Maryland football will look to turn the tide this weekend as they look for their first win against Nebraska in the third-ever matchup between the two Big Ten teams. Both teams will look to get back in the win column, though, after the Terps were dominated by Penn State at home while Michigan State took down the Huskers at home.
Nebraska’s road loss ended a three-game win streak as first-year head coach Matt Rhule looks to get his team back in the win column for the sixth time in the last eight games against a coach he’s known for over 30 years.
“I’ve known Mike Locksley, he was college friends with my cousin. I’ve known him since I was about 15 years old,” Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule said Monday. “Lot of respect for what he’s done and the process he’s done in building that team. It’s as athletic and explosive a team that we’ll face all year.”
Rhule also noted Taulia Tagovailoa is “as good of a quarterback as there is in the Big Ten” after opening last weekend’s game with 17 consecutive completions, though he ended with an interception and fumble. Still, the Huskers sit just behind Penn State in sacks (28) through the season with Luke Reimer, Nash Hutmacher and Jimari Butler leading the front seven as they look to mimic what the Nittany Lions did at the line of scrimmage.
“If you watch the quarterback, he’s Patrick Mahomes, looks like Kyler Murray back in college. He runs left, he runs right. You don’t see many quarterbacks in college football can roll to their left and still make explosive plays. Everything that you’ve seen his brother do, he can do and he does it with a lot of flair. No-look passes,” Rhule added.
Maryland remains a slight road favorite heading into the weekend with the line of either 1.5 or 2.5 points depending on the book. After beginning the season 5-0, Maryland’s chances of achieving The Huskers could also have a pair of defenders available with both JACK Princewill Umanmielen and defensive back Malcolm Hartzog questionable heading into the rest of the week, though Rhule said his team “won’t be surprised” as they work to limit a “really explosive offense.”
“I think the great thing about Maryland is that all of our guys know how good they are. They’ve seen them. They’ve seen them on opponent tape. They saw them against Michigan State. They’ve seen the quarterback, they’ve seen the wideouts, they’ve seen the tight ends, they’ve seen the backs. They’ve seen it. They know how good Maryland is. It’s 17-17 against Ohio State late in the third quarter. They are an excellent, excellent football team and so to me, the challenge for us has always been to humbly prepare for the other opponent but never make it about the opponent. To not sit there, what if they do this, what if they do that? But just instead, make it about us so we’re studying them. We know what they can do. We know how explosive they can be but we got beat last week when our eyes weren’t where they were supposed to be.”
Kickoff is set for 12 PM EST on Peacock.
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