COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- While Maryland practiced and simulated some situational in-game scenarios throughout the first three weeks of spring practice, April 13 marked the first time the Terps participated in a full scrimmage to show their coaching staff the progress they’ve made in learning new systems on both sides of the ball.

Although it’s still early in Michael Locksley’s tenure as head coach in College Park and no official depth chart will be released until late August just prior to the start of next season, Maryland’s staff is already working to identify who will comprise the first units for the Terps in all three phases of the game, and it appears Saturday’s scrimmage might have gone a long way in helping them do so.

“You can see a distinct difference between our ones and our twos,” Locksley said after watching his team scrimmage for the first time. “And for the second half of spring ball we have to really catch the two unit up. There shouldn’t be that much of a drop-off. I want to see how the twos continue to improve so there isn’t that big of a drop-off. That’s the challenge here. I think the biggest takeaway for me is that I have to get the guys outside of our one unit playing at a higher level so that there shouldn’t be a huge drop-off between ones and twos. We have some talented players on our two unit that just need to step up from a competition standpoint.”

It seems as though Locksley, at least mentally, is beginning to formulate what Maryland’s initial depth chart for next season might look like. And while it will certainly remain a fluid situation between now and when the Terps kickoff their season against Howard August 31, these early spring practices and scrimmages are beginning to separate Maryland’s playmakers from the pack.

“Not necessarily the complete depth chart but we’re starting to formulate opinions on which guys we feel can play winning football for us,” Locksley said. “We’re nine practices in now for us. As coaches, this is really the first extended scrimmage opportunity for us to see with the ball being spotted, referees--we had the Big Ten officials there today--managing the scrimmage. So it was good for us to see some guys step up and show their playmaking ability.”

Locksley didn’t want to single out any particular players for their performances in Saturday’s scrimmage, but he did share that he was pleased overall with the efficiency and energy his first units played with, which also helped him realize that he must place more of an emphasis on getting the rest of the team caught up.

“[Saturday], for our first time inside the shell, we didn’t have a lot of penalties,” Locksley said. “It wasn’t a sloppy deal so I was happy about that. But like I told the team, we do need more guys to step up and take the next step so we can develop depth in all three phases, on offense, defense, and special teams.”

After expressing earlier in the week that he was concerned the Terps’ defense might be well ahead of the offense, Locksley was relieved Saturday to see more of an even playing field between both sides of the ball.

“If you look at the way the scrimmage went, we had the ebb and flow that you like to see as a head coach,” Locksley said. “Offensively we made some plays, defensively we made plays. I was pretty pleased walking off of the field that I don’t have this knot in my stomach because we’re so far behind on either side or the special teams. When the ones go against the ones on both sides of the ball, the ebb and flow of it goes back and forth, which is what I really liked about the scrimmage.”

Nine practices in and five more to go before the Terps’ spring game April 27, Locksley said he and his coaching staff have installed the “nuts and bolts” of the offense, defense, and special teams.

For the remainder of the spring, the focus will now be shifted toward refining what has been taught already and making sure the execution of the schemes continues to improve.

“It’s been good and bad,” Locksley said of his assessment of his team’s progress so far. “I think for the most part they know what to do. But now as coaches, this is what this first scrimmage inside the shell has kind of showed us, now let’s get into the detail and the attention to the detail of how to do it. They know what to do and now we just have to clean up how to do it and the base fundamentals that go along with it. And then learning to play to the level we want to see our team play at.”