Trio of Maryland football freshmen named midseason All-Americans

Ahmed Ghafir
Oct 13
2 min read

The accolades continue to pour in for Maryland football’s freshmen after QB Malik Washington, DL Zahir Mathis and DL Sidney Stewart were all named to On3’s midseason freshman All-American team, which was revealed on Monday, a fitting honor for the trio.

Washington enters the week eight road game ranked sixth in the Big Ten in passing yards per game (254.4), which ranks second among both redshirt and true freshmen in 2025, while he’s one of just four quarterbacks since 2000 to throw for at least 200 yards in each of his first six starts in college. Washington also accounted for five of Maryland’s seven third down conversions vs. Nebraska while completing at least 70% of his passes for the first time in Big Ten play.

Stewart and Mathis lead all FBS freshmen with 4.5 sacks through seven weeks, while both rank top ten nationally among all FBS defensive players in tackles for loss with Stewart (7) ranked fourth and Mathis (6) to lead Maryland inside the top ten nationally in total sacks (20). The freshmen have teamed up to give the Terps their most dominant pass rush during the Mike Locksley’s tenure with the +2.16 sacks per game improvement from 2024 ranks the second largest of any FBS team.

The trio have teamed up to become an integral piece in the identity of the 2025 team behind a handful of impact returning pieces and an experienced transfer haul this offseason. As Maryland looks to retain the trio with five-star edge Zion Elee still expected to enroll in January to anchor a smaller high school class, head coach Mike Locksley noted his team is no longer “inexperienced.”

“We've had eight freshmen basically play starter reps. As they reach and get to this halfway point, we're no longer an inexperienced team,” Locksley said last week. “I can't stand up here and keep using the word inexperienced with some of these guys because they've played starter reps for almost a half a season and so our expectation rises with them with each and every game. I expect us to use some of the frustration we have with the things that we can control that we didn't control.”

Maryland will look to end its two-game slide when they travel west to face UCLA for a 7 PM EST kickoff on FS1.

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