Preview: Maryland football vs. Auburn in the Music City Bowl

Maryland football (7-5) is playing in a bowl game for the third season in a row and the first time since 2006-08. The Terps are set to take on Auburn (6-6) in the 2023 TransPerfect Music City Bowl in Nashville, Tennessee on Dec. 30. 

The Terps are chasing a win in three consecutive bowl game appearances. They won the New Era Pinstripe Bowl in 2021 and the Duke’s Mayo Bowl in 2022. It would be the first time in program history that Maryland accomplished that feat. 

Maryland’s 2023 season was one that is difficult to evaluate. The Terps achieved their third straight winning season under head coach Michael Locksley to further build a player-led culture and quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa became the all-time leading passer in Big Ten history. However, the Terps were unable to achieve their lofty goal of contending for a Big Ten championship, nor did they take down one of the three best teams in the conference in Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State. 

But Locksley views the bowl game as a transition into next year’s team. 

“I always talk about the last game of the year, which for us this year was Rutgers, being the end of the ‘23 season and we transition to the ‘24 season with our bowl game,” Locksley said. “And you can see why we took on this philosophy, because the team that played in the Rutgers game isn’t necessarily the team that’ll play in the bowl game.”

Several Terps chose to opt out for the contest against the Tigers, the most significant one being Tagovailoa. 

Locksley will get an extended look at redshirt sophomore quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. as he draws his third career start. Edwards made his first career start filling in for an injured Tagovailoa in a 31-24 victory over Northwestern last season. He completed 18 passes for 166 yards and one passing touchdown in that game. He also rushed 16 times for 66 yards. 

Edwards was primarily used in short yardage scenarios this season where he rushed for six touchdowns, including three in one game against Michigan. But Locksley says redshirt freshman quarterback Cameron Edge will also receive snaps as signal caller. He has thrown just three passes in his college career thus far. 

“I’m excited to see what Billy is able to do. You kind of look at this game almost like a preseason game leading into next year,” Locksley said. “It gives us an opportunity to evaluate our quarterback situation going into the next year. But we got a lot of faith in Billy, we got a lot of faith in Cam that both those guys have the ability, the skillset to operate in our system.” 

Multiple other notable players from this season will not play in the bowl game due to transfers or draft declarations, including Jaishawn Barham, Corey Dyches and Tarheeb Still. Locksley expects many of the younger players to step up in their absence. 

“I can think back to the Pinstripe Bowl where Roman Hemby and Antwain Littleton showed up on the scene for us,” Locksley said. “I expect that to be the norm now, especially with the landscape of college football and where we’re going.”

Auburn enters the matchup led by first year head coach Hugh Freeze. Locksley is familiar with Freeze, having overlapped with him while he was the offensive coordinator at Alabama.  

The Tigers provide great competition as an SEC team – the conference many proclaim as the best in college football. Still, the Tigers went 0-6 against teams that finished the regular season with winning records. 

Auburn was one stop away on fourth and goal from the 31-yard line to take down No. 8 Alabama. However, the Tigers’ defense surrendered a miracle touchdown with 32 seconds left and lost 27-24. 

Auburn is a run-first team, unlike Maryland, ranking third in the SEC in rushing yards per game (198.4). Conversely, its passing attack ranks last in the SEC by a large margin, averaging just 157.1 yards per game. Five rushers compiled at least 200 yards rushing on the season while averaging 4.2 yards per carry or better. 

The Tigers’ pass defense is its strength, allowing the fourth best yards through the air per game in the SEC (201.7). Against the run, the Tigers struggle. They allow the third most yards per game on the ground in the SEC (159.4).  

Auburn’s list of player opt-outs includes D.J. James, Nehemiah Pritchett, Marcus Harris and Ja’Varrius Johnson among others. 

Both teams agreed to use the NFL’s coach-to-player communication technology as well as tablets on the sideline. Locksley says his team may transition to such technology as early as next season.

Maryland has only played Auburn three times in the history of its program with the last time being 40 years ago. The game will kick off at 2 p.m. at Nissan Stadium on Saturday.