After upsetting Texas in the season opener, Maryland returns to College Park to take on Towson. Saturday’s game will be the second time the Terps faced the Tigers, who are located less than 50 miles away from the Maryland campus.
Matchup: Towson at Maryland
Game time: 12 p.m. EST
TV/Stream: Big Ten Network
The Skinny
Maryland has a good track record when it comes to home openers as the team has won 11 straight home openers. Maryland’s last defeat in a home opener was in 2005 against Clemson, who was ranked 25th in the country at the time.
The Terps are favorites to win this non-conference matchup, but head coach D.J. Durkin knows Towson, who beat Morgan State 10-0 last week, possess a talented defense.
“We know we have a very talented opponent [Towson] ahead of us,” Durkin said. Towson’s defense runs around and plays really, really hard. They’re impressive to watch on tape, they’re fundamentally sound.”
Maryland will be without it’s starting quarterback Tyrrell Pigrome, who torn his ACL in the third quarter of the Texas game. This means freshman Kasim Hill will take over as the starting quarterback. Durkin has a lot of confidence in Hill, who played for nationally ranked St. John’s College High School last season and was named D.C. Gatorade Player of the Year.
“He’s been like a veteran guy since day one when he got here,” Durkin said. “We can do everything we want to do in our offense with him, and we will. There will certainly be freshman moments or whatever, but Kasim is the right guy you want to be in that spot.”
The Terps will not have defensive lineman Jesse Aniebonam or Antwaine Richardson, who was taken out of the Texas game on an ambulance.
“Antwaine Richardson – the scariest injury, taken out on the ambulance – he is doing fine,” Durkin said. “He’s day-to-day. He’s going through the concussion protocol right now and we anticipate to have him back here very soon.”
Junior running back Ty Johnson, who ran for 133 yards and a touchdown last week, will seek to become the fourth player in program history to run for 100 or more yards in four straight games.
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