Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Maryland football picked up a solid out-of-conference win against a Power Five school. 

The West Virginia game was the fourth straight non-pandemic season in which Maryland earned a September win against a school from another power conference, joining their back-to-back wins over Texas and a victory over Syracuse. However, those wins over Syracuse and Texas all have something in common: it didn’t lead to a bowl game.

The first Texas win ended in a 4-8 season plagued by quarterback injuries while the second Texas win saw a 5-7 season as the Terps tried to play through impossible circumstances after Jordan McNair died, leading to the firing of head coach DJ Durkin.

(You can discuss this on the BSL Board here.)

After that, the first year of the Mike Locksley era looked encouraging with 650 total yards and 63 points against Syracuse, but that ended up being a mirage in a 3-9 debut season for the head coach.

Now, Maryland has the chance to prove that this time, the big September win out-of-conference can lead to a bowl game. We’ll know that this year can truly be different for the program if they avoid the letdown game before their first conference test.

If we go back to 2019, the Syracuse win was really exciting for what was coming up on the schedule: Penn State in College Park in primetime. It was easy to look ahead to the game but there was a pesky program with a track record of beating Maryland standing in the way: the Temple Owls.

Temple had already beaten Maryland in 2011 after their primetime win on Labor Day against Miami and did it again in 2018 after the Terps defeated the Longhorns. And sure enough, the Owls delivered Maryland another letdown game following a big win.

Josh Jackson completed under 50 percent of his passes, the Terps were 1-for-6 on fourth down and missed both a field goal and an extra point in a 20-17 loss in Philadelphia. Maryland then got humiliated in primetime against Penn State and only beat Rutgers in their final eight games of the year for a 3-9 record.

I do want to give Temple credit for 2019, a year where they finished 8-5 and also beat another power conference school in Georgia Tech. However, they only had the sixth-best record in the American Athletic Conference and were never ranked.

Temple was a very solid football team that year but I think even the biggest Temple homer should agree that Maryland losing that game was a letdown. It prevented them from being unbeaten and ranked heading into their meeting with Penn State. Also, the steep dropoff the offense had between the Syracuse and Temple games was also especially concerning, no matter how decent Temple was in 2019.

Meanwhile, the 2018 loss to Temple following their win over Texas was remarkably similar. Maryland once again saw its passing game become useless, with Kasim Hill and Tyrrell Pigrome combining to complete under 50 percent of their passes with each player throwing an interception. Maryland failed to score an offensive touchdown, with only a pick-six and a blocked punt touchdown producing points in a 35-14 loss in College Park.

Much like 2019, the 2018 Temple Owls finished the year 8-5 without ever being ranked. This meant it wasn’t a disgraceful loss or anything severe, but it became more frustrating as the year progressed seeing Texas end the season 10-4 with a victory over Georgia in the Sugar Bowl.

Returning to the present, Maryland’s next three games should be very winnable. They host FCS Howard, play Illinois on the road and have a meeting with Kent State in College Park.

Howard is an FCS school Maryland already handily beat under Locksley, so we can assume there’s nothing to worry about there. Road games are always tricky in conference play but given that the University of Texas at San Antonio of Conference USA just won in Champaign, the Terps won’t have any excuse if they don’t take care of business. Kent State was predicted to win their MAC division but a 31-point loss at Texas A&M means that a power conference school like Maryland should be able to beat them too, even if the Terps aren’t as good as the Aggies. 

If Maryland defeats their next three opponents, it would be their first 4-0 start since 2016, the last time they made a bowl game. That 4-0 start would also generate some hype for the next opponent: the Iowa Hawkeyes.

While playing Iowa isn’t the same as playing Penn State or Ohio State, the Hawkeyes have been one of the most reliably solid programs in the Big Ten. In the 21st century, they’ve only had a losing record three times and have won at least ten games in six seasons, including an unbeaten regular season in 2015.

Iowa is currently ranked #10 and has a meeting with #9 Iowa State this weekend. Regardless of the outcome of that matchup, it seems like a lock the Hawkeyes will be coming to College Park on the first Friday of October as a ranked team. 

Maryland has a chance to be unbeaten for a primetime game against a ranked team that is one of the Big Ten’s most respected programs. However, the game loses a lot of its luster if Maryland has already lost.

A 4-0 start could mean that this year could really be different in College Park. A loss before Iowa, however, would mean that beating West Virginia was just like Syracuse and Texas: a season peaking in September.

Rose Katz
Rose Katz

BSL Analyst

Rose Katz is a recent graduate of the University of Maryland’s journalism school, where she worked for The Diamondback as the online managing editor and a sports blogger. As a student, she spent almost all of her time on campus in The Diamondback’s newsroom or at Xfinity Center, Ludwig Field and Maryland Stadium. Rose gained intern experience with the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN).

X