Maryland finds balance between rest and football on bye week before Northwestern game

There’s no such thing as an off week during football season, even when there’s not a game on the schedule.

For Maryland players and coaches, the goal is to strike a balance between getting away from football and still being connected to football.

“You know, when I get time off, I’m watching football, man, all the time, and I’m sure the team is well,” Maryland linebacker Kellan Wyatt said as the Terrapins come off a bye to face Northwestern on Friday night. “It’s always nice to see other teams play on times that you’re not playing. When you watch, of course you’re studying and you’re seeing what teams do.”

The first of two open weeks, a new occurrence in an expanded Big Ten, doesn’t mean players took a vacation. Some were able to head home for a few days to visit friends and family or to see their high schools play, while others stuck around College Park before resuming meetings and practices last week.

Quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. was one player who got out of town.

“I think right when I left College Park, it started to get sunny here,” the Fairfax County native said. “I felt like it rained for two weeks straight here. So maybe that was a sign I needed to get away for a few days.”

Edwards was “away from football, but not completely away,” heading to Texas to work out and get some practice reps in while getting his mind away from the pressures of being on campus.

“Still watching a lot of tape, going out on the field, and trying to get back to some of the mechanics,” Edwards said. “Then got back in town Friday night, and then all Saturday was pretty much watching football.”

The quarterback even took care of some more mundane things around his apartment while checking out last week’s wild slate, which included five of the top 11 teams getting upset.

“When you get in a hectic schedule like this, you put a lot of stuff off to the bye week,” Edwards said.

Coach Mike Locksley, who admitted being in the daily grind of the season means “it’s like you’re in the forest, and you don’t see the trees,” got his first chance to see what the new, realigned college football landscape looks like.

“Just to really be able to organically look and see some of the games and some of the results. The theme of college football is expect the unexpected,” Locksley said. “It’s been a wild season in terms of showing what it looks like or what it can look like.”

After a 42-28 loss at Indiana on Sept. 28, Locksley sat in the disappointment more than most — “I’m a deep thinker, reflective guy” — before allowing himself to enjoy the games across the college and pro landscape at GrillMarx, the College Park restaurant where he hosts a weekly radio show.

“I hung out and watched it, kind of like tailgating, like a fan,”  Locksley said. “It just blew my mind away. The parody that has come to college football is a lot like the big league, the NFL … and that’s where I keep saying it’s just one game for all of us.”