Two programs hitting reset at the same time collide in Week 2 — a Maryland team that kept almost everyone home against a UConn squad playing its first game under an entirely new coaching staff.
Bush’s Picks
MDCONN
MDCONN
OverUnder
Best BetMaryland
Maryland brings back the most production of almost any team in the Big Ten, and Malik Washington already has a full season of live reps that UConn's quarterbacks simply don't have. The Huskies are working in a first-year coach and a roster stitched together from more than 40 transfers, which is a lot to iron out by Week 2. Take the more established program on the road.
Maryland
+Kept 71% of production, 2nd-most nationally
+Malik Washington returns with real starting experience
+Five-star Zion Elee joins a loaded pass rush
−Missed bowl games two straight seasons
−Went 1-7 in Big Ten play in 2025
−Locksley enters year 8 on a hot seat
UConn
+Candle's portal haul brings size and depth
+Emanuel Ross gives new offense a proven target
+Home opener-type environment against a rebuilding Big Ten foe
−44 players left, 16 followed old coach out
−Unsettled QB battle between two unproven passers
−Entirely new staff installing systems from scratch
Malik Washington is the headliner here. Maryland's sophomore quarterback broke the program's freshman passing record a year ago and chose to stick around rather than test the portal, giving Mike Locksley the kind of continuity most rebuilding rosters don't get. UConn doesn't have that luxury — new head coach Jason Candle is still sorting out a QB competition between Toledo commit Bo Polston and Tennessee transfer Jake Merklinger, and whoever wins that job will be doing it in just his second college start.
The bigger story in East Hartford is just how much has turned over. Jim Mora bolted for Colorado State and took 16 players with him into the portal, and 44 total Huskies left the program. Candle answered by bringing in more than 40 transfers of his own, nearly 20 of them following him from Toledo, which means this UConn roster barely resembles the one that made noise a year ago. That's a lot of new faces to get on the same page by the second week of the season.
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MD Maryland
CONN UConn
Maryland, by contrast, is betting on stability. The Terps only lost five players who logged real snaps in 2025, and they're bringing back roughly 71% of last year's production — one of the highest marks in the country. Add in five-star freshman pass rusher Zion Elee, the top-ranked edge defender in his class, lining up next to returning senior linebacker Daniel Wingate, and Locksley's defense should have real teeth even while the offense is still finding its footing.
Maryland Terrapins
Sep 5?vs Hampton—
UConn Huskies
Sep 5?vs Lafayette—
Recent form.
None of that erases the four-win season that got Maryland here in the first place. The Terps have missed a bowl game in back-to-back years, went 1-7 in Big Ten play, and Locksley is squarely on the clock entering year eight. A trip to a rebuilding program with a shiny new coach is exactly the kind of game a hot-seat staff needs to handle without drama.
Maryland Terrapins
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Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
UConn Huskies
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Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Injury report — info via ESPN.
For UConn, the calculus is different. Candle's overhaul is aggressive enough that the Huskies could look completely different from the team that made waves last fall — for better or worse. Playing Maryland this early, before the new pieces have had a real road test, is a tough spot for a program still figuring out its identity, but a receiving corps that added Syracuse transfer Emanuel Ross gives the offense at least one proven weapon to lean on while the quarterback situation sorts itself out.
