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Maryland's passing attack has Minnesota's attention heading into Saturday

After pulling off the homecoming win vs. USC, Maryland will now look to play spoiler in Minneapolis as they will face Minnesota for the Gophers’ homecoming game this season. With kickoff set for 3:30 PM and Minnesota clinging to a four-point spread as of Tuesday morning, Maryland’s passing attack has Minnesota head coach PJ Fleck’s attention.

 

While the Gophers’ offense has struggled through the first half of the season, their defense has been among the nation’s best allowing just 15.9 points per game while allowing just 139.6 yards through the air per game, good for fourth-best nationally. Freshman DB Koi Perich has come down with three interceptions in his last two games, ultimately drawing Big Ten Freshman of the Week and Jim Thorpe Award National Defensive Back of the Week honors, while he entered the weekend as the highest-graded true freshman among Power Four teams.

 

But the Gophers haven’t gone against a quarterback more accurate than Billy Edwards in 2024 as Maryland’s starting quarterback ranks ninth nationally in completion percentage (70.1%) through eight weeks.

 

“The quarterback extends plays, that's one of the most dangerous parts,” Minnesota head coach PJ Fleck said on Monday. “Everything breaks down and he can extend the play. Really good thrower on the run. He's a really good athlete that finds a way to get the ball to the open receivers. If they're not open, he allows them to go make a play on the ball and give them a 50-50 ball. They're making catches more than they're not on those 50-50 balls.”

 

It's helped that Edwards has a pair of wide receivers coming off career games as both Kaden Prather and Octavian Smith set new career highs in catches and yards, but Fleck pointed back to the Big Ten’s leading receiver as the biggest threat.

 

“It's hard to sit there and say who is the best, but he's one of the best that we've faced, with all due respect to all of the wideouts that we've faced leading up to him." Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck said Monday when asked about Felton. "They don't only have him, they got two others that are really, really good."

 

“No. 10 (Felton) gets targeted more than probably all of them, but they all can beat you and they all can have very similar skill sets," Fleck added. "They can contort their bodies, make back-shoulder catches, win the one-on-one matchups, find spots in zones, play big, play small, they can do it all. Their catch radius is ridiculous.”

 

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