Can’t stop Leake from exit
Better season would not have changed RB’s mind on draft
Javon Leake began his Maryland football career at the bottom of the team’s depth chart at running back in 2017.
He finished it after Saturday’s 19-16 season-ending loss at Michigan State as the team’s leading rusher this season and one of the top return specialists in college football.
Leake announced on social media Wednesday that he is leaving College Park with one year of eligibility remaining. His announcement came less than 24 hours after redshirt sophomore running back Anthony McFarland Jr. announced that he was forgoing his last two years of eligibility to also make himself available for the NFL draft.
For his career, Leake gained 1,143 yards and scored 17 rushing touchdowns on just 145 carries while playing a limited role until this fall. This season, the junior had 745 yards and eight touchdowns on 102 carries as the most explosive player on an offense that ranked 108th in the Football Bowl Subdivision.
Though he has yet to hear from NFL scouts and front-office personnel about his draft potential, Leake said in a telephone interview Wednesday, “I try not to get too caught up in that. I’m just going to stay the course and do what I thought was right. It’s up to me now.”
In his tweet, Leake thanked his parents, adding “this would not be possible“without his family, which he called “the core of my support system. … Words cannot express how grateful I am for your love and support to help me get through this point in my life.”
Leake also thanked Maryland coach Mike Locksley, offensive coordinator Scottie Montgomerie and running backs coach Elijah Brooks “for showing me the way at Maryland. … You helped me grow on-thefield as a football player and as a man off-the-field.”
The combination of Leake’s ability as a playmaker and a lingering ankle injury to McFarland allowed him to become Maryland’s featured back for much of the season, punctuated by a career-high 158 yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries in a 34-28 loss to Indiana on Oct. 19.
Leake also returned two kickoffs for touchdowns, a 100-yarder at Rutgers and a 97-yarder against Michigan. On Tuesday, Leake was named as the Big Ten’s top returner by the league’s coaches and media, and won the Rodgers-Dwight Award. Leake’s 804 return yards led the
Big Ten and ranked third in FBS.
Natasha Leake said in a telephone interview Wednesday that her only son knew “about a month ago” that he was going to turn pro.
“He pushes himself always to be the greatest and it got to the point where he wanted more, he wanted to strive for bigger and better,” she said. “I was a little apprehensive about him trying to go to the draft. I didn’t know if he could stand up to a Jonathan Taylor or a J.K. Dobbins — statistically I didn’t know if he had enough.
“[But] the reports started coming back on his stats, and the awards, and I’m like, ‘Maybe he is doing something great.’ ”
That Maryland’s prospects don’t seem that bright for next season, after the Terps finished 3-9 this season, didn’t impact Leake’s decision.
“If we had a different year, I still would have made the [same] decision,” he said.