Maryland football notebook: Virginia Tech's roster familiarity, impact Hokies, near sellout

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Maryland football’s upcoming matchup is being billed as one of its most important games in years. It also comes against a familiar opponent, on multiple fronts.

The Terps face regional rival Virginia Tech, led by former Penn State head coach James Franklin, on Saturday. Both teams are riding momentum from decisive wins over FCS and non-power conference teams in their first two weeks.

Each team is also led by a former Maryland assistant coach.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UywDARfusmk

A Sense of Familiarity

Locksley and Franklin served as assistant coaches under former Maryland head coach Ralph Friedgen from 2000 to 2002. Locksley said that the two coaches know each other very well and that he still maintains respect for Franklin, though the two had a tense moment in 2024.

After a Penn State touchdown as time expired in a 44-7 win over Maryland, Locksley seemed to take exception to the late score and confronted Franklin at midfield after the game. The two briefly shouted at each other before parting ways.

Linebacker Daniel Wingate admitted the game feels "a little different" with the added storylines and eyeballs on the matchup, but Locksley doesn’t seem to be thinking about that ahead of Saturday.

“This won’t be about James and Locks,” Locksley said. “This will be about the players that he has and the players that I have, that know a lot about each other.”

Locksley chose to focus more on the “upgrade,” referring to the increased quality of opponent and much larger challenge Virginia Tech presents compared to Hampton and UConn. The Terps’ toughest challenge may come in the trenches.

Yet there's also additional familiarity given the DMV presence along Virginia Tech's roster, including a pair of former high school teammates in linebacker Daniel Wingate and Gabe Williams set to share the field for the first time in college. Though they won't line up against each other, Wingate admitted it's "a little different" now preparing against familiar faces, but a lot has also changed since high school.

"Guys that we played against before, may know some of their tendencies. But people are way different now than they were in high school," quarterback Malik Washington said. "Players are a lot smarter, a lot bigger, stronger, faster, all areas of the game. So it's really less of like a X and O scout, more just like a personality scout on who they are as people.”

Wingate joked when asked whether he and Williams have trash talked in the months ahead of the matchup, "it's not too much conversation from this point on. It's just kind of game vision, tunnel vision, and like I said, it's outside noise that we don't have to be worried about.”

Virginia Tech’s Impact Players

Virginia Tech leads the country with 12 sacks through its first two games, including seven against Old Dominion on Saturday. The Hokies also forced four fumbles and totaled 14 tackles for loss.

Head coach Mike Locksley described NFL Draft prospect Kemari Copeland as "one of those stout interior, twitchy guys" where he teams up with Cortez Harris, a Largo, Maryland, native and one of Locksley’s recruiting targets. Harris was one of the headliners in the week two win as he tallied two sacks and tackles for loss apiece against the Monarchs, and recorded a sack in Virginia Tech’s season opener versus VMI. Harris isn't the only former Maryland target to gameplan for with linebacker Noah Chambers an impact piece in the Hokies' front seven. Linebacker Brett Clatterbaugh and defensive backs Sherrod Covil and Joshua Clarke also took visits to College Park.

As for Harris, the sophomore is one of 12 players to follow Franklin from Penn State to Virginia Tech, one of the 11 Maryland natives on the Hokies’ roster.

"The front seven is the strength and I think as I said, not just an upgrade in opponent. This will be an upgrade for us upfront for our first test against a really talented front four," Locksley said.

Offensively, Virginia Tech’s system starts with run game, led by sophomore running back Jeffrey Overton Jr.

Overton carried the ball nine times for 104 yards and a pair of touchdowns against VMI. He failed to match that production versus Old Dominion, totaling 14 carries for 47 yards (3.4 yards per carry), and faces a staunch Terps run defense on Saturday. Maryland held Hampton and UConn to a combined 77 rushing yards.

“They’re run-first. They try to establish the running game, the run action pass off of it,” Locksley said.

Penn State transfer quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer complements that system. The junior has completed 77.4% of his passes for 551 yards and four touchdowns — with no turnovers — through two games.

“[Grunkemeyer] plays the system very well at Virginia Tech,” senior linebacker Daniel Wingate said. “He’s able to get their guys the ball … it’ll be a good challenge for us. I think we just got to be on our P’s and Q’s.”

Tight end Luke Reynolds joins slot receiver Que'Sean Brown as dynamic playmakers in the Hokies' passing attack after the Penn State transfer is coming off career highs in catches, receiving yards and two touchdowns in the week two win vs. ODU.

"He's a receiving threat, so he does a lot well for them," Wingate said of Reynolds. "And we just got to be able to do our job and make sure that we do the right things to make sure that we limit some of that."

Approaching Sellout Crowd

Already approaching that point after trending as the hot ticket on the home schedule, Maryland is nearing a sellout crowd inside SECU Stadium for what could be one of the most electrifying atmospheres during the Mike Locksley era.

Locksley noted that Maryland's student section "has been great over the last two years, three years" with the rest of The Shell now expected to fill in, giving the program a chance to prove themselves in a prove it season.

"The locker room is super amped about it. First sellout crowd of the year, just ready to feel that atmosphere, feel the fans out there. Just packing out The Shell. It's very exciting, and we're really excited to approach this week just like that," linebacker Daniel Wingate added.

Washington is looking to see the "same energy" from the student section spilled into the rest of the stadium under the SECU Stadium lights for the second straight home game.

"They showed up. They were loud, they were proud. They were rooting for us. Same thing. Energy kind of helps us as a team. We're looking to find it somewhere. We know we can always trust them," Washington added.

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