Preview: Maryland football vs. Michigan State

Maryland football (3-0) begins its Big Ten slate at Michigan State (2-1) on Saturday. The Terps have shown the ability to battle adversity after a slow start, but in conference play where there’s limited room for error, Maryland will look to seize control from the start.

The Terps were outscored entering halftime over their last two games, 28-23, and allowed inferior opponents to jump out to early leads before Maryland turned a corner in the second half. The Spartans will be the Terps’ biggest test so far this season to see if they can correct their first half woes in a hostile environment.

“When you go on the road to a place like Michigan State you have to prepare your team,” head coach Michael Locksley said. “I can tell you that it’s a tough environment to go in and play for the first opportunity for a bunch of the players that are new to our program.” 

Maryland ranks at the top of the Big Ten in total offensive yards. 

Quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa leads all conference quarterbacks in passing yards (889) through three games this season, and running backs Roman Hemby, Antwain Littleton II and Colby McDonald have all seen meaningful playing time this season. The trio leads a Terps rushing attack that sits fifth (528) in yards in the Big Ten.

“All of camp [the coaches] were pushing us, telling us we’re going to need to be good in the run game,” McDonald said. “My running back coach [told] me we’re going to need all of us to be successful this season. I feel like we complement each other.”

Maryland’s defense worked in unison with its offense through its non-conference schedule. The Terps enter conference play allowing only 13.3 points per game and are tied for 15th among all Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools with a 1.33 turnover margin. Tarheeb Still and Donnell Brown each have two interceptions on the season.

Michigan State enters the matchup after the firing of head coach Mel Tucker. He was fired three games into his fourth season after being accused of sexual harassment.

The Spartans faced enormous struggles without Tucker last weekend against No. 8 Washington, getting trounced at home, 41-7. They had no answers for the Huskies’ offense as they seemed unstoppable and racked up 713 yards of offense. The drama centering around Tucker was undoubtedly a distraction, but Locksley has certainty that Michigan State will bounce back against Maryland.

“I told our team what we saw on tape a week ago will not be the team we face on Saturday,” Locksley said. “I would expect that they’ll do a tremendous job of coming together. We’ve seen that here in our program before when the team comes together and they take on that us against the world mentality.”

Even with the blunder on the Spartans’ resume, defensive coordinator Scottie Hazelton leads the best third down defense in the FBS. Michigan State’s defense has limited its opponents to a slim .189 success rate on third down.

“They always have a good defense, a bend don’t break type of defense,” Tagovalioa said. “[They’re] very athletic on the secondary and they’ve got good size and strength in the box and the front seven.”

Offensively, the Spartans are quarterbacked by Noah Kim. Kim heads a passing offense that ranks fourth in the Big Ten in passing offense, but he endured struggles against Washington, completing just 38.7 percent of his passes while throwing an interception. That came after the redshirt junior posted back-to-back games to begin the season throwing for more than 275 yards and multiple touchdowns.  

Michigan State’s leading receiver is Christian Fitzpatrick. The redshirt junior ranks first in the conference and fourth in the FBS in average yards-per-catch (27.3).

Despite ranking 13th in the Big Ten in rushing, Nathan Carter ranks third in the Big Ten in average rushing yards per game (90.7) and is tied for fourth in rushing touchdowns (four). The sophomore is the Spartans’ workhouse, commanding over 67 percent of their running back carries. 

Maryland has only won twice in the schools’ eight meetings since 2014, with both victories occurring at home as the Terps will search for their first road win in the series since their move to the Big Ten.