Maryland football advanced to 4-1 on the season following a convincing 27-13 victory over Michigan State. 

The Terps outplayed Mel Tucker’s Spartans from the first whistle to the last, and the stats showed that at the game’s conclusion. 

To start off, the offense on Saturday was the same mesmerizing force that it has been all year. Taulia Tagovailoa, who was a game-time-decision following a brutal hit taken against the Michigan Wolverines the prior week, showed out with over 300 passing yards and one touchdown through the air to Rakim Jarett for 16 yards. 

 Antwain Littleton II led the rushing attack for the Terps with 120 yards on the ground and a touchdown of his own. In total, Maryland had 175 rushing yards for the day. 

While the offense shined again, the 11 men on defense shut down the Spartans’ ability to score. Even though Maryland didn’t force a turnover, Michigan State was held to 13 points and did not score a point in the second half. 

Last season, the Terps’ defense suffered over 40 points to Michigan State’s offense, so the improvement shined.

Defensive Back Isaiah Hazel believes staying disciplined has been key in the team’s improved second-half defense throughout the season. 

“Staying poised and staying disciplined is our biggest key…I feel like after halftime we came back, and we stayed locked in”, Hazel said. 

The senior corner also mentioned that the biggest in this team’s defense is the intangibles of their guys.

 “Man, I feel like we want it more, I feel like we hungrier… we want to see bigger things coming to the University of Maryland.” 

Perhaps no one was more proud of this team than Head Coach Mike Locksley. He was very complimentary about his team’s efforts on Tuesday. 

“After watching in film, it was probably the best we’ve played offense, defense, special teams, in all three phases…I thought all 3 phases did some really good things in the game against Michigan State.” 

Coach Locksley and company now turn the page and prepare for another Big Ten matchup at Secu Stadium against the 3-2 Purdue Boilermakers. 

Purdue comes into the game trying to rebound from a tough loss last week against nationally ranked Syracuse. 

If Maryland wins, it would be its first 5-1 start since 2013 and make them 4-0 at home for the first time since 2010. 

There’s a strong belief that today is a must-win for the Terrapin football program.