Preview: Maryland football kicks off Big Ten play vs. Wisconsin

diggsreport
Sep 19
3 min read

Maryland (3-0, 0-0 B1G) at Wisconsin (2-1, 0-0 B1G)

When: Saturday, September 20 | Noon EST

Where: Camp Randall Stadium

Watch: NBC - Paul Burmeister, Yogi Roth, Caroline Pineda

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

Maryland extended their winning streak in non-conference play to 18 games following a 44-17 win over nearby Towson. Now, the Terps’ first test of the 2025 season comes when they travel to Madison to take on Wisconsin, coming off a 38-14 loss to Alabama.

“Now it's time to put our attention on Big Ten play, which is the new season for us. And we all know, winning on the road in the Big Ten is hard. It's tough to do week in and week out. Wisconsin is a great home environment. They got a great place to go play a football game. It's what you come to play here at Maryland it’s the type of environment you like and want to go compete in,” said head coach Mike Locksley.

The Terps have never beaten the Badgers in four matchups, with the latest one coming in 2022. They are one of two in-conference teams, outside of Oregon and Washington, that Maryland has not beaten since joining the Big Ten, the other being Ohio State.

Wisconsin QB Billy Edwards Jr. is a reported game-time decision ahead of kickoff on Saturday, looking to return from an injury that has sidelined him for the last two weeks. If he can’t go, it will be Danny O’Neil under center for the third consecutive week as he’s completed over 70% of his passes, though thrown at least one interception in all three appearances. With rain in the forecast, the running game has been the strength of the Badger offense in recent years, but it has been off to a slow start in 2025. The team’s leaders in rushing, Dilin Jones and Darrion Dupree, have combined for only one of the team’s four touchdowns on the ground and do not have a rush of over 20 yards.

Maryland has struggled to get anything going on offense in previous matchups against the Badgers, scoring over 20 points once. For things to be different this time, the offensive line has to do its job and protect freshman quarterback Malik Washington, whose shown his ability to distribute the ball among his targets after becoming just the second Big Ten quarterback since 1996 to throw for 250 yards in each of his first three starts.

Four different targets have at least 10 catches and 100 yards through the first three games; however, drops have been an issue to start the year. Wisconsin’s defense struggled to stop the passing attack of Alabama last week, giving up almost 400 yards and four touchdowns. They do have one of the best edge rushers in the Big Ten this year with Mason Reiger, and middle linebacker Christian Alliegro leads the team in both tackles and sacks. They also have yet to give up 100 yards on the ground in a game, which is not good for a Maryland team that has struggled to get its rushing game going.

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