Joe's play continues to improve and the attention he receives continues to grow, the comparisons will become only more frequent.

"Honestly, it would be awesome to see my legacy continued, but there isn't any pressure," Paul Vellano said. "He was nervous before Monday's game, and I told him, ‘Just go out there and play, and if you show them what you can do, you will get your opportunity.' He didn't think he was fast enough, but it's the intangibles that make a lot of players so successful. There's weightlifters and there's sprinters, and then there are football players."

lemaire@umdbk.com

Due to a reporting error, a sentence in this article incorrectly stated the location of Christian Brothers Academy. The correct location of the school is Albany, N.Y.