Maryland may have changed offensive coordinators during the offseason, but that doesn’t appear to have changed the Terps’ offense much. When the Terrapins visited the Rose Bowl last season, they came into the game passing the ball 57% of the time and running it 43%. Three games into 2026, Maryland is passing it 56% of the time and running the ball 44%.
But let’s dive a little deeper into Maryland’s offensive tendencies, mostly because even three games may not be a sufficient sample of what to expect as far as what types of plays the Terps may call.
Maryland’s initial game against Hampton probably needs disregarded entirely for two reasons. First, Hampton is an FCS school. As a result, it’s at least one step below Maryland, and probably two if you split the FBS into the Power Four conferences and the Group of Four conferences, in terms of the different levels of college football. Second, the Terrapins absolutely crushed the Pirates, 62-0. So, you have to assume that, by the end of the game, Maryland was running the ball a lot more than they were throwing it.
Last week’s game against Virginia Tech probably also needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Maryland fell behind 35-14 by midway thru the third quarter. As a result, the Terrapins probably were forced to throw the ball more than they would have liked. Indeed, they finished throwing the ball on more than 67% of their plays.
Maryland’s easy win over UConn wasn’t quite a complete blowout, like the Hampton game was. In that game, the Terps still threw the ball on nearly 54% of their plays.
So, it’s seems that Maryland still prefers to throw the ball more than they prefer to run it, which makes sense considering that their starting quarterback is Malik Washington.
Let’s look at Washington and the rest of Maryland’s offensive personnel.
Quarterback
Last season prior Maryland visiting to the Rose Bowl, Washington had completed 62.27% of his passes for 1,506 yards with 10 touchdowns and two interceptions. So far this season, he has completed 72.17% of his passes for 892 yards with six touchdowns and no interceptions. So, Washington has improved his completion rate by just under 10% from last season and he is throwing for almost 50 more yards per game than he was when UCLA saw him last season.
Washington is still not running the ball much either. Through three games, he has just ten carries for 23 net yards. By comparison, Nico Iamaleava has 29 carries for 141 net yards.
His backup is former Sacramento State quarterback Cardell Williams. Williams is a much more mobile quarterback than Washington. On just seven carries, he’s gained 68 net yards. That’s good enough to be the fourth-most rushing yards on the team, despite limited action. At the same time, Williams is listed as questionable for tomorrow’s game.
That means Fordham grad transfer Jack Capaldi may be Washington’s backup tomorrow. Capaldi was a perfect 2-for-2 for 35 yards against Hampton. In three seasons with the Rams, Capaldi played in 13 games. He became the starter in 2024 following an injury to the team’s starting QB. He completed 125 of 251 attempts for 1605 yards with eight touchdowns and ten interceptions. So, an injury to Washington would certainly prove devastating to the Terrapin offense.
Running Game
On paper, the Terrapin rushing attack looks to be improved over last season. Against the Bruins last season, Washington was Maryland’s leading rusher with 67 yards on just six carries while DeJuan Williams ran 14 times for just 47 net yards.
This season, Williams has lost his starting job to sophomore Iverson Howard. Unsurprisingly, Howard leads the Terps in rushing with 143 net yards on 37 carries for an average of 3.9 yards per carry. He’s scored four touchdowns on the ground.
Maryland may be a little thin at running back this week. That’s because both Williams and Maryland’s third back Harry Dalton III are listed as out.
That means the Terps will have to turn to turn to junior Liam Willson and true freshman Jianni Davis as Howard’s backups, even though neither one has seen any action since the Hampton game. While Willson is a junior transfer from Wake Forest, he played baseball not football for the Demon Deacons. He transferred to Maryland last season and played 23 games for the Terps’ baseball team. That means Willson’s five carries and Davis’ three carries, all of which came against the Pirates, are the extent of both guys college football experience. Welcome to the Big Ten, fellas!
Passing Game
Washington’s favorite target this season has been junior transfer Chris Durr, Jr. His 28 receptions are as many as Maryland’s next two receivers combined. Durr has 256 receiving yards and is averaging 9.1 yards per catch. He’s scored three touchdowns.
Old Dominion transfer junior Na’eem Abdul-Rahim Gladding is one of Maryland’s two deep threats. He’s made 17 receptions for 239 yards with two touchdowns. His biggest gain of the season was a 60-yard touchdown reception against UConn.
Redshirt senior Kaleb Webb is in his second season at Maryland. Webb has 11 receptions for 167 yards and his average of 15.2 ypc is the best on the team. Last week, he had a 44-yard reception against the Hokies.
Tight end Dorian Fleming has ten receptions this season for 104 yards and a touchdown. His best game so far was last week against the Hokies when he had six catches for 72 yards and a TD.
Iverson Howard has made five catches out of the backfield for 26 yards. No other Terrapin has made more than five receptions.
Offensive Line
Maryland has started the same offensive line for the past two games. Redshirt senior Tellek Lockette started at left guard against Hampton, but has since been replaced by sophomore Amory Hills.
Redshirt senior Rahtrel Perry has started the last 15 games at left tackle for the Terps.
On the right side, the starting tackle will be grad student Isaiah Wright. Wright moved to tackle to start the season after starting all 12 games last season at left guard. Redshirt sophomore Ryan Howerton will start at right guard.
Like Perry, Junior Michael Hershey has started the last 15 games for Maryland, all of them at center.
Outlook
Maryland is one of those cases where the stats don’t tell the whole story. On paper, it looks like the Terrapins have improved their running game because their yards per carry is up by 2.3 ypc. But Iverson Howard is averaging just 3.9 ypc and the next two guys on the Maryland depth chart are out. While probably backups Willson and Davis are both averaging more than Maryland’s 5.7 team yards per carry average, all of their carries came against Hampton. So, the Terrapin rushing attack looks stronger than it really is. I expect them to have a tough time moving the ball on the ground.
Of course, that means Maryland will need to rely more on the passing game. So far, the Bruin defense hasn’t been great against the pass. Just last week, Purdue’s Ryan Browne torched UCLA for 378 yards and three touchdowns.
On one hand, it was certainly nice to see UCLA win a game relatively easily which could have turned into a shootout last week. On the other hand, it meant that the offense needed to be firing on all cylinders to keep that from happening.
I’d much prefer to see the Bruins keep Malik Washington from throwing for more than 300 yards again this week. I’m just not sure that will happen.
Go Bruins!!!
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