Maryland football gears up for its season opener on Saturday against Buffalo, the first time the Terps will take the field at Capital One Field in over nine months.
The last time Maryland played a home football game came on Senior Day in 2021, when the Terps were trounced by Michigan 59-18. The Terps followed up the loss against the Wolverines with a win over Rutgers to close out the regular season and a 54-10 dismantling of Virginia Tech in the Pinstripe Bowl, their first bowl win since 2010.
Now, with the calendar turned to the 2022 season, the Terps are ready to showcase their talent against the Bulls.
“There’s no doubt we have the talent, but now we have to go out and execute,” head coach Mike Locksley said. “Anytime you go into a week one opportunity, like Buffalo, you don’t have a lot of information on your opponent … it’s going to be about what we do and not necessarily about what they do.”
Much of the offense returns from 2021, and it starts up front in the trenches. Jaelyn Duncan, Mason Lunsford, Johari Branch, Spencer Anderson, and Delmar Glaze are all back for 2022.
One area on offense that Maryland lost a lot of production from a season ago is the running back room. Maryland’s 2021 leading rusher Tayon Fleet-Davis graduated, promoting Roman Hemby into a starting role. Hemby, a redshirt freshman, enters this season with just 17 career carries.
Hemby is joined in the backfield by Colby McDonald, who rushed for 325 yards on 60 attempts (5.4 YPC) last season. While the pair will begin to establish themselves as the season begins, they will have some help from the trenches.
“We have six guys returning on our [offensive] line, and in our room we have goals we want to set, and I think we have good enough running backs to get us a one-thousand yard rusher,” Anderson said.
One of the top quarterbacks in the Big Ten last season, Taulia Tagovailoa returns for his third year in College Park. Tagovailoa rewrote the record books in 2021, setting program records in passing yards (3,860), completions (328), completion percentage (69.2), and 300-yard passing games (7).
In the receiver room, Rakim Jarrett returns for his junior season, while Jeshaun Jones and Dontay Demus Jr. are back healthy following season-ending injuries suffered last season. Throw in the addition of transfer Jacob Copeland, and the Terps boast one of the deepest and most talented receiving corps in the country.
“It’s great to have [Demus] back, … everything has been clicking,” Tagovailoa said. “I think everyone should be excited for him this year, special things are going to happen.”
Buffalo ranked in the middle of the pack in the Mid-Atlantic Conference (MAC) in passing yards last season, setting up a favorable matchup for Tagovailoa and the Terps’ passing offense.
Ruben Hyppolite III played a pivotal role in the middle of the Terps defense in 2021, finishing third in tackles (62) while chipping in two tackles for loss and two pass breakups. With the departures of Jordan Mosely and Nick Cross, Hyppolite enters 2022 as the team’s top returning tackler, and projects to be a key member of the Terps’ defense this season.
“[Buffalo] has a lot of key pieces on offense that we are locking in on, they’re going to fight for four quarters so we have to do our job as a defense and we have to make the plays that we need to make,” Hyppolite said.
Buffalo enters 2022 looking to turn things around following a disappointing 2021 campaign that saw the Bulls go 4-8, a year after they went 6-1 and won the Camellia Bowl.
The Bulls lost their top passer and rusher from 2021 in the offseason, providing a new look to the offense that finished middle of the pack in the MAC in both points per game and yards per game last season.
The game on Saturday will start at 12 p.m. and will take place at Capital One Field in College Park.
