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Maryland enters Saturday's game at Penn State in a pretty good spot. The Terrapins are 4-0, just a couple of slots outside the top 25 in both major polls, and have a chance to win a game they haven't really been expected to win -- even though they've been betted up to road favorites this week.
Penn State is in a trickier position. The Nittany Lions are 3-2 after an overtime win against Minnesota last week, which included kicker Joey Julius having a game-long beef with the Gophers' special teamers. A loss to a non-Ohio State or Michigan Big Ten East team would bring nothing good for head coach James Franklin.
A win for Penn State would merely keep the program where it's supposed to be, avoiding the pitfalls that would come with a home loss to a historically lesser team. A win for Maryland would give the Terps their first 5-0 start since 2001, when they won the ACC championship. Times (and conferences) have really changed.
How to watch, stream, and listen
TV: Noon ET, Big Ten Network. The broadcasters are Kevin Kugler, Matt Millen, and Lisa Byington.
Radio: Maryland | Penn State
Online streaming: BTN2Go
Spread: Penn State opened as a narrow favorite, but Vegas has flipped Maryland to the favorite during the week.
Make friends: Terps, to Testudo Times! Penn Staters, to Black Shoe Diaries!
Three big things to know
1. Uh, Maryland's undefeated. So what's the deal about that? The Terps were horrible in 2015, going 3-9 in a year that included Randy Edsall's firing at midseason. But things have gone well under new coach D.J. Durkin. Maryland hasn't played anyone of consequence yet -- its best wins have come against Purdue and UCF -- but the Terps have resembled a competent program for the first time in about two years. A team that threw a nation-worst 29 interceptions in 12 games last year has now thrown one in four, and the running game has thrived. It's hard to say if Maryland's actually that good, but things have sure gone well so far.
2. Penn State has had a rocky start, with a few encouraging things. The good news for Penn State is that quarterback Trace McSorley has acquitted himself fine, and the Nittany Lions still have star running back Saquon Barkley and a dangerous group of tight ends and receivers. The bad news is that the offensive line, bad for years, is still not good, and what had been a dominant defensive front has looked shaky since losing four line starters after last season. Teams are running for a 4.9-yard average against PSU, up from 3.9 last year and 3.0 the year before that. It's a bad trend.
3. Penn State has historically dominated this series. The Nittany Lions are 36-2-1 against Maryland, having rolled the Terps on an almost annual basis from the 1960s until the early 1990s, when PSU joined the Big Ten. The teams started playing again in 2014, when Maryland also joined the conference. Maryland's win in Happy Valley that year was its first in 23 such tries all-time, ending a remarkable stretch of futility. The Terps will now play there every other year, as the teams share the Big Ten East and will annually be on each other's schedules.