When Maryland takes the field on Friday night to host Northwestern, quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. will have a handful of familiar faces in the stands.
“It happens to be my high school team’s bye which I got a lot of old teammates, coaches, training staff, people coming up, which I'm excited about, but I think it'll be a great opportunity for us on Friday night at home in The Shell on a national televised game to go out there and show what we're about,” Edwards said during Tuesday’s media availability.
The first-year full-time starter will look to do as Maryland eyes its first Power Four win at home in 2024, but there’s nothing but confidence behind Edwards after head coach Mike Locksley noted, “when you talk about grabbing every opportunity, there's no player that exemplifies that more to me than what Billy Edwards Jr. has done for us.”
“Billy has grabbed the opportunity. And it's funny, because when you study and see and for the first time, like I said, having a chance to just see where college football is, I'm really excited because of you look at what Billy's been able to do in just a short opportunity,” Locksley said during Tuesday’s press conference. “He's somebody that exemplifies grabbing and taking advantage of the opportunity presented. And he's not just probably one of the best quarterbacks in our league right now, but also one of the best quarterbacks in the country.”
Edwards enters week seven ranked in the top-15 among all FBS quarterbacks in completion percentage (72.3%) and passing yards per game (288.8), while his 11 passing touchdowns are tied for the fourth-most in the Big Ten.
“The praise and the attention that we get as an offense, myself, however you look at it, it's nice, but I think there [are] bigger things that myself and everyone in that locker room is focused on,” Edwards added.
In the meantime, the prep has his full focus. As the team returned to practice during the bye week, Edwards noted he made the trip down to Texas where he "was able to work out a little bit."
"[I] was able to go down there, watch a lot of tape. Do you know, work on some mechanic stuff that I wanted to address and continue to make sure I'm getting better out throughout the season and maintaining and then I was able to come back Friday," he added.
Days after being named to the midseason update for the Johnny Unitas Award, the accolades and recognition will be something that the Terps’ quarterback takes a closer look at in the offseason. For now, the message has been “chasing consistency.”
“I feel like, just the way my college career has panned out, the way I've been recruited out of high school, just the way I've been developed over the last six, seven years. I've always tried to have a chip on my shoulder. I'd say right now I'm more focused on the daily tasks, the week-to-week things. I'm taking it one game at a time and then after the season, I'll be able to get back on Twitter and to be active on this stuff and read that stuff. But for right now, I'm just trying to make sure be where my feet are, be as present as possible, so that when the season's over, I can know that, I did everything possible in my capability to make sure that I went out there and put my best foot forward, put my best product up there Saturday.”
Edwards will prepare for a Northwestern front seven that’s led by Maryland native Anto Saka and All-Big Ten LB Xander Mueller.
“I would just say they're very schematically, they're very sound [in] what they do. They know, similar with some of the Big Ten West teams, they know what they're good at. They know their strengths and they play to it. And they're taught very well and coached very well to know kind of what hurts them and they obviously do a very good job of staying out of those positions and those situations defensively. Up front, they have a lot of experience in the front seven, even in the backend too. A lot of guys that you know play the run well. They're stout, they play long arm, play physical in the run game, control their gaps. So I think nothing stands out besides the fact that they what they do, they do very well.”
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