Maryland Football opponent overview: Rutgers Scarlet Knights

John Gugs
1 day ago
4 min read

Since joining the Big Ten, Maryland is 6-5 against the Scarlet Knights with Rutgers on a two-game winning streak over the Terps. Maryland will look to avenge their 35-20 loss to Rutgers last season when they host them on October 17th for the homecoming game.

Rutgers finished the 2025 season 5-7, missing a bowl game for the first time since 2022 when the Terps last beat the Scarlet Knights. Rutgers is led by Greg Schiano who is 99-108 in his career at Rutgers with a conference record of 43-87. Schiano is another head coach that seems to be on the hot seat like the Terps very own Mike Locksley. This very well could end up being a game that both coaches will need to win if they will want to keep their jobs.

Offense

Key Players: WR KJ Duff, RB Antwan Raymond

Scoring: 28.7 ppg

Passing: 266.1 ypg

Rushing: 141 ypg

Turnovers: .9 turnovers per game

Rutgers comes into the season losing their quarterback in Anthony Kaliakmanis after he threw for 3,124 yards and 20 touchdowns in 2025. Rutgers enters the fall with a quarterback competition on their hands between last year's backup in AJ Surace and incoming transfer out of Boston College in Dylan Lonergan. Surace went 4/9 for 58 yards and two touchdowns last year in just three appearances. Surace was a three star quarterback in the 2024 high school class and was the number four ranked player in the state of New Jersey. Lonergan threw for 2,025 yards and 12 touchdowns while throwing five interceptions in 2025 and will look to earn the starting spot over Surace.

Luckily for whoever wins the starting job, they will be able to lean on two experienced returning skill players in KJ Duff and Antwan Raymond. Duff is a 6-foot-6, 220 pound receiver who is great at using his height and length to his advantage. Many times last season when matched up against much smaller defenders, he would be able to use his size to win the 50/50 match ups with ease. In 2025, Duff finished the season leading the Scarlet Knights in receptions with 60, receiving yards with 1,084, and receiving touchdowns with seven. Expect Duff to once against be the Scarlet Knight quarterback’s favorite target this season, especially in the red zone.

Raymond filled the role of star running back with ease in his first season as a starter after Kyle Monongai left Rutgers for the NFL. Raymond ran for 1,241 yards and 13 touchdowns while averaging 5.1 yards per carry. After his performance last season, Raymond earned himself second team All-B1G honors and won himself the Jon Cornish Trophy which is given to the best Canadian born player every season. With Raymond back for another season, the Scarlet Knights will look to build on their run game totals in 2025 to help out their new starting quarterback.

Defense

Key Players: DE Malachi Davis, LB Ty Morris

Scoring: 31.8 ppg

Passing: 222.9 ypg

Rushing: 209.9 ypg

Turnovers: .9 turnovers per game

Unlike their offense where they will look to have a returning player in every starting spot, the Rutgers defense will have several incoming transfers in starting spots this season. Rutgers brought in ten total defensive players through the portal including one former Terp in Kevyn Humes.

One of the key incoming transfers that Rutgers brought in is Malachi Davis. Davis is a 6-foot-4 250 pound defensive end out of Toledo. In his first three years, Davis had 56 total tackles and eight sacks. As a team last year, Rutgers only tallied 11 sacks the entire year. In 2026, Rutgers will lean on Davis to lead their front seven to help get after the quarterback much better.

In the linebacker room, Ty Morris will look to be the leader of the group as only one projected starter will be a returning player. Morris is out of Rice where he totaled 153 total tackles, seven sacks, two forced fumbles, and four pass deflections in three seasons with the Owls. The 6-foot-2, 235 pound linebacker will lead a room full of transfers with the only projected starter that is a returning player being DK Gilley who did not play at all in 2025.

In the secondary, the Scarlet Knights are filled with unknowns as well. They have just one returning starter in Kaj Sanders at strong safety. Mikey Munn out of South Dakota will look to lock down one corner spot while Rutgers will look at returners Chris Joines and Kevin Levy to hold down the other two secondary spots. Joines and Levy only totaled 11 tackles between the two last season but will look to prove they deserve their starting roles early on in the season.

What to watch for

With Rutgers having a new quarterback for the first time in three years, how Surace or Lonergan handle the pressure that a very good defensive line have will be key to the Scarlet Knight’s success this season. Rutgers’ offensive line in 2025 allowed the 11th most sacks in the country with 38 last season. Rutgers returns two starters from last years’ offensive line and will look at backups from last season to fill in the holes that opened up.

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