Wisconsin heads to College Park this weekend with a chance to answer last season’s 27-10 loss to Maryland, and the Terrapins are a different-looking team now than they were a few weeks ago. Mike Locksley is out after the Week 7 loss to Rutgers, Aazaar Abdul-Rahim is in as interim head coach, and Maryland has gone 1-1 since the change, including its first Big Ten win of the season at Purdue.
The Badgers, sitting at 6-3 overall and 4-2 in conference play, are coming off a win over Rutgers and will try to keep that momentum going against a Maryland squad that has shown some life under new leadership. Before Wisconsin takes the field, these are the Terrapins who can swing the matchup.
At quarterback, Maryland still runs through Billy Edwards Washington, a 6-foot-5, 231-pound dual-threat option who has had flashes of big-time ability but not the week-to-week consistency the Terrapins were hoping for. He’s completed 60.7% of his passes for 2,058 yards, 11 touchdowns and eight interceptions, while also rushing 53 times for 169 yards and four scores. Against stronger opponents, the results have been uneven: four interceptions against UCLA and just 64 passing yards against Ohio State.
Last week against Purdue, though, Washington looked more like the player Maryland expected. He went 13-of-18 for 253 yards, two touchdowns and an interception, and added 32 rushing yards and two more scores on eight carries.
He also gave Wisconsin problems in his first Big Ten start a year ago, throwing for 265 yards and two touchdowns while adding a rushing touchdown in Maryland’s win. The Badgers will be trying to recreate the pressure they got against Rutgers and force quicker decisions from a quarterback who can hurt defenses if he gets comfortable.
The ground game has another dangerous piece in Nolan Williams, whose season has been interrupted by injury but whose explosiveness has been obvious whenever he’s on the field. He opened the year with 116 rushing yards and two touchdowns on just three carries against Hampton before a knee injury sidelined him for three games. In six appearances, he has 71 carries for 437 yards at 6.2 yards per rush and five touchdowns, plus 10 catches for 88 yards and another score.
Williams was especially dangerous against Purdue, piling up 99 yards on 14 carries and breaking loose for a 75-yard touchdown. He’s not always steady from snap to snap, but the big-play juice is real. He has four runs of 30-plus yards this season, including three of 50 or more, and Wisconsin’s run defense will have to keep those explosives from turning into momentum-shifting plays.
Maryland’s most reliable offensive threat has been wide receiver Durr, who has quickly become one of the Big Ten’s most productive pass catchers after spending his first two college seasons at Wyoming. He ranks third in the conference with 62 receptions and sixth with 765 receiving yards, and he has five touchdowns in nine games.
Durr was a major factor in the Purdue win, catching four passes for 127 yards. His biggest play came in the fourth quarter, when he turned a short screen into an 87-yard touchdown by slipping through traffic and racing away from the defense.
At 5-foot-11 and 173 pounds, he’s not built like a power receiver, but his burst and elusiveness make him dangerous once the ball is in his hands. His 522 yards after the catch are fourth nationally, per PFF, and he has topped 100 receiving yards five times this season.
For Wisconsin’s secondary, the challenge is not just keeping him from getting deep - it’s keeping him from turning routine catches into huge gains.
Up front, freshman edge rusher Elee has already made a major imprint. The Baltimore native arrived in College Park as a consensus five-star recruit in the class of 2026 and has backed up the hype with 18 tackles, seven tackles for loss, six sacks and three forced fumbles in nine games. He posted a career-high 2.5 sacks against Purdue for his first multi-sack game.
Elee is still developing, but his athleticism and instincts have already made him a problem off the edge. With Ryan Hopkins making his first career road start, Wisconsin has to account for him on passing downs and keep him from wrecking plays in the backfield.
Then there’s linebacker Wingate, who has been one of Maryland’s most dependable defenders for two straight seasons. He piled up 102 tackles in 2025 and has followed that with a team-high 56 tackles this year, along with 3.5 tackles for loss, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and a pick-six through nine games.
Wingate’s best outing of the season came against Purdue, when he earned a 79.4 overall PFF grade, made seven tackles and recovered a fumble. Even so, his numbers tell a more mixed story than they did a year ago.
He has missed 11 tackles this season, and his PFF run-defense grade has dropped from 82.2 in 2025 to 58.8 in 2026. Still, he remains a proven playmaker with two career pick-sixes and the ability to impact a game in several different ways.
He also gave Wisconsin trouble in last year’s meeting, finishing with 11 tackles and a sack in Maryland’s win at Camp Randall.
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