How Tigers tried to stop Jacquille Veii from becoming a Terp

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Maryland’s 51-41 win over Texas last weekend wasn’t only the program’s first win on the road against a ranked opponent since 2008, it was also the first game wide receiver Jacquille Veii has played in since November 2015 while he was enrolled at Towson, the Terps Week 2 opponent.

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Although Veii only had 1 reception for 3 yards against the Longhorns, he relished in the moment of being able to get back on the field for the first time in nearly two years.

“In the beginning, I was a little nervous,” Veii said. “I was like, ‘Wow, back on the field again.’ But once everything got rolling and once I got my few couple of hits in, everything was just how I remembered it.”

But the reason Veii had to wait so long to see some live game action was because he decided to transfer from the school he's preparing to play against this week.

The 5-foot-9, 188-pound Gaithersburg, Md., native started his college football career at Maryland and played in 11 games as a freshman for the Terps. He then played in 13 games and made four starts as a sophomore at Maryland in 2014. But when former Terps head coach Randy Edsall insisted that Veii make a position change from wide receiver to running back, Veii split for nearby Towson.

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After leading Towson in receptions and receiving yards in his lone season playing for the Tigers, as well as a coaching change in College Park, Veii decided he wanted to transfer back to Maryland to be a part of the D.J. Durkin era. But Towson denied his transfer, which by NCAA rule, made Veii ineligible for an athletic scholarship for an academic year.

“So the rule is if you transfer to a place where your previous school denied your transfer to you’re not allowed to have an athletic scholarship for a whole year, so that’s two semesters,” Veii said, “So yeah, I had to pay for the [first] spring semester and the fall semester [at Maryland].”

Although Veii was never given a full explanation for his transfer being denied, he has his own idea of why the obstacle occurred.

“When I was going through the process at Towson, at first I didn’t know, but once I realized that they were blocking my transcript to [Maryland], I was like why would they block my transcript to Maryland? And then I saw that Maryland plays Towson on the schedule in 2017,” Veii said. “That’s when I was like, ‘Oh, OK.’

“It wasn’t a smooth transition that went as smooth as I thought it was going to go, but I let them know that regardless of whether or not they were going to withhold my scholarship or not, I’m going to still attend Maryland just because of the fact that it was going to help me out in terms of my academics.”

Veii added that he isn’t positive that’s why Towson denied his transfer to Maryland, but he feels as though that is the most likely answer.

“I never really understood why they did because they never really said anything,” Veii said. “I was just under the impression that it was just because Maryland plays Towson in 2017 and that I was going to be on that team if I did. So that’s the reason why they didn’t want me to leave...I feel like they would have released me if they weren’t playing [Maryland].”

But Veii stayed true to his word and took the long path to returning as a scholarship player with the Terps. He is now a starting wide receiver in College Park, and the question now becomes, will Veii be playing with an extra chip on his shoulder when Maryland hosts the FCS program that could have derailed his college football career?

“It’s just another game to me, but I do feel like it is [motivation],” Veii said. “But at the same time, it’s just another game on the schedule...It’s going to be a fun competition with my old teammates.”

Despite how Veii might feel toward some Towson administration, he still keeps in touch with friends at the school and does his best to keep up with what’s happening within the football program.

“I keep in touch with a bunch of guys over there--Shane Simpson, No. 13, the cornerback Lyrics Klugh, and one of the other corners Tyron [McDade], No. 14, so yeah, I still keep in contact with them, see how they’re doing, see how the program’s doing and all of that,” Veii said.

But not this week. Veii is simply focused on what he needs to do to prepare for the Tigers.

“I haven’t really talked to any of the guys this week,” Veii said. “In the preseason during training camp, I would talk to them and see how they’re doing, see how everything’s going, just poke a little fun, be like, ‘I hope you guys are ready to play.’”

Veii feels as though he has evolved immensely as a football player since transferring from Towson and is eager to show what he has learned on Saturday.

“I feel that I’ve grown a lot at the receiver position and just football wise because I didn’t know what I know now back then,” Veii said. “I kind of just had the mentality that football is football; you go out there and just play. I never really understood the technical aspects of it and all of the meticulous planning that goes into game plans each week. So I definitely feel like I’ve learned a lot and have come a long way since then...I’m always hungry. I was hungry when I went to Towson. I was hungry when I came in as a freshman. And this is my last year, so I’m definitely hungry to showcase my ability, to showcase what I can do, to showcase what I’ve been working on for the past two years because Texas was my first game in like two years.”

Terps offensive coordinator Walt Ball echoed Veii’s sentiment about his growth during his press conference Sept. 6, and praised the senior for his work ethic and drive.

"The one thing I can say about Jaqcuille in terms of his growth as a wideout is that Coach [Chris] Beatty has done a great job with him,” Bell said. “All through last year when he first came back, he was really just a great athlete, more of just a slot running back. You saw the skills and the great foot quickness, but now he's really refined his craft and he's really improved at playing the position. The one consistent with him is that regardless of phase of the game, whether it's special teams or receiver, he's one of the hardest playing dudes I've ever been around in my life. There are two or three -- every week we'll show the offense five or six great effort plays, regardless if it was a first down, zero yards, one yard, 100 yards, and he and Lorenzo Harrison show up on that tape every week."