The Maryland Terrapins football team needs a simple result: a win. It's been a month since the Terps last won, on Sep. 12th at UConn, when quarterback Malik Washington threw for 347 yards and two touchdowns to lead a dominant 38-14 victory.
Since then, Maryland has dropped its past four contests: vs. Virginia Tech on Sep. 19th (35-26 L), vs. UCLA on Sep. 26th (54-3 L), at Nebraska on Oct. 3rd (48-23 L), and at Ohio State last Saturday (45-16 L).
The common theme in these past four contests is the disconnect from on-field performance; the team has shown moments of indiscipline, poor execution, unforced errors, a lack of competitiveness, and more.
Not to mention, the team is off to another disappointing start against in-conference foes from the Big Ten.
All of this culminated in a season when head coach Mike Locksley was entrusted to change the narrative after back-to-back 4-8 losing seasons. Not only received backing from athletic director Jim Smith in the offseason but also received more funds to compete in recruiting within the changed NIL landscape.
Now, Locksley's seat is hot as ever, with comments in post-game pressers, or speaking with the media, that have raised people's suspicions about whether this is a coach who is feeling the pressure.
But the common theme among the media and even fans is that College Park needs a change of leadership, as the football program has fallen into the "same old Maryland" mantra every season.
Injuries have also taken their course within the roster over the past weeks. The injury report has been extensive, with multiple running backs missing single contests at a time and defensive and offensive linemen getting hit.
On Saturday, though, the Terps welcome another conference program that's also struggling like them: Rutgers. Rutgers is currently 1-4 overall this season and 0-2 in the Big Ten.
The Scarlet Knights' lone victory came two weeks ago against Howard, 58-7. Their offense totaled 271 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns. The defense held Howard to 184 total yards, three total third-down conversions, and forced three turnovers.
The problem with beating Rutgers on Saturday is that fans and media will most likely favor Maryland to do so and do so convincingly. Well, you hope so.
This contest is a battle of the bottom feeders in the Big Ten, with the two programs sharing a poor stat: a combined 0-75 record against ranked Big Ten opponents since both joined in 2014.
You hope to see sophomore QB Malik Washington deliver a true start-to-finish performance, executing at the level people know he can—using his feet to extend plays, reading the field, and making the right throw decisions.
A victory won't exempt all the problems that are facing your program, but it definitely can lighten the mood in the locker room that is searching for a win and can use it to build confidence for their next contest against Illinois.
Out of the Terps' remaining six contests in 2026, one of them is against a ranked program: No. 19 USC, and four of them are against teams sitting at .500 or below it overall.
The Glenn Clark Radio had former NFL player and Terp alumnus Shawne Merriman on the show today, and Merriman said this about the way the Terps look in practice:
"I was at practice yesterday, and I can tell you they don't look like what their record says they are. If you get a win Saturday, you can turn this thing around... It starts Saturday. If they don't beat these guys it's a different story."
It seems unlikely for some, but you never know; one win can go a long way for some teams. We'll see what this program can do.
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