Taulia Tagovailoa makes history as Maryland football tops Rutgers, 42-24

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Maryland football coach Michael Locksley took time to praise Taulia Tagovailoa ahead of his final regular season game in a Terps uniform. 

“The quarterback position over the last 10, 15 years has not been a settled position here,” Locksley said. “You can’t put a value on what him coming here has done for us.”

Locksley helped recruit Tagovailoa to Alabama when he was the offensive coordinator for the Crimson Tide. But before the quarterback could play a single game, Locksley took the job as the head coach at Maryland. Tagovailoa then transferred to College Park a year later to be Locksley’s starting quarterback. 

Tagovailoa cemented his final regular season game with a 361-yard, four-touchdown performance to become the Big Ten’s all-time leading passer. The signal caller led Maryland (7-5, 4-5 Big Ten) to a 42-24 victory over Rutgers (6-6, 3-6 Big Ten) at SHI Stadium on Saturday.

Tagovailoa now stands alone with 11,256 career passing yards after his highest yardage output of the season. He carved up a stingy Scarlet Knights defense that allowed the fifth fewest passing yards among Football Bowl Subdivision teams entering the matchup. 

“Once we had this thing locked up, it was great to be able to go up to him and thank him cause he made a decision to come here and he could’ve gone [to] a lot of places,” Locksley said. “What he’s been able to do to elevate this program, we owe him a lot.”

Tai Felton was Tagovailoa’s favorite target on his record setting night — he hauled in five receptions for 140 yards and a touchdown. The Scarlet Knights defense gave him free releases and his speed did the rest. 

Rutgers’ defense was subject to many big plays and penalties that set up easy scores for Maryland’s offense. Felton forced a pass interference on the first play of the game and ended the drive with a 34-yard touchdown reception to start the afternoon’s scoring.

“Our emphasis every week is to start fast. Whether we have the ball or the defense has the ball,” Felton said. “In practice we do tempos to start fast through the week so that’s kind of our emphasis.”

The Terps’ best start this season continued onto the other side of the ball as Maryland’s defense forced a turnover on downs on the following drive. Jeshaun Jones raced for a 49 reception on the next play to set up first and goal, and Tagovailoa followed with an untouched waltzing into the endzone to take a 14-0 lead seven minutes in. 

Jones joined Tagovailoa in having a milestone day, as he eclipsed 2,000 career receiving yards.

Offensive coordinator Josh Gattis pieced together savvy play calling as the Terps regularly marched down the field early on. Running back Roman Hemby scored from 17 yards out to make it a three score game while still in the first quarter.

Maryland’s offense steamrolled Rutgers until the finish aside from a pair of first-half turnovers. The Terps generated nearly 500 yards of total offense, with the majority of those yards coming off big plays through the air. 

Maryland elected to keep the ball on the ground in the fourth quarter to chew clock. Hemby notched his second 100-yard game of the season and Billy Edwards Jr. added a pair of rushing touchdowns from a yard out to secure the win.

The Terps’ defense also continued their excellence — a second-half dominance carrying over from last week against Michigan. The Scarlet Knights didn’t score in the second half until the game was well out of reach. 

“We just lock in. There’s no secret sauce to anything,” safety Dante Trader Jr. said. “I don’t have no play we got to do, there’s not anything that’s like we missed a gap, we missed tackles. So it’s just honing in in the second half, controlling the momentum back to our side.”

Rutgers’ quarterback Gavin Wimsatt was limited to a 38 completion percentage and the Terps even neutralized his running ability, capping him at three yards per carry as the Scarlet Knights’ offense slugged through their signal caller.

Maryland’s win clinched its third straight winning season and bowl game appearance, the first time the program has achieved either of those feats since 2003.

“Most of these seniors came in and we were setting a vision for what we wanted this program to look like,” Locksley said. “And they can leave here knowing that they played a major, major part in it coming to fruition.”