Maryland football looking to avoid three-game slide as road underdogs vs. UCLA

Ahmed Ghafir
Oct 12
2 min read

Now battling through the first losing streak of the season, Maryland football will make the cross-country trip this upcoming weekend as underdogs for the third consecutive week.

Maryland opened as a 3.5-point underdog vs. UCLA with the line already moving to 2.5 on Sunday morning, while the over/under remains 51.5.

UCLA has sparked a turnaround since Deshaun Foster was relieved as head coach, moving to 2-0 under interim Tim Skipper after following up the 42-37 win vs. Penn State with a dominant 38-13 win at Michigan State on Saturday. QB Nico Iamaleava has combined for eight total touchdowns in two games with UCLA looking to defend its home turf in the first meeting between the two teams as Big Ten members, along with first meeting since 1955.

Maryland is also set to play in the Rose Bowl for the first time, but more importantly, head coach Mike Locksley is looking to guide his team to its first win since the first bye week. Maryland dropped consecutive home games to Washington and Nebraska by a combined seven points, though nearly mounted a comeback after scoring 17 consecutive points to take a 31-24 leading into the fourth quarter against the Huskers.

But in a week when head coach Mike Locksley emphasized the need to finish, Maryland was outscored 10-0 in the final quarter to fall to 4-2 (1-2). Now, the team will fly out on Thursday in hopes of avoiding a three-game slide heading into the final bye of the season.

“We got to get a lot of work done and get this one behind us pretty quickly, while making the necessary corrections for the trip out to LA, and so we'll turn the page quickly,” Locksley said after the game. “We'll get back on the horse. We'll continue to coach the crap out of this team. And I feel really good about this team. I know you guys gonna write what you got to write, but nobody can watch what we did today and feel like it's the same old Maryland because I don't see that. And I'll continue to tell you those things.”

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