Right tackle R.J. Dill grew up in a military family, his father a Navy grad. By the time he arrived in College Park last year, his dad already had passed along plenty of wisdom on the subject of leadership.
Center Phil Costa imparted a few more lessons in the past year, along the way living up to an adage Dill heard long ago.
“There’s two kinds of leaders - leaders who will shove you in the fire, and then there’s leaders you’ll follow into the fire,” Dill said. “I think, for the most part, a lot of us would follow Phil into a fire.”
And so the Maryland offensive line has, with the first two months of the season an inferno for a unit rife with training camp questions that never were resolved.
Maryland (2-6, 1-3 ACC) has started six offensive line combinations in eight games. Nine men have started, and three have missed games because of injury. At the epicenter of it all, attempting to hold things together and offer help for the future, is the stoic Costa.
Any pain remains hidden from view, no doubt tucked with any doubt or detailed analysis of what befell the Terrapins to date. Frustration is acknowledged, in large part because it is the most obvious emotion for a reeling team that is set to visit N.C. State (3-5, 0-4) on Saturday.
“You have to be the rock in the middle, where you can’t show weakness,” Costa said. “You can’t show that, yeah, you lost and you’re hurting this much.”
Clearly it isn’t fun - and not purely because of the results. This is effectively Costa’s line. He’s the lone fifth-year senior in the group, a stark contrast with the five veterans he played with a season ago.
With so many departures, Costa applied his understated approach to shepherding the unit through the offseason. Once an unheralded but smart recruit who offensive line coach Tom Brattan figured would emerge as a low-maintenance, five-year guy, Costa received his own education in figuring out how to get the most out of teammates.
Some responded to yelling. Others needed to be cajoled. But he earned the respect of them all, even if he rarely raised his voice.
“It’s a shame you don’t see its effects on the field right now, and you say, ’Well, obviously he didn’t do a job,’ ” Brattan said. “But that’s not the case. In the nine years I’ve been here, he probably did the greatest job in the summer getting all these guys on the same page, getting them where they’ve got to be, taking some young guys under his wing and doing it right.”
Some of it is simply innate. Costa considers questions pensively but carefully, occasionally offering a sly grin after a concise reply to convey the presence of far-deeper thoughts he’s in no mood to share. The same deliberateness helps establish good habits in practice.
But last year was instructive as well. Costa saw older players approaching midweek matters the wrong way but would think things would be corrected on Saturdays. Often, they were not.
It is why, amid this year’s struggles, Costa’s priority remains nurturing the likes of Dill, Bennett Fulper, Justin Gilbert and Justin Lewis, freshmen who represent a future more promising and less trying than the present.
“A lot of other guys would be all over the place and saying, ’What the hell is going on?’ ” said linebacker Alex Wujciak, a close friend of Costa’s. “He’s a guy that understands the bigger picture in life and in football. I think he feels his job is to help these young guys.”
There’s also the matter of the rest of the season, which remains salvageable with a perfect November. Costa is the Terps’ most consistent lineman, and coach Ralph Friedgen said this week the senior probably surpassed his expectations this year.
Ultimately, his efforts might be overlooked with a unit demonstrating improved pass blocking (a total of two sacks allowed the past two games after 22 in the first six outings) but still struggling to open holes for Maryland’s rushers. His greatest impact, though, could come if the younger linemen’s decision to follow him through the fire helps them improve in the future.
“Hopefully, they develop on the field,” Costa said. “I’m not going to take credit for it, but maybe I helped out, just like hopefully some of the older guys have done with me.”
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