Maryland vs. Florida Atlantic: how to watch, listen, storylines to track

Ahmed Ghafir
Aug 29, 2025
6 min read

Maryland (0-0, 0-0 B1G) vs. FAU (0-0, 0-0 American)

When: Saturday, August 30 | 12 PM ET

Where: SECU Stadium

Watch: BTN - Joe Beninati, Matt Millen, Michella Chester

Listen: 105.7 FM (Balt) / 980 AM (DC) - Johnny Holliday, Steve Suter, LaMont Jordan

Maryland football is set to kick off the 2025 season at home on Saturday, the first of three consecutive home games, as head coach Mike Locksley kicks off year seven with the program.

Saturday marks the first-ever meeting between the two teams as Maryland welcomes first-year head coach Zach Kittley, who spent the last three seasons as the OC/QB coach at Texas Tech - the same program he kicked off his college career. There will be some familiarity between the coaching staffs as Kittley spent three seasons working with current Maryland inside linebackers coach Zac Spavital at Texas Tech. Other connections include Florida Atlantic President Adam Hassner, who obtained his BS from Maryland in 1991, Jajuan Dulaney, who played three seasons as an offensive lineman with the program and now serves as the Owls’ TE coach.

Maryland will look to extend its season-opening win streak to 15 games and non-conference season opener win streak to 14 games, both feats that rank top five nationally. Maryland will also look to win its 16th consecutive non-conference game, extending the nation's longest streak.

We take a look at three key storylines heading into the opener:

New look pass & run game

In case you missed it this offseason, Maryland football went through a quarterback competition for the second time in as many seasons under head coach Mike Locksley. And just like last year, Maryland will not announce its starter until “he trots out there with the first play of the game,” as Locksley said ahead of game one. Justyn Martin serves as the lone quarterback with experience in the unit after joining the program with one career start under his belt, but he’s battled a pair of underclassmen through camp. While redshirt freshman Khristian Martin will look to become the first redshirt freshman to start since Billy Edwards did so in the 2022 bowl win vs. NC State, all eyes are on the former local four-star as true freshman QB Malik Washington will look to become the first true freshman to start at quarterback for the program since Kasim Hill did so against UCF back on Sept. 23, 2017. Washington also has the chance to become the first true freshman to start since Perry Hills did so back on Sept. 1, 2012 vs. William & Mary.

The next starting quarterback will have a revamped group of pass catchers to lean on in 2025, but the constant at the top of the room is WR Octavian Smith who enters his senior season after notching nearly 700 yards and five touchdowns on five catches. He’s joined by Oklahoma WR Jalil Farooq and Georgia State TE Dorian Fleming, a pair of transfers who arrived in January ahead of expected impact seasons in 2025. WR Ryan Manning will look to build on a strong fall camp to give the offense three Maryland natives starting at receiver, the first time in the Mike Locksley era.

The strength of the passing attack has been made clear in Mike Locksley’s offenses through the years after finishing top three in yards each season since 2020, but the emphasis of the offseason has been establishing the ground game as offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton taps into his experience to create balance on offense.

“Our goal, we got Nolan Ray back healthy, had some offseason procedure that I think will allow him to maybe finally reach the potential that we thought he has or we see he has,” Locksley said. “DeJuan Williams, coming off the ACL his senior year in high school, as we all know, it takes about a year and a half for that thing to fully heal. So a year ago, you saw a small sample size of it. Then you throw in guys like Eli Mason, who we put on scholarship this past weekend, who's become that utility guy for us. We made some power moves by moving DJ Samuels from the outside linebacker role to our fullback and he brought an intensity to our offense that we need to have. And Rocket Howard, who is healthy finally, missed some time during camp, but he's healthy, so I feel good that the depth and the skill set in that room is Big Ten-caliber but we got to go out and do it."

“You guys are gonna see something special this year,” expected starting center Michael Hershey said during fall camp.

Youth movement

Maryland enters week one as one of the youngest teams in college football. Nearly a quarter of the roster are true freshmen, over 41% have played four games or less while 68.6% of the roster enters the fall as a redshirt sophomore or younger. After leaning on veterans like Ruben Hyppolite, Dante Trader Jr., Taulia Tagovailoa and Beau Brade among other, the 2025 team will have a different feel across the roster than in years past with Saturday marking the start of what’s expected to be the youth movement. While Malik Washington is expected to become a big piece of the 2025 season, he’s far from the only one after edge Sidney Stewart arrived as an underrated signee yet enters the season as a preseason Freshman All-American selection. OT Jaylen Gilchrist, DL Zahir Mathis, DL Nahsir Taylor, RB Iverson Howard and LB CJ Smith are among the group of freshmen looking to carve out roles while others like linebacker Daniel Wingate, running back Nolan Ray, linebacker Trey Reddick and running back DeJuan Williams expected to become impact pieces.

“In this landscape it’s really important because these guys are going to be thrust into roles immediately. And because of the new landscape and, again, we've had to pivot as coaches,” Locksley said during camp. “And the days of me talking about being a developmental program, you haven't heard me use that around here a lot because the development is win now and get these guys ready to play now and expedite their maturation.”

Revamped secondary set for first test

While FAU added 55 new faces ahead of year one of the Zach Kittley era, arguably the most prominent incoming transfer was QB Caden Veltkamp, who transferred from Western Kentucky after throwing for 3,100 yards, 25 touchdowns and earning C-USA Offensive Player of the Year honors.

“He's accurate. The ball comes out quick so pass rush may not be as efficient against the guy. And the expectation. Now this is what we think we're going to see because there's not a full body of work. And so again, for us, when you don't know, we're going to focus on what we need to do and that's the communication on defense, getting lined up, the ability to maybe take away the quick hitting passes from a coverage standpoint to not allow them to get the ball on the perimeter. And then obviously tackling well. I feel good about us going into game one tackling because we had a really physical camp and I like the way our guys were able - if you can full speed thud tackle or full speed thud, tackling is usually a lot easier.”

Veltkamp will have a familiar target to throw to in redshirt junior Easton Messer, a 5-foot-9 shifty receiver who joins the Owls with over 1,300 receiving yards and nine touchdowns on nearly 100 catches through his career with the bulk of his production over the last two years. The Owls also added BYU transfer Dominique Henry, who posted six catches for 80 yards in 12 games last season.

For a secondary that finished 16^th in conference and 106^th nationally in passing yards allowed through 2024, Maryland is expected to be vastly improved in 2025 with portal additions Dontay Joyner and Jamare Glasker living up to expectations thus far and Jalen Huskey drawing consistent buzz as the next NFL Draft prospect in the unit. Second-year corners Braydon Lee and ‘Kerm’ Humes will look to elevate in the rotation as true freshman Jayden Shipps looks to breakout in his first game in College Park. Coupled with Jalen Huskey at safety, Saturday marks a chance for Maryland’s secondary to limit Veltkamp’s deep balls as the young and emerging pass rush looks to make its impact felt in game one in hopes of turning the Owls into a one-dimensional offense.

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