JOB HUNTING

At roughly 9:30 Monday night, the Terrapin football team was finally finished. Its members lumbered off the field, sore and exhausted from a muggy first practice session of the season.

Sixth-year cornerback Richard Taylor limped to the locker room after cramping up during practice. One offensive lineman exclaimed he hadn't expected such intensity on the first day, before the players were allowed to wear pads. Said another Terp, "I just lost like 20 pounds!"

"I need more ice packs; I'm 'bout to cramp up," said third-string free safety Austin Walker.

Walker is one of many Terps entering this season with hopes of cracking a wide-open rotation. With the departure of 30 seniors and wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the No. 7 overall pick in the NFL Draft, the 2009 Terps will have a substantially different look than their predecessors. And as camp kicked off Monday, so did numerous battles for playing time in roles big and small all over the field.

For a team projected by the media to finish ninth in the ACC, the Terps are loaded with capable players who are expected to vie for starting jobs and key minutes. The task for coach Ralph Friedgen, then, is figuring out just how capable those players are.

Uncertainty has been a buzzword this week, with a largely depleted offensive line and a wide receiving corps still searching for an identity. Even the kicking job is still being decided, with three candidates trying to make their mark.

"There's never been this many legitimate open competitions as there are this year," Taylor said Monday. "But I think that makes for an interesting camp. There's some excitement. Guys want to compete and continue to raise their games. ... That competition is what makes you a better team."

That competition will be essential this season after losing the largest senior class in Friedgen's tenure. Those 30 seniors, along with Heyward-Bey, accounted for nearly 60 percent of the Terps' starts last year.

The impact is most obvious in the receiving corps and offensive line, where only two players with even a single start under their belts return: center Phil Costa and left tackle Bruce Campbell. No receiver had more than six starts or 24 catches last year.

Still, sophomore running back Davin Meggett said the coaching staff was running camp faster this year than last. And he said that having another year in coordinator James Franklin's offense will outweigh any lack of in-game playing time.

"The line last year had been in the offense for less than a year," Meggett said. "The line this year has had two years to learn the offense. So, what really is experience?"

The team hasn't had to look far for a silver lining in the losses from last season. In the spring, it seemed as though, nearly every practice, a new receiver stepped up and impressed his coach.

"I think we've got nine receivers that I wouldn't be afraid to put into a game," Friedgen said. "The problem is there is going to be tremendous competition to make our first two teams."

On the offensive line, the competition has only made the unit stronger, players said. Currently, redshirt freshman Justin Lewis is in the lead for the right guard position, while Tyler Bowen, R.J. Dill and Paul Pinegar compete at right tackle and Andrew Gonnella and Lamar Young have a heated battle for the left guard starting job.

Bowen's story is emblematic of so many of the players on this team. Since joining the Terps in 2007, the 305-pound Georgia native has drawn praise from his coaches. But injuries have sidelined him entirely in his first two seasons, leaving him unable to display what has been perceived as enormous potential.

Still, the last two seasons, the Terps hadn't needed much from Bowen. This year, Friedgen and his coaching staff are relying on players like Bowen to come out of their shells and make a name for themselves in their first real action as a Terp.

"As a team, we want to show them what we can do," Bowen said. "We've kind of been overshadowed by that big senior class up until this point. Now, we get a chance to step [past] their shadow and actually shine."

ajoseph@umdbk.com