All of a sudden, the Maryland football has resurrected its season as Mike Locksley and the Terrapins completed the fourth-quarter comeback against the Trojans to secure their first Big Ten victory of the season. A much-needed result for the squad with the chatter around the team being negative after an embarrassing Friday night home loss to Northwestern the week prior. The offense woke up, and the defense played their best half of football in the second frame, leading to the victory. We look at the stock report after arguably the biggest win in Locksley’s tenure as head coach.
QB Billy Edwards Jr.
Heading into gameday, I wrote that Edwards has smashed all expectations that were placed on him before the season. Edwards has been solid all season and perhaps turned in his best effort on Saturday as he finished 39 of 50 for 373 yards and 2 touchdowns and added a rushing touchdown on 25 gross rushing yards. When there was a big play needed, Edwards did it whether it was picking up key fourth downs in the air or with his legs, throwing perfect balls to the endzone, finding tight windows over the middle, scrambling to avoid sacks, or executing a perfect zone read on the game-winning score. Edwards is just a winner and the fanbase has embraced him as their own. The completion in the third quarter where Edwards spun to avoid the Trojan pass rush and then set his feet to deliver a first-down pass was nothing short of impressive. Edwards was making the big plays all night and there is no short selling his impact on the offensive success and the overall victory. With another year of eligibility, Edwards has proven he can take this team to winning football into the 2025 season before the keys are passed to Malik Washington.
WR room
With Edwards having a career day, it meant the wide receivers had a solid day as well as three Terrapins receivers made huge impacts. Tai Felton did the Tai Felton thing finishing with 9 catches 84 yards and a touchdown, but it was also a career day for Kaden Prather. An insanely talented receiver, Prather has shown flashes but was able to put his immense talent on full display finishing with 9 catches for 111 yards. Prather grabbed a 50-50 ball in the first half that displayed how talented he is and what he can do with a larger target share. Look for Locksley to dial up more plays designed to find KP. While the two alpha dogs of the wide receiver room have showed they are weapons, the team was searching for a third receiving option to reveal themselves up until this point of the season.
Enter Octavian Smith who has shown flashes but has not been consistent in his production levels. Similar to Prather, Smith had career highs in receptions (8) and receiving yards (84). Smith also snagged a great contested catch for Maryland’s first touchdown. A positive development for the offense will be a breakout from Smith as another receiving option for Edwards.
The Offensive Line
The offensive line unit has been abysmal for the majority of the season. While this wasn’t a perfect game for the group, they excelled in pass protection. Edwards had mostly clean pockets to work with to be able to disperse the ball around the field. The run game is still a work in progress as Maryland amassed 0 rushing yards in the first half. The running game got better in the second half with multiple big runs including a Nolan Ray 33-yard scamper and a 10-yard Roman Hemby score. The infusion of Terez Davis has been a positive for the unit as his effort and play have improved the unit's stability. Not a perfect effort, but a step in the right direction worthy of “stock rising” for the offensive line.
LB Donnell Brown
In my previous article, I mentioned that the veteran defensive front seven has not met expectations up through the first half of the season. Players such as Tommy Akingbesote and Kellen Wyatt have flashed at points, but Donnell Brown was one who had yet to make a huge impact.
On Saturday, Brown was all over the field in this one with a pair of tackles for loss, a quarterback hurry, a pass breakup, and the crucial field goal block in the fourth quarter – showcasing himself as the NFL prospect that so many expected. One of his tackles for loss was a beautiful scrape run fit as he crashed USC RB Woody Marks for a big loss. It goes without saying how big of a play the field goal block was as well. Arguably Brown’s best game as a Terrapin as he was a key cog in the shutdown second half for Maryland.
LB Caleb Wheatland
Wheatland has been effective all season but turned in another huge game for the Maryland defense. Wheatland was tied for the team lead in tackles (7), along with a tackle for loss and had the key pass breakup on the final fourth down for the Trojans. The final play was executed perfectly by Wheatland. A simple running back curl at the sticks was snuffed out by Wheatland who noticed the running back leak and instead of reaching to break up the pass, blew up the receiver with a fantastic hit to force the incompletion. Arguably the play of the year as the Trojans looked like they were well on their way to hit the game-winning field goal. A great second half for the unit that was led by the veteran group upfront.
Honorable Mentions: EDGE Quashon Fuller, SAF Lavain Scruggs, P Bryce McPherson, SECU Stadium
Stock Down
The Run Game
After a game like that, it's hard to get too negative. The run game was one of the down spots in an overall positive game. The analysis does not have to go much further than 0 total yards in the first half. Especially considering USC has struggled against the run most of the season. Maryland was able to break some big runs in the second half that helped the overall numbers but still totaled only 56 rushing yards for 2.3 yards per carry. With Locksley as play-caller, the run was mostly an afterthought as it was Edwards throwing the ball 50 times and mixing in a lot of tunnel screens and short passes to make up for the lack of run game. I still believe Locksley wants to establish the run game, especially as the weather grows colder and some classic Big Ten teams are still up on the schedule. It was interesting to see Hemby only get 4 total carries all night as Nolan Ray led the team in carries. The offensive line will have to improve for this facet to improve.
Pass Rush
While Maryland was able to create multiple tackles for loss in the run game, the pass rush was not very effective. Quashon Fuller recorded the only sack of the game in the first quarter and Donnell Brown recorded the only quarterback hurry. Often times it felt that USC quarterback, Miller Moss, had all day to get to all of his reads. Despite the defense playing very well in the second half, it mostly came from key third-down stops from the defensive backs. On Moss’s only interception, Maryland dialed up a linebacker blitz that got home and forced the bad throw from Moss. The edge rushers continue to not get pushed and are often found trying to spin move out of blocks to no avail. The pressure on opposing quarterbacks still needs to improve, especially with a young secondary.
Overall, a program-shifting win for Maryland and Locksley’s tenure. It can not be emphasized enough how massive this was as there were a massive number of recruits taking in the game and the atmosphere. In a game that Maryland traditionally loses, a comeback win showed massive guts and displayed a lot of what Locksley has preached these last few weeks. There is buy-in from the roster and this victory shows that this iteration of the Terrapins can still hang with the big boys. A shot of adrenaline has been injected into the second half of the season as Maryland still has some big opportunities to arrive on the big stage. The stock for the program as a whole could be on the rise again.
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