UVA Opponent Series: Terps look for 3rd straight winning season behind Tagovailoa
Posted on Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023, 2:56 pm
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Countdown to KickoffEDITOR’S NOTE: This is the third in a 12-part series of Virginia’s football opponents by our interns Clay Meeks and Harry Farley. Today, Meeks looks into Maryland. For the other season previews, check elsewhere on our website
By Clay Meeks
JerryRatcliffe.com Correspondent
Photo: UVA Athletics
Maryland hasn’t played Virginia since the Terps bolted the ACC for the Big 10 after the 2013 season. Up until then, the border rivals had met 78 times and every year since 1957.
Life hasn’t been easy for Maryland in Big 10 football, but after a somewhat successful 2022 season, going 4-5 in conference play, and 8-5 overall, the Terrapins are counting on a promising offense led by quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa to put them into at least the top 25 nationally. Tagovailoa, of course, is the younger brother of former Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, now with the Miami Dolphins.
The Terps have strung together back-to-back winning seasons and are coming off a Duke’s Mayo Bowl win over NC State, the best run since Ralph Friedgen roamed the College Park sidelines nearly two decades ago.
Maryland coach Michael Locksley, who briefly coach the older Tagovailoa as ‘Bama’s offensive coordinator prior to taking over the Terps program, has set goals as high as a conference title, but expects his team to put in the work required, commenting during the Big 10 media day, “The players and coaches in our program know what expectations are. They know that the work has to supersede the goal. We’re not going to let a goal of wanting to compete for championships get in the way of the type of work and the amount of work it’s going to take to do that.”
The Terrapins on either side of the ball are going to bring quite a few new faces. Tagovailoa will be passing out wide to two new transfers, Kaden Prather of West Virginia and Tyrese Chambers of Florida International. Offensive line Coach Brian Braswell is tasked with four new starters and a lot of questions to be answered as well. This new line will have to prove themselves, and the Terrapins are certainly not guaranteed another 140+ rushing yards a game. In good news for the Terrapins, however, if they find themselves in dire need of consistency on the offense, they will have it in redshirt sophomore running back Roman Hemby. Returning from a nearly 1,000 yard season, Hemby shows no signs of slowing down, and is ready to improve alongside the rest of the squad and possibly return to his top 10 positional rank in the conference. Additionally, if Tagovailoa can continue his valuable production, barring injury, and breach his impressive 3,000-yard, All-Big 10 second team 2022 season, then fans of this Maryland team can still look forward to an impressive offense to put on a show and compete this year.
The Terps defense, though, will still likely leave fans with a lot to be desired. The transfer portal struck the defensive lineup hard, and an already lackluster 24 sacks and an average of 357 combined yards allowed per game last year give the Terrapins defense plenty of room for improvement, especially at the line of scrimmage. Though only five starters are returning, Locksley isn’t worried, citing the rotation of players as giving plenty of guys exceedingly adequate playing time.
“We rotated a bunch of players a year ago,” Locksley said. “Guys like (defensive tackle) Tommy Akingbesote was similar to a starter in terms of how much he played. Taizse [Johnson] played a ton of reps the last couple of years.” Transfers Jordan Phillips (nose tackle) from Tennessee and Donnell Brown from St. Francis may offer some additional experience to a line that needs physicality to shine through.
Maryland’s schedule will bring some early victories from teams like Towson and Charlotte, and the Terrapins are favored in their Sept. 15 matchup against the Cavaliers. Exiting the month will bring some inevitably challenging conference play to the squad, and it won’t get any easier. No. 3 Ohio State awaits them in October, followed by No. 2 Michigan in November. This season will be a true test of this Maryland team’s ability to fulfill promises, and if Coach Locksley is correct, they will be fighting for a conference title.
