Maryland gets Virginia Tech on the schedule Saturday night, and the Hokies arrive in College Park with plenty of familiar names on the roster. Kickoff is set for 7:30 PM on Saturday, Sept. 19, with Maryland hosting the matchup as part of ‘Hispanic Heritage Night’ presented by Sardi’s. The game comes with a near sellout expected, and it’s the first meeting between the teams since 2021, as well as the first regular season matchup since 2013, when CJ Brown’s touchdown run in overtime lifted the Terps in Blacksburg.
There’s another layer to this one, too. Saturday will be the first time that James Franklin and Mike Locksley have met since the 2024 postgame argument following a 59-0 season ending finish for Maryland.
And on the Virginia Tech side, there’s a heavy Penn State connection across the roster. Here are five Hokies Maryland needs to have on the radar.
Ethan Grunkemeyer has settled in quickly at quarterback. After spending his first two seasons at Penn State, where he threw for nearly 1,350 yards, eight touchdowns and five interceptions while completing 68.9% of his passes, the junior is now running the Hokies’ offense.
Through two games, he’s been sharp: 551 passing yards, four touchdowns, no interceptions and a 48-for-62 mark through the air, good for 77.4%. He’s not going to stress Maryland with his legs, but he has done a nice job getting the ball to his playmakers and keeping mistakes off the board.
The bigger question is whether Maryland’s front seven can force him off his spot. That looked like an issue for Virginia Tech against ODU, when the Hokies allowed four sacks and ten TFLs.
On the edge, Cortez Harris brings a different kind of problem. Maryland fans may remember the former four-star edge rusher who paired with Nahsir Taylor to anchor a dominant Riverdale Baptist defense in 2024.
Now he’s on the other sideline, and he’s already making noise for Virginia Tech. Harris is tied with Mylachi Williams for the team lead with three sacks, while Williams - a 6-foot-3, 253-pound Penn State transfer - has six TFLs and is just as important a name for Maryland’s interior line to track.
Harris, listed at 6-foot-2 and 253 pounds, is a quick, slippery pass rusher, and he’s one of four Hokies with at least 2.5 sacks and TFLs in 2026.
Virginia Tech also has a back who can flip field position in a hurry. Jeff Overton, who Maryland finished runner-up for coming out of high school, has looked like the explosive runner the Hokies hoped for.
The Virginia native is averaging 6.6 yards per carry with 151 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 23 carries, and he’s added 32 receiving yards on four catches. He’s also up 27 pounds from 2025.
Maryland’s run defense has been untested so far, allowing under 40 rushing yards per game, but Overton is the kind of player who can change that quickly. The Hokies also mix in fifth-year Marcellous Hawkins Jr., while true freshman Messiah Mickens has been part of the early rotation, but taking Overton away would go a long way toward forcing Virginia Tech into a more one-dimensional game.
In the secondary, DQ Smith brings experience and production. He joined Virginia Tech late in the offseason after the August portal chaos, and he comes with a long résumé from South Carolina: 228 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, three forced fumbles, five interceptions and 16 pass breakups across 34 starts over the last three seasons.
He also picked up another year of eligibility amid the wave of court-driven eligibility requests. Smith made his Hokies debut against ODU, finishing with one tackle, and it will be worth watching whether his role expands this weekend.
He also posted a ten-foot broad jump, a 4.34 second 20 yard shuttle and a 4.64 40 yard dash at South Carolina’s Pro Day in the spring.
Then there’s Luke Reynolds, another Penn State transfer who gave Virginia Tech a huge lift last Saturday. The junior tight end put together a career night against ODU, catching eight passes for 108 yards and two touchdowns.
Those were all career highs, and they pushed him to the top of the Hokies’ receiving production. Reynolds enters week three with a team-high 158 receiving yards and three touchdowns, and his 13 catches are tied with Que’sean Brown for the team lead.
At 6-foot-4, he gives Maryland’s coverage a tough matchup, and he’s starting to look like the kind of player people expected when he arrived as a five-star prospect out of Cheshire Academy (CT).
In Other News...
Marylands Fast Start Just Changed The Big Ten Conversation
After the second week of college football, ESPNs FPI had already begun reshaping the national picture in ways that matter well beyond the early standings. Oklahoma States upset of Oregon sent the model soaring, while Arkansas and Minnesota took big hits after losses, and even Ohio State and Washington saw movement that underscored how much these rankings lean on projected future results rather than just what happened on the field.
For Maryland, that kind of early volatility is part of the appeal and the warning. A fast start can change how the rest of the Big Ten views a team, but it also invites a closer look from a metric built to sort out whos truly positioned for postseason relevance. The Terps know the conversation around them can shift quickly in September, and the next few weeks will tell whether this is just a hot opening stretch or the start of something the conference has to take seriously. [Read more 🡒]
Maryland Just Got An Early Answer On Two Big Concerns
Maryland got a lot to like out of its 38-14 win over UConn, and not just because the Terps kept their non-conference winning streak rolling to 20 games. The offense found answers in places where questions had been hanging around, with wide receivers Naheem Abdul-Rahim Gladding and Chris Durr Jr. both turning in strong performances after earlier struggles.
The bigger takeaway may have come up front, where Marylands defensive line looked the part of a unit built to control a game. UConn was held in check on the ground and forced into mistakes, giving the Terps an encouraging early look at two areas that could shape the rest of the season. The challenge now is whether those improvements hold once the schedule gets less forgiving. [Read more 🡒]
Maryland's 2-0 Start Just Got A Lot More Exciting
Maryland walked out of Pratt & Whitney Stadium with a convincing 38-14 win over Connecticut and, just as importantly, a 2-0 start that suddenly looks a lot more interesting. Malik Washington powered the offense with 347 passing yards and a program-record 18 straight completions, while Naeem Abdul-Rahim Gladding and Chris Durr Jr. both topped 100 receiving yards as the Terrapins kept stringing together efficient drives and making life difficult for the Huskies on the other side of the ball.
The performance gave Maryland a little of everything it wants this early in the season: a quarterback in rhythm, receivers stretching the field and a defense that held up well enough to keep the game under control. For a team trying to build momentum, it was the kind of all-around showing that can change the mood around a 2-0 start from solid to genuinely compelling. [Read more 🡒]