Maryland’s losing streak extended to three on Saturday after a 34-16 loss to Minnesota, dropping the Terps to 4-3 (1-3) on the season. It was a lackluster performance in the eyes of head coach Mike Locksley and the fans, especially considering the Terps are coming out of the bye week, but they’ll have a chance to stay above .500 with Indiana coming to town this weekend. And Vegas likes their early odds to do so.
Maryland opened as a three-point favorite against Indiana on Sunday after the Hoosiers were thrashed by Ohio State in a 54-7 loss.
Like Maryland, Indiana is battling through key injuries as transfer quarterback Jack Tuttle was the next man up after Michael Penix went down with an injury. To make matters worse, Tuttle left Saturday's loss with an apparent foot injury leaving freshman Donaven McCulley as the potential starter for this weekend’s affair. It’s a big question for a Hoosiers offense that already averages just over 20 points per game, third-worst in the Big Ten, while amassing just 22 points through the last three games. Those three games did come against Penn State, Michigan State, and Ohio State as Indiana dropped to 2-5 (0-4) but the Hoosiers have been tested after facing their fourth ranked opponent of the season. Saturday’s matchup will feature the two worst scoring defenses in the conference with the odds of a high scoring affair likely, but the O/U opens at 51.5 despite the two teams scoring at least 60 combined points in three of the last four matchups.
Indiana squeaked out a win last year in Bloomington after quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa threw three interceptions, leading to a 27-11 outcome. Maryland will hope to be the team to end their slide this weekend, but head coach Mike Locksley knows there’s work to do. Two weeks after the Buckeyes threw for 432 yards leading Locksley to say the Terps’ secondary “had guys look like they fell out of airplanes,” the Gophers rode the ground game and put together a 300-yard performance led by their freshmen running backs as Maryland’s defense is back to square one.
“When you let a team rush for 300 yards and at will,” Locksley said. “They have a culture up front that they want to run the football veteran group of players, they're big, they're experienced across the board, guys with 50 starts. And it's not a surprise that that's what they wanted to do for us. That's why for me, you know, to have two weeks to prepare and still give up that type of yardage in the run game is unacceptable and again it starts with me.”
Maryland knows it starts with accountability if the team wants a different result at home next weekend.
“It starts with the accountability piece and that's everybody. I mean not just the team—I'm talking coaches, I'm talking staff, you know. At some point, as I say pride becomes a big part of it, and I'm pretty prideful as a person and in terms of the leadership that I provide. And everybody needs to really take a deep look into themselves and make sure that you're doing everything you can in your power to prepare and give yourself a chance to win on Saturday. Like I said the disappointing thing for me is we had two weeks to prepare, and it wasn't as if they did anything that we didn't expect and we still didn't get it done and that's on me as a coach so I got to hold our staff accountable to make sure we're doing things regardless of who's out there. Again, we're not making excuses for anything and whoever's out there, it's got to be able to execute things we do it we didn't get it done.”
Kickoff on Saturday is set for 12 PM.