Story By: Andrew Lang
Photos By: Sol Tucker
College Park, MD–
Today was the final day to hear from Mike Locksley and Malik Washington ahead of the season opener against Hampton on Saturday night. Both Locksley and Washington have high hope of improving on the 4-8 season in 2025, but don’t want to get ahead of themselves and take it one game at a time.
Heading into Saturday’s contest, Maryland holds the country’s longest non-conference win streak (18 straight wins) and will hope to extend it to 19 straight. Playing a team that had a 2-10 season last year makes a lot of sense, so Locksley has the chance to figure out what this team has in store for the games that actually mean something,
One of the biggest things the Terps have an advantage this season that may not have been place last year was 10 returning players this season. All of his coaches have agreed that this veteran presence should make a difference, but will it make a difference than the 4-8 result from the team they came from last year.
Locksley said he also considering bringing back players that were released by NFL teams. Octavian Smith was one of the players that Locksley had considered, but said the new rule passed by the Big Ten prevented that from happening.
Under head coach Mike Locksley, the Terps are 20-1 in non-conference play, with wins over Virginia Tech, West Virginia, No. 21 Syracuse, No. 23 NC State, Virginia (twice), and Auburn. It marks the program’s longest non-conference winning streak in the last 40 years.
The first two games against Hampton and UCONN, will give us a gauge on what could happen before the Virginia Tech. Could the Terps start the season 3-0 and let the football naysayers know this team is for real.
