Rivalry renewed: Maryland, Virginia face off for first time in a decade

It’s a 128-mile drive between the University of Virginia and the University of Maryland, one that hasn’t been made — in terms of football — in a decade. Until Friday night.

The Cavaliers finally return to College Park in a long-awaited matchup, the first between the border state schools since 2013 before Maryland left the ACC for the Big Ten. The Terrapins are going all-out for the occasion, donning their “blackout” uniforms with a new black helmet.

“Having been here at Maryland for over 15 seasons, and been a part of some of those games, they’re important games for us. And if you look at the type of scheduling we’ve tried to do, this game is in great alignment with how I’d like to see a schedule,” Maryland coach Mike Locksley said Tuesday.

While the Terrapins have entertained West Virginia (sporadically) and Penn State (annually) on their schedule for years, the Cavaliers (0-2) have been absent until now. The schools fixed that in 2017, agreeing to a home-and-home series for this season and next.

“UVA is one of those [rivalry] games, as well, and I know our fans get excited, especially when they’re our old ACC foes, to have the opportunity to compete against them. And I know we do it in some of our other sports here. So to be able to have this game on our schedule was something that that I wanted, obviously because of the proximity and because of the some of the history behind this game,” Locksley said.

The schools first met in 1919, and played every year from 1957 to 2013. With a total of 78 games between them, Virginia is Maryland’s most frequent rival. But for today’s generation of Terrapins, who would have barely been in middle school or younger the last time the two met, there’s some catching up to do.

Quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa, who was 13-years-old when Maryland came back from down a touchdown late in the fourth quarter for a 27-26 win over Virginia in the last game of the series ten years ago, chuckled and shrugged when asked if he knew anything about the history of the rivalry. Who could blame him, though, with many of those ancestral collegiate ties severed by a still-shifting conference environment.

“This generation is not growing up on rivalries because of the realignment,” Locksley said, “and it’s just where we are today in the landscape of college football.”

Receiver Kaden Prather has a bit more familiarity than Tagovailoa, both from growing up in Montgomery County and playing in another historic rivalry that was recently renewed. A West Virginia transfer, Prather played last season in the first Backyard Brawl between Pitt and WVU since 2011 — a historic series, like the one he’ll play in Friday, that was disrupted by conference realignment.

“It’s really all about ignoring the noise,” Prather said of playing in a rivalry. “A lot of noise comes with these games, and all the noise is going to do is take your mind off the task, and that’s to win the game. So, all the social media stuff — this and that, this and that — we just need to worry about winning the game and doing our jobs.”

Locksley noted the Terrapins (2-0) “haven’t had a lot of time to do the history” of the game due to the short turnaround from a late Saturday night win over Charlotte last week to another primetime kickoff this Friday. He intends to do so later in the week closer to kickoff.

“I’m sure there’ll be some some things to explain just how important this game is to a lot of people,” Locksley said. “But we’ll try to do our part to make sure our players understand that, No. 1, is it is the next opponent, but this one is something pretty special to a lot of people.”