The new Big Ten truly comes to full bore for Maryland this weekend with its first-ever West Coast conference trip to No. 1 Oregon, bringing with it a host of logistical tweaks and challenges.
“It’s obviously new to us, but it’s, you know, with anything we try to rehearse,” Maryland coach Mike Locksley said. “You do the research, you try to figure out the best way to have your team prepare. And I think we think we’re not doing anything that’s other teams haven’t done.”
Maryland’s previous long-haul trip in the Big Ten was to Nebraska, a trip that when they made it last season was the western frontier of the league. With four former Pac-12 teams added this season, UMD will now make one West Coast trip each season, starting Saturday at 7 p.m. Eastern, 4 p.m. local with the Ducks.
“That’s just another thing we just have to battle against. It’s just a time difference and everything,” said linebacker DJ Samuels. “But I just feel as if the way we prepare, the way the staff prepares us and everything, we just have a great support system that will just help us overcome that.”
A 2,800 mile, cross-continent trip adds a few additional wrinkles for Annie Peppard, Maryland’s director of football operations.
“She’s trains, planes, automobiles,” Locksley said, “and I’m gonna just tell you she knows I don’t like working ahead.”
Maryland’s equipment truck headed west at the beginning of the week, having crossed through Nebraska on Tuesday en route to Eugene. The team itself left Thursday afternoon, a day earlier than they would have for a typical road game, to acclimate to the three-hour time change.
“We’ll get there Thursday to practice, and then use Friday for meetings and just acclimate,” Locksley said, “and we’ll have a Friday walk [through], like we typically do. And then play the game.”
Also joining the Maryland contingent are academic counselors, who are used to wonky schedules in other sports, but will have a new experience with football travel. An early departure, Locksley said, affords them more time to work with players and set up study hall areas on the road.
“Our academic people are used to it,” Locksley said. “A lot of these classes our guys take are either online, but because we are traveling a day early, they’re given the ability to either make up the work or get it done early.”
Peppard’s 10-plus years of operations experience in College Park also makes the long trip as seamless as possible.
“Annie is the best in the business at it, whether it’s setting us up for bowls,” Locksley said. “Luckily for us, having gone to bowls the last three years, we know how to pack the right way and set up shop.”
Maryland’s first meeting with Oregon is only the fifth time the it has played in the Pacific time zone. All four previous games were losses, including the most recent, a decade ago in the Foster Farms Bowl at Levi’s Stadium against Stanford. It’s been been even longer — 15 years — since the Terrapins played a regular season game out west.
• George Gerbo can be reached at ggerbo@washingtontimes.com.
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