Maryland’s Halloween date with Illinois is now locked in.
The Terrapins will host the Illini at 12 p.m. ET on BTN on Saturday, Oct. 31, the conference announced this week. It gives Maryland a clean runway through the bye week before turning to a matchup that carries a little history and a lot of pressure.
This will be Maryland’s first game on Halloween since 1992, when it fell to 22nd-ranked North Carolina, 31-24. The Terps and Illini have met four times overall and split those games, though Illinois has taken the last two. That includes the 2023 meeting in College Park, when Maryland dropped a 27-24 decision in the first game after its bye.
Both programs also arrive with a midseason change on defense behind them. Illinois head coach Brett Bielema made his switch after just four games, following a 31-point outing in Week 2 and then a 42-point performance against seventh-ranked Ohio State. Maryland moved on from Ted Monachino after surrendering at least 35 points in five straight weeks.
For Maryland, the stakes around the next two games are plain. The Terps are trying to snap a five-game losing streak, pick up their first Big Ten win since Sept. 20, 2025 and get their first home victory since Oct.
19, 2024. After Illinois, the schedule tightens with Wisconsin, 16th-ranked USC and Penn State still to come, making the next two chances especially important for head coach Mike Locksley.
Illinois comes in at 3-3 overall and 1-2 in Big Ten play after a bye week. The Illini followed a home loss to Purdue with an overtime win over Michigan State. They return to action by hosting Oregon this weekend, with the Ducks coming off back-to-back unimpressive performances.
In Other News...
Maryland Football Just Entered A Reset Fans Never Expected
Maryland football is headed into an unexpected reset after Michael Locksley stepped down as head coach at the University of Maryland, effective immediately. The move comes with the season still in motion, and the school has already said it will launch a national search for his permanent replacement.
Aazaar Abdul-Rahim will take over in the interim for the rest of the year, giving the Terrapins a short-term bridge while the bigger question hangs over the program. For Maryland, the next few weeks are now about keeping the locker room steady, managing the finish to the season and figuring out what kind of leadership the program wants next. [Read more 🡒]
Maryland Just Made The Program Reset Fans Knew Was Coming
Maryland moved on from Mike Locksley in the middle of his eighth season, a jolt that had been building for weeks as the Terps kept stumbling through another rough stretch against higher-level competition. The decision ends a run that included some real progress, especially the three straight bowl wins from 2021 to 2023, but it also closes the book on a tenure that never fully escaped the frustration of a 38-49 record since 2019.
Athletic director Jim Smith, who arrived in 2025, made the call with five games still left on the schedule, a sign that the programs leadership decided there was no point waiting any longer for a turnaround. For Maryland, the timing matters almost as much as the move itself, because the next coach will be inheriting a roster, a fan base and a standard that have all been shaped by years of uneven results and one very clear expectation: the reset has to work. [Read more 🡒]
LSUs New-Look Roster Has Tigers Fans Eyeing A Fast SEC Climb
Marylands offseason reset has quietly given the Terrapins a different kind of ceiling heading into the next college basketball campaign. With roster movement defining so much of the sport right now, the Terps have been among the teams worth circling because of the mix of holdovers and portal additions that could change the way they play on both ends. Around the league, that same kind of turnover has been the difference between teams that merely tread water and teams that make an early move up the standings.
The intrigue here is how quickly Maryland can turn that incoming talent into something coherent once the games start. The broader look at programs like LSU, Marquette, Xavier, and Ole Miss suggests there are several teams positioned for a jump if the pieces fit, and Maryland is in that conversation for the same reason. The talent is there, the projections are encouraging, and now the real question is how long it takes for the new roster to look like a team instead of a collection of parts. [Read more 🡒]