Big Ten Football: Maryland vs Virginia Preview, Prediction

Coach Mike Locksley and the Maryland Terrapins are set to host the coach Tony Elliott and the Virginia Cavaliers in an ACC reunion on Friday night. It's the second week in a row where a Big Ten football team will play on a week day, and it will be the first time Maryland and Virginia have met on the gridiron since 2013.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — For the second week in a row, there will be Big Ten football on televisions across the nation this Friday night. 

Coach Mike Locksley and the Maryland Terrapins are hosting the Virginia Cavaliers in College Park at 7 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast on Fox Sports 1 (FS1). 

It's the first of six different Big Ten vs ACC matchups during Week 3 of the college football season. 

It's also by far the most personal Big Ten vs ACC matchup, given that the Terrapins were a founding member of the ACC, joining the conference all the way back in 1952, and remaining in it until 2014. Maryland and Virginia have played 78 football games against one another prior to Friday night's matchup, and Maryland leads the all-time series 44-32-2. This will be the first game between the two schools since 2013, which was Maryland's final season in the ACC. 

Maryland enters the game at 2-0, having beaten Towson and Charlotte by scores of 38-6 and 38-20, respectively. Expectations were sky high for the Terrapins entering the 2023 season, having returned star quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa from an 8-5 squad in 2022. Though things got dicey early against Charlotte when Maryland trailed 14-0, Tagovailoa has still thrown for 547 yards in just two games, both of which the team won by multiple scores.

The opening weeks of the season have not gone nearly as smooth for the Virginia Cavaliers, to say the least. 

Coach Tony Elliott and his team started the year with a brutal 49-13 loss at the hands of a Tennessee squad that ranked No. 12 in the AP poll to begin the season. It only got worse in Week 2, as UVA fell to an in-state Group of 5 opponent in James Madison. Despite only recently moving up to the FBS level, JMU is one of the best teams in the Sun Belt and was a popular upset pick over the Cavaliers, so a 36-35 defeat to them should not be the end of the world for Virginia.

But any 0-2 start that includes a blowout loss and a home defeat to a smaller school that shares the state with you is brutal. 

Unlike Maryland, most projected another dismal season for Virginia in 2023. Elliott and Co. went 3-7 in 2022, and to rub salt in the wound, long time veteran quarterback Brennan Armstrong transferred to ACC rival N.C. State during the offseason. 

However, quarterback might now be one of the lone bright spots for UVA, as true freshman Anthony Colandrea has grabbed the starting gig entering Week 3. 

Anthony Colandrea ➡️ Kobe Pace for the 75 yard TD

https://t.co/qsCrhIS4Au

— CFB Country (@_CFBCountry) September 9, 2023

Colandrea completed 20-of-26 passes for 377 yards and two touchdowns in his first ever start at the college level. It's only been one game, and there's a more-than-decent chance that Maryland's secondary will provide a greater challenge for him than James Madison's did. But it's undeniably impressive to see those stats from a quarterback who hasn't even been on campus for a a full calendar year. 

However, the Terps should still have the edge at the sport's most important position on Friday night. Tagovailoa has thrown for 8,526 yards and 56 touchdowns in his five-year career at both Alabama and Maryland. 

LONG BALL!@TerpsFootball | #BigTenSaturdayNight pic.twitter.com/6pSXNWzXQK

— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) September 10, 2023

Locksley's team also boasts an impressive backfield partner for Tagovailoa in running back Roman Hemby. Following a 989-yard campaign as a sophomore in 2022, Hemby has run for 220 yards and two touchdowns through the first two weeks of the 2023 season, and is averaging a blazing 7.1 yards per carry. 

Overall, the oddsmakers view this game as you would expect, with an undefeated Big Ten squad going up against a team in the basement of the ACC. 

Maryland is a 14.5-point favorite over Virginia on Friday night, and the over/under for the game is 47.5 points. 

It's great for coach Elliott and Virginia that they've found an exciting young quarterback in Colandrea. But it's hard to bet on the Cavaliers pulling off in upset at SECU Stadium given that their defense, which currently surrenders 42.5 points per game, is going up against an offense that put up 38 points in back-to-back weeks. 

This should be a relatively comfortable Friday night win at home for Locksley, Tagovailoa and the Maryland Terrapins. 

PREDICTION: Maryland 38, Virginia 17

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