Jim Smith on Maryland's non-conf finale vs. Virginia Tech, date to circle on men's basketball's schedule, Saturday's promotions

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For the first time since Maryland football kicked off the regular season, athletic director Jim Smith joined 105.7 The Fan on Thursday to dive into the first two games, promotions for Saturday’s non-conference finale vs. Virginia Tech and an early date to circle on men’s basketball’s 2026-27 schedule. Maryland Athletics also announced for fans to wear red for Saturday's contest as Smith shares the latest heading into a monster weekend:

On the first two weeks of 2026 regular season

“[I] feel really good. You look at both lines – offensive and defensive lines – and you can really see dramatic improvement and really great production. And a really deep defensive line, which is just going to continue to wear people down throughout the entire year. So you mentioned the first score. You don't win the games in the first quarter. You win them in the fourth quarter. We got to keep playing all the way through, and I think we've got some depth this year that will give us that advantage that maybe we didn't have last year.

And Saturday can't come fast enough. I know I am. I'm ready to play now. We want to get this game going and see how good we really are.”

On the storylines in the matchup

“Yeah, so Terp Nation really showed up and are going to be there on Saturday night. I know that for sure. We had an incredible student section against Hampton. We're going to have another incredible student section against Virginia Tech. It's just going to swallow up whatever Virginia Tech fans come. So I feel really confident about the crowd that's going to be there and how loud it's going to be for the Terps. I'm really excited about the energy that's going to be in the building. If it was anything – and I know it'll be a lot more than what we had at Hampton – and it was really good to see. It's our fourth sellout in our last six tries so clearly, I think we're doing something right here in College Park to engage our fans and create an environment where they want to come and see good football, and I think they're going to see some really good football on Saturday.”

On Saturday’s promotions

“This is our Hispanic Heritage game. We got Los Terps on the helmets. There's a little bit of a Hispanic Heritage theme throughout the entire game, so you're going to see that. You're going to see a special light show that we've got going. The intro is really – I know you guys didn't come to the first game, so maybe you'll come to this one. The intro is really good. The whole environment we're creating is to keep our fans engaged throughout all four quarters, and hopefully we're going to accomplish that this week in College Park.

“I forgot this, maybe it's the most important part. We have Letter Winners this weekend, so we have a lot of former Terps football players coming back to their home. And that’s an important part for our current players to see all these former players coming back and to support them. So really excited to see a lot of our letter winners coming back, and so looking forward to that.”

On the state of the Big Ten

“Well, I'll take it more from a college football perspective. I think you can see that the portal and some NIL money can make a quick difference and can close gaps quickly. I think that we saw a great game between Ohio State and Texas. Two game teams that could very well end up in the national championship game. So I think [that] there's a lot of good. We saw what Michigan did to Oklahoma, so there's good. Oregon, unfortunately, had an off day at Oklahoma State. I think it's going to be a very competitive Big Ten conference.”

On the subplots in the game

“Look, I've read a lot about kind of the history between the two. That really doesn't matter because it's the players that [have] got to play and they have to execute, and the better team is going to win, and it's going to the team that executes at the highest level is going to win. So look, I think it's in my old – I worked at the WWF way back when. These are like the managers of the wrestlers, right? And so the storyline between the managers and the wrestlers really doesn't impact what happens in the outcome. I don't believe the storyline does. I think that the players are going to play at a really high level. I think we're going to be ready to go, and I think we're really excited to play Virginia Tech on Saturday.”

On the 2026-27 Big Ten schedule released for Maryland basketball

“Circle the date of February 13th when we play Indiana, and that's going to be our game in which we really celebrate the 25th anniversary. And we're really excited to welcome that team back. And hopefully, this team will mirror that one. They've had an excellent early fall. It's a very talented basketball team. It's going to be a very competitive Big Ten conference this year. But I'm really excited about what we're seeing both on the men's side and the women's side. Brenda's got another really good team. There's a lot of momentum here and I'm really excited about it.”

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