Maryland lost to Virginia Tech 35-26 in Week 3.
Virginia Tech converted 8 of 9 third downs in the first half at SECU Stadium, scored touchdowns on five of its first six possessions and held the ball for 36:38, and Maryland's defenders spent the night arriving a step late and a shoulder wide. The Hokies won 35-26. Afterward Mike Locksley said his team "did not tackle the ball very well" and that "there were no indications for me that we would play defense the way we played, in terms of not being able to get off the field or stop the run," while linebacker Daniel Wingate described it plainly. "Just bad angles, just missing tackles." Maryland allowed 445 total yards, let Virginia Tech finish 10 of 16 on third down, and managed one sack.
The quarterback was not the problem. Malik Washington went 30 of 43 for 359 yards and three touchdowns without an interception, his second straight 300-yard game, with Chris Durr Jr. catching 12 passes for 109 yards and two scores. James Franklin called him "one of the better quarterbacks in the country." That is the third straight week Washington has looked like the player Maryland hoped it had.
Everything Locksley built the early-season case on went the other direction at once. The run game produced 64 yards on 21 carries, with Iverson Howard getting 22 yards on 11 attempts and Harry Dalton III 26 on six. Locksley said Maryland failed to control the line of scrimmage and did not establish the run or stop it. "We didn't get either of those things accomplished." He also said the quiet part out loud about his quarterback. "The quarterback's best friend is his ability to have the run game complement him." DeJuan Williams, who hurt his knee in Week 1 and was reported before the game as likely out about a month, was sidelined, so Howard and Dalton are the ground game for now.
The defensive drop is the sharper break from what this program has been. Maryland intercepted 19 passes and scored four defensive touchdowns in 2025, leading the Big Ten in both, and returned 74 percent of that production. That takeaway identity, not stinginess, was the whole plan. Virginia Tech never gave it up.
Saturday at 1:30 p.m. ET on BTN
UCLA comes to College Park for the Big Ten opener, and Maryland is a 57 percent favorite at home. The Bruins are also the team that beat Maryland 20-17 at the Rose Bowl last October, driving for Mateen Bhaghani's 24-yard field goal after Maryland had tied it. That loss is one of the entries in the 2025 ledger Maryland has spent a year trying to rewrite.
Can Howard and Dalton get four yards on first down against a Big Ten front, so Washington is throwing on second-and-6 instead of second-and-9? Can Maryland's defense force one punt on a third-and-medium in the first quarter, the thing it could not do once before halftime last week? Washington's arm has now produced two straight 300-yard games and exactly one win. A third one in a loss would tell Maryland fans nothing new.
The Virginia Tech result ended Maryland's 20-game nonconference winning streak, and the heat on Locksley is now being said out loud. 247Sports wrote that he has "risen toward the top of every hot seat list in college football media" and framed this home game as a de facto must-win. Locksley's answer was blunt. "Can't let this one game define us with us entering into Big Ten play next week." Asked about the fans who filled the place for a loss, he said, "Our fans have shown up, continue to show up. We got to do our part."
His fourth-quarter choices will get read the same way. Down 15 with 12:36 left, Locksley went for two and missed; after the next touchdown made it 35-26, Maryland missed again. He did not hide behind a chart. "I'm not going to step in and say it's just analytics because I also make the decision," he said. The missed conversions kept Maryland from ever reaching one score. If Saturday is close late, that is the version of Locksley making the calls.
No result elsewhere on Saturday moves anything for Maryland. Watch the line of scrimmage on both sides and nothing else.
The interactive guide has the week's full picture, and the methodology explains where the numbers come from.