| The Big Ten sort of half tried to make Maryland and Rutgers into a rivalry. It made some sense as the two east coast schools, and the two newest additions. Then, in the name of "fairness" they sort of established a rivalry week rotation which made Maryland and Michigan State "rivals" in certain years. But Maryland and Rutgers had only played each other twice since World War II, until joining the Big Ten. The Spartans and Terps hadn't played since 1950. Make no mistake about it, Penn State is the school Maryland hated the most upon joining the conference. Does Penn State return the feeling? Certainly not, but neither does Ohio State towards them. And while younger Terp fans maybe don't fully get it, "older" ones certainly remember when the two schools used to play almost annually in the old Eastern Independent days. From 1960-1993, the two schools played each other in all but three seasons. Frequently those games took place in November. And almost always Penn State won, going 29-1-1, with the one win being way back in 1961. Joe Paterno never lost to Maryland in 25 tries. So you better believe it was sweet when Maryland went into Happy Valley in 2014 and beat Penn State in their first year in the conference. Trust me, I watched the game with a Maryland alum. Penn State reseized control of the series, winning the next 5, the last three by 63, 35, and 59. Maryland won again last year on the road. So maybe getting this game at home isn't such a good thing. But Maryland has a great chance to turn their season right back around. It looked to be going a little off the rails, but a home win against Indiana makes a bowl game a distinct possibility, with just a win over Rutgers. You add in wins over a vulnerable Penn State, or Michigan State, suddenly this is the best Maryland season since 2010, the last season they finished ranked. This is not a Penn State team that can control the trenches against Maryland as some of the better ones have, so if Maryland can just rely on athletes, they can perhaps hold their own. The Nittany Lions have only rushed for 100 yards three times this season, and two of those were against Villanova and Ball State. The line has not run blocked well at all. The problem is that Maryland is even worse at running the ball, and a week after an embarrassing performance at Illinois, the Penn State run defense bounced back against Ohio State, and aside from one long run, shut the Buckeyes down on the ground. Taulia Tagovailoa has struggled since Dontay Demus went down, and I don't think against arguably the best secondary in the Big Ten is where he gets that figured out. |
