Maryland’s Big Ten opener arrives with a simple test attached to it: show something different.
The Terrapins are back home Saturday for a 1:30 p.m. kickoff against UCLA, a game that doubles as family weekend and gives Maryland another chance to steady itself in front of its own crowd. It’s the first meeting between the programs in College Park in 71 years, and it comes one week after Maryland drew more than 46,000 fans and created the kind of atmosphere the athletic department wanted inside SECU Stadium.
But the setting only matters if the result follows.
Maryland lost the matchup with UCLA last year, a 20-17 Bruins win under an interim head coach, and now gets another shot to flip the script. Under Mike Locksley, the Terps have gone just 2-12 as home underdogs, with their last such win coming in 2024 after the homecoming comeback against USC.
In conference play, Maryland is 13-32 in that stretch, including 2-16 over the last two seasons. Saturday also offers a chance to end an eight-game skid against Big Ten opponents.
There’s another layer to this one, too. Maryland is facing Bob Chesney, who took over for Curt Cignetti and led James Madison to a 21-6 (12-5) record across his two seasons there. It means Locksley is dealing with his second straight game against a first-year head coach, and the pressure to answer is real.
That pressure sharpened after last week’s loss to Virginia Tech, a nine-point defeat that felt in control of the Hokies for most of the afternoon. Virginia Tech scored touchdowns on five of its first six possessions, and Maryland’s offense never really found its footing in the first half, falling behind by 13 at the break.
Locksley took heat for some of the game management decisions, including Malik Washington’s fourth down punt and the call to go for two points after Maryland trimmed the gap to 35-20 early in the fourth quarter.
This is the kind of season where Maryland’s offseason message gets put on trial fast. The line was that the work is louder than the words. Saturday is another chance to prove it.
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For Maryland fans, the more interesting part is how the heat around the job security talk grows if the Terps stumble while other schools are also sorting through their own problems. Arandas situation at Baylor is drawing particular attention because the Big 12 stretch ahead could sharpen the pressure on him, but the larger point is that this is the stage of the season when a coachs standing can change fast. Maryland is watching the same kind of watch list unfold with its own expectations in mind. [Read more 🡒]
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The more pressing storyline for the Washington side is Jayden Daniels, whose left elbow injury changed the outlook for the Commanders almost as quickly as his season had begun to settle in. Daniels is expected to miss time, and for Maryland fans who have adopted Washington as a must-watch team, his absence shifts the spotlight from excitement to concern. It also leaves the Terps NFL tracker with a little more edge, because the link between College Park and the Commanders just became a lot more complicated. [Read more 🡒]