After securing its best regular season in the Mike Locksley era, Maryland football heads to Charlotte for its bowl game.
The Terps will take on NC State in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl on Dec. 30 at 12 p.m at Bank of America Stadium.
“This type of situation where we have an opportunity to play in a great bowl like the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, a lot of credit goes to these players,” Locksley said. “This bowl game is a reward for them … the goal is to go down and put our best foot forward to try and find a way to get the extra win.”
Last season, Maryland secured a bowl game for the first time under Locksley. The Terps dominated Virginia Tech in the New Era Pinstripe Bowl, 54-10, for their first bowl win since 2010.
The Duke’s Mayo Bowl game will be the Terps’ second game in Charlotte this season, as they defeated Charlotte in the second game of the regular season.
The win over the 49ers was part of a perfect 3-0 non-conference schedule for the Terps, before going 4-5 against Big Ten opponents to finish 7-5 — their most wins in the regular season since 2014.
The Terps will be without multiple impact players from the regular season against NC State.
Within the past week, wide receivers Jacob Copeland and Dontay Demus Jr. announced they will skip the bowl game and enter the NFL Draft, and tight end CJ Dippre and linebacker Ahmad McCullough announced they are entering the transfer portal.
Copeland, Demus Jr. and Dippre combined for 78 catches, 923 yards and six touchdowns. McCullough recorded 45 tackles, three tackles for loss and one sack.
NC State finished the regular season 8-4, 4-4 in the ACC. The Wolfpack reached the eight-win mark for the third consecutive season, all under the helm of head coach Dave Doeren. Since taking over at NC State in 2013, Doeren has led NC State to eight bowl appearances.
Wolfpack quarterback Devin Leary performed well early on in the season, registering a 130.9 passer rating through the first six games, but suffered a season-ending injury when he tore his pectoral muscle against Florida State.
Freshman Ben Finley started the final two games of the regular season for NC State, notching a 7:1 touchdown-to-interception ratio.
Maryland and NC State have history with one another, dating back to the schools’ annual meetings while the Terps were in the ACC. The Terps and the Wolfpack are even in their all-time meetings, 33-33-4. Maryland won the last meeting in 2013, 41-21.
The bowl game will be the first ever postseason matchup between the schools.
“This was something we would really like to be a part of, especially because of the natural rivalries that go along with any of the ACC teams,” Locksley said.
