ATLANTA - Constant changes in the backfield isn't always the greatest sign of stability. But for Maryland's football team, it has been strength in numbers this season.

Last year, there was no questioning Bruce Perry's supremacy among the tailbacks, as his 1,242 yards led to Offensive Player of the Year honors in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Now, as the 20th-ranked Terps (10-3) head into Tuesday's Peach Bowl game against Tennessee, Perry is just another guy in a strong group of runners.

Led by Chris Downs' 1,113 yards, five running backs have led the team in single-game totals this year -Downs, Perry, Josh Allen, Jason Crawford and Mario Merrills.

"It goes back to the beginning of the season, when people asked what our strength was, and I said our numbers," Maryland running backs coach Mike Locksley said. "I thought we were at least four deep, not counting Josh Allen into the mix. All of those guys have brought something to the table."

It means that if someone gets injured or fails to produce, the Terps' coaching staff can always look down the bench for someone who can get yardage on the ground.

In the case of injury, look at Perry, who accounted for more than half of the team's rushing yardage in 2001, but also sat out spring practice and much of the preseason camp with an abdominal injury and a pulled groin.

Maryland cast around for an answer and settled on Crawford and Merrills, two players in their second year at College Park. "They're both talented," Locksley said. "We recruited them both because we thought they were good enough."

Nonetheless, their combined 16 yards in the season opener against Notre Dame was reason enough to keep looking, this time to Downs, a back recruited after the 1999 season as a possible stopgap if Lamont Jordan left Maryland after his junior season.

Two years later, Downs has showed why he was considered a successor of Jordan, rushing for 212 yards and three touchdowns against Georgia Tech on Oct. 17. "It's an area where we've had some depth and we were able to come out of that pretty good," Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen said.

The depth affords the Terps to not only rebound from an injury or a bad performance in a whole game, but to also offer a change of pace if things start slowly in a game.

Downs offers the West Virginia game as an example. He started slowly, and his shake-and-bake style went to the sideline for the downhill manner of Allen, who responded with a 70-yard touchdown run and ended up with 117 yards on 16 carries.

"There's always someone who can come in and step up," said Downs. "It's no big deal. There's me, there's Bruce, there's always someone who's going to play hard and get the job done."

If there's a downside to this embarrassment of riches, it's not necessarily ego. It's footwork and the adjustment to the different styles by fullback James Lynch, who often provides the lead blocks.

For the fullback who blocks for an explosive Perry as if a patient Downs is running, he runs the chance that he'll go too slow to seal off an oncoming linebacker. If it's vice versa, he's meeting the linebacker too early and has difficulty holding him off for an extended time.

"Me and Chris finally got on the right page," Lynch said. "There would be times when we weren't on the same page that Bruce and I were. It looked like the same style, [but] they're entirely different runners. We got it together in the final weeks of the year - and he still got all those yards."

Five on the run

The Terps have used five different players at halfback this season.

Player Att. Yds. Avg. TD

Chris Downs 193 1113 5.8 13

Josh Allen 57 396 6.9 8

Bruce Perry 57 291 5.1 1

Mario Merrills 40 157 3.9 0

Jason Crawford 20 43 2.2 1