For the first time this season and only the fourth time under coach Randy Edsall, Maryland will take the field for a night game in its Big Ten Conference opener against No. 22 Michigan on Saturday.
The game, which will be televised on the Big Ten Network, gives the Terps their first chance to play at home in front of a boisterous environment after their first three home games were noon kickoffs.
“It’s going to be an exciting environment,” said outside linebacker Jefferson Ashiru, who transferred to Maryland from Connecticut in the offseason. “It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be blacked out. It’s going to be live.”
Maryland is 1-2 in night games in Edsall’s four-plus seasons in College Park. The Terps started Edsall’s tenure at night with a 32-24 win over Miami on Sept. 5, 2011, but they didn’t return to prime time for more than three years. Last November, Maryland faced Michigan State on a Saturday night at Byrd Stadium and lost, 37-15. The Terps’ Foster Farms Bowl loss to Stanford also had a night kick.
The prospect of a night game holds an allure for players, many of whom honed their game in high school on Friday nights.
“These are the games you kind of dream about playing as a kid: Playing big ranked opponents as an underdog, no one really giving you all a shot,” tight end Avery Edwards said. “It’s going to be a challenge.”
The Terps, though, haven’t found night game success since Edsall’s first game. But a Saturday night showdown with a ranked opponent with a larger-than-life personality as coach — first-year Wolverines coach Jim Harbaugh — provides an attractive stage.
“We’re playing Michigan,” Ashiru said. “It’s going to be a live, powerful, passionate environment, man, and I’m excited.”
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