Maryland Football: Terps take massive jump in ESPN FPI rankings
Maryland's preseason projections have taken a turn for the better after just one week of football.
Ben Dickson5 hrs46Maryland did not receive a vote in the Week 2 AP college football poll.
But following their Week 1 performance against UConn, a 50-7 win in College Park, the Terps did take a massive jump in another popular rating.
Maryland sits at No. 26 nationally in the ESPN Football Power Index (FPI) ratings, a 20-spot rise from No. 46 before the season got underway.
The FPI projects the Terps to finish with a 7.8-4.2 record with a 90.8% chance to become bowl eligible; the preseason projections had the Terps at 6.6-5.4 with a 71.7% chance to get to six wins. The FPI also gives Maryland a 1.9% chance to win the Big Ten, a 0.2% chance to win out, an 11% chance to make the 12-team College Football Playoff, a 0.5% chance to make the national championship game and a 0.1% chance to win it.
Maryland is the seventh-highest rated Big Ten team in the FPI, sitting behind No. 4 Ohio State, No. 5 Penn State, No. 10 Oregon, No. 14 Michigan, No. 15 USC and No. 25 Washington. Michigan State, this week's opponent for the Terps, is 79th in the FPI. The system gives Maryland an 82.4% chance to beat the Spartans this Saturday.
The Terps are an FPI favorite in six of their next seven games and have a 49.9% chance to knock off USC on Oct. 19.
Maryland did earn nine points in this week's US LBM Coaches Poll, making it the unofficial No. 37 team in the nation (though it received the same amount of points of UNLV, listed No. 35 officially).
In Bill Connelly's post-Week 1 SP+ ratings on ESPN, Maryland checked in at No. 36 with the No. 72 offense and No. 20 defense nationally. Connelly's rankings, which are predictive and not a résumé ranking, had Maryland 46th in the preseason with the 82nd-ranked offense and 23rd-ranked defense.
Mike Locksley is off to a strong start in Year Six as Maryland's head coach, the first season since his first season without Taulia Tagovailoa under center. Billy Edwards Jr. won the quarterback competition and did a tremendous job against the Huskies in the opener, completing 20 of 27 passes for 311 yards and two touchdowns. Tai Felton also starred in the first game of the year, catching seven passes for 178 yards and two touchdowns. The Terps also had three takeaways: interceptions by Ruben Hyppolite II and Glendon Miller and a fumble recovery by Ricardo Cooper Jr.
