Indiana will play three of their final four regular season games on the road, and that journey begins at Maryland this weekend.
The No. 2 Hoosiers (8-0, 5-0) will face the Terrapins (4-3, 1-3) Saturday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. ET at SECU Stadium in College Park, Md. (CBS).
Indiana is 8-5 all-time against Maryland. IU won the most recent meeting a year ago, 42-28 in Bloomington. That was the last Big Ten game Indiana has played that wasn’t in front of a sold out home crowd.
Maryland’s season has followed an inverse path to that of this past weekend’s opponent, UCLA. The Terps started the year 4-0 and appeared to have a chance to host IU this weekend with an unblemished record. But since they’ve lost three straight, including a 20-17 road loss to UCLA a week ago. Maryland had a bye this past weekend. You have to wonder how they felt watching Indiana beat the Bruins by 50 — right after they lost to them.
Head coach Mike Locksley has a seat that is getting a bit warm following this current three-game losing streak. The Terps beat Florida Atlantic, Northern Illinois and Towson at home to open the year, and then pulled off what seemed like a big win, 27-10 at Wisconsin. But the Badgers are 0-5 in the Big Ten, and Maryland has followed them down the drain, giving away three-straight games in the fourth quarter.
Maryland lost a 20-3 fourth quarter lead against Washington, and then gave up game-winning scores in the final moments against Nebraska and UCLA. The Terps only had 39,623 at their last home game vs. Nebraska despite being at the time a one-loss team. And there’s no doubt many of those in attendance were Husker fans.
In seven seasons at Maryland, Locksley is just 37-44 overall, and 17-43 in the Big Ten.
The Terps are No. 74 in scoring offense at 28.3 points per contest. They are No. 18 on defense, giving up just 17.3 per game.
PFF grades Maryland as having the No. 100 offense and No. 19 defense in the country.
6-foot-5 freshman quarterback Malik Washington has shown promise as a starter for the Terps. On the season the top-100 4-star recruit has completed 59.7% of his throws for 1,716 yards with 11 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. He has run 24 times for 98 yards and three scores. Washington is coming off his worst game after completing just 47.9% of his throws at UCLA. Maryland has only allowed three sacks all season.
So what’s the outlook for this Saturday in College Park? Everything is pointing to the Hoosiers by a wide margin.
As of Monday morning, the gambling forecast is calling Indiana a roughly 21.5-point favorite at Maryland.
ESPN’s FPI model gives IU a 90.4% chance to win. The Hoosiers are No. 2 in FPI while Maryland is No. 55. ESPN’s SP+ model, which now says IU is the No. 1 team in the country, projects a 32-16 IU win, and gives them a 84% probability to pull it out.
The early weather forecast for Saturday is calling for a mostly sunny day with a high temperature of 61 degrees and a 2% chance of rain. Obviously you’ll want to check back on that later in the week.
We will of course have much more on this game in the days to come.
TICKETS AND PARKING
Tickets are available through Maryland Athletics for their homecoming game against IU.
If you want to pick specific seats or perhaps you want to score a better deal on the secondary market, consider using our StubHub affiliate links at no additional cost to you:
For complete coverage of IU football, GO HERE.
The Daily Hoosier –“Where Indiana fans assemble when they’re not at Assembly”
– Join our Premium Discord Chat by GOING HERE.
- You can follow us on X: @daily_hoosier and find us on Facebook and Instagram
- Seven ways to support completely free IU coverage at no cost to you.
