After defeating Indiana on Saturday in a 44-17 win, Maryland football found itself outside both the AP and coaches top 25 as they turn their attention to fourth-ranked Ohio State.
Maryland unofficially checked in at 26th after drawing 81 in both the AP and coaches poll.
Maryland will now shift their attention to undoubtedly their toughest test to date as they prepare for Ohio State, fresh off a bye following their 17-14 win at Notre Dame.
Maryland also opened as a 19-point underdog, per DraftKings
Maryland has never beaten the Buckeyes, with the closest game at The Shoe being a 49-28 defeat back in 2015. Of course, the Buckeyes were threatened in College Park one season ago before a last-second scoop-and-score handed Maryland a 43-30 defeat.
The Terps will look to take their eight-game winning streak and undefeated start on the road in hopes of playing spoiler.
“Does it guarantee that we’re gonna come out and play this way next week? No, but if we put together a good week of practice like we had this past week,” Maryland head coach Mike Locksley said following the win. “I had a lot of people texting me and even coach [Ralph] Friedgen texted me right before the game. It was like, hey, man. I can hear his voice like ‘hey, this is the one of those games you got to make sure they’re ready to play’ and I texted coach and they’re ready coach. And it put us in a position to have the opportunity. We created momentum and that’s to me what it’s all about. But we still got put some work in this week.”
“We’ve got a tremendous challenge. We’re excited about the challenge. As I said before, the opponents gotta be faceless and nameless. We won’t prepare any differently for Ohio State than we did this week. And that’s what this standard is all about. Keep trying to plug away and you know what, players make plays and coaches got to do a good job of putting them in position to do it. And who knows, maybe we’ll go up to Columbus to see how it plays out.”
Pair of committed targets talk return visits to Maryland (+)
Maryland football’s snap counts, PFF grades vs. Indiana
Young Terps: analyzing Maryland’s win vs. Indiana
Everything Maryland head coach Mike Locksley said following the win vs. Indiana
Instant reactions: Maryland 44, Indiana 17
The list: trio of local four-stars, flip target headline visitor list for Maryland vs. Indiana (+)
