⚡ CFB Dashboard

Maryland football coach Mike Locksley has leaned on a reliable safety net for seven-plus seasons: go 3-0 in nonconference play, then survive Big Ten play well enough to reach a bowl. Saturday night, the net disappeared. The Terps fell to Virginia Tech, 35-26, snapping a 20-game nonconference win streak that was the longest in the Football Bowl Subdivision. The last time Maryland lost a nonconference game had been in 2019, Locksley's first season and the program's worst under his watch. That's where the novelty ended. Otherwise, Saturday had all the hallmarks of Maryland's most painful Big Ten losses. Virginia Tech coach James Franklin, who tormented the Terps for years from Penn State's sideline, picked up where he left off in his first season in Blacksburg, pushing his career record against Locksley to 7-1. The defense couldn't contain the Hokies, the run game went nowhere, and the quarterback was asked to throw more than 40 times. When Maryland finally mounted a comeback, two botched 2-point conversion attempts kept the Terps from ever getting within one score. "We deal with the things that we can control," Locksley said. "We got to own what we put out on the field. Our fans have shown up, continue to show up. We got to do our part." On Saturday, they didn't. But linebacker Daniel Wingate pushed back on the idea that one loss tanks the season. "This team is going to bounce back because I mean that's something that we've been able to talk about all offseason, and something that we take pride in," Wingate said. "One loss doesn't define us and one win doesn't define us." The track record makes that hard to believe. In Big Ten play under Locksley, the Terps are 16-42. They have posted a losing record in conference games in each of his seasons, and the running game has been a persistent concern. In each of the last two seasons, Maryland earned just one Big Ten win. Last year, it lost its final eight games. Since 2019, the Terps are 17-38 after suffering their first loss of the season, a winning percentage just above 30 percent. None of Locksley's three bowl appearances came in a year when Maryland lost within the first three weeks. Now they need four Big Ten wins to reach a bowl game, and their next two opponents are undefeated. UCLA and Nebraska are 3-0, meaning the next two Saturdays will go a long way toward determining whether this season follows the familiar script. "We learn from this one and can't let this one game define us as we enter into Big Ten play next week," Locksley said. "Much like if we had won the game — we come in the next day, we got to get rid of it and then get ourselves ready to go play and get back to work." Locksley can say one game doesn't define them. But they'll need to back it up.