COLLEGE PARK - College football was a wake-up call for Randy Starks. Arriving at Maryland 15 months ago, the 295-pound freshman found the game he encountered a far cry from what he'd envisioned.

Here, coaches hollered at Starks, ordered him to run wind sprints, made him ride the bench. None of that had happened back at Westlake High in Waldorf. And Starks didn't like it.

"I wanted to go home," he said.

Sure, he missed his mother and her home cooking, but the Terps' tongue-dragging practices really got to him. "I was too tired to be homesick," he said.

Starks still misses home, but much has changed for the sophomore defensive tackle, who has become Maryland's most dangerous defensive player outside of E.J. Henderson.

In last week's 30-12 defeat of Clemson, Starks accounted for six tackles, including two for losses. He was also credited with three quarterback hurries and two pass breakups he made while dropping into coverage.

"He's a defensive back at heart," cornerback Curome Cox said.

One coach keeping an eye on Starks will be Virginia's Al Groh, whose team plays Maryland tomorrow in Charlottesville, Va.

Starks helps the team's run defense - "the linebackers are making a lot of plays, and he's been the one keeping blockers off of them," Henderson said - making opposing offenses one-dimensional.

"The one who comes to mind is [Wisconsin's] Wendell Bryant, and he was the first-round pick of the Cardinals," Groh said of Starks. "[Starks] has the physical abilities to do that in his future. He's a guy who, when the play is over, this guy was tough to block, however that comes about."

Starks' teammates and coaches expected this. Coming out of high school, he stood 6 feet 4 with size-16 feet, and agility that helped make him a basketball standout at Westlake. Starks was ranked as the second-best football player in the Mid-Atlantic by recruiting publication SuperPrep.

By choosing Maryland over Penn State and Virginia Tech last February, he gave the first recruiting coup to then-new coach Ralph Friedgen, who called it "a statement for our program" and publicly said he expected Starks to immediately contribute in 2001.

But the freshman sensation arrived out of shape, shocked by the tough love from defensive line coach Dave Sollazzo during preseason camp.

Starks couldn't do one "gasser [sprint drill] without being tired." Cox needed to physically push him across the 53-yard field and back so he could beat the 17-second deadline the coaches imposed.

Sollazzo's voice sounds like sandpaper feels. It seemed honed in on Starks during that time, to teach the finer points of defensive line play and to draw out more intensity than Starks was accustomed to giving.

"I don't think he'd say they were fun," Sollazzo said of the earlier sessions. "We go full speed. You can't take any plays off for us."

And when Starks made a mistake, "his facial expressions would give him away, and he looked bad," said defensive line teammate Durrand Roundtree. "We picked up on that and we needed to fix that, because we were going to need him. No one is going to stop Randy Starks if he doesn't want to be stopped."

Glimpses of his potential appeared during Starks' freshman year, as he learned the system while playing both at tackle and end.

In Maryland's 20-17, name-making victory over Georgia Tech last season, he was the one who pushed a Yellow Jackets lineman back into tailback Joe Burns, who fumbled in overtime, with Maryland recovering to end the game.

By the end of the season, he had six tackles, one for a loss, in the Orange Bowl loss to Florida. He was the hope to join the line, which was losing graduating senior Charles Hill.

"Randy's done that and more," said Friedgen, who added that Starks also appears to be more of a student than he was last year. Friedgen said he had to "read him the riot act" a couple of times last year. The difference from other players is Starks is listening. "He's not doing the same things as a sophomore."

Starks now knows what to expect. Though Cox had to push him on a few gassers this August, he showed up ready to play on just about every defensive down, something he couldn't have done in 2001.

He's also prepared for what Sollazzo demands.

"He now tells me it's made him a better person," said Beverly Starks, the player's mother. "They just want him to play to his potential. He now knows that it's not personal."

The importance of playing his best was driven into him during the Duke game, when lineman C.J. Feldheim went down with a season-ending knee injury.

Coincidentally or not, an already strong season has gotten better for Starks in the past three games, with 20 tackles (eight solo), 10 quarterback hurries, three tackles for losses and four broken-up passes.

"I realize that when C.J. got hurt, your season could end at any time," Starks said. "You have to play every game as if it's your last."

Next for Terps

Matchup: No. 18 Maryland (9-2, 5-1) vs. Virginia (7-4, 5-2)

Site: Scott Stadium, Charlottesville, Va.

When: Tomorrow, 5:30 p.m.

TV/Radio: ESPN2/WBAL (1090 AM)

Line: Maryland by 9 1/2