Saturday night's game against Michigan kicks off Maryland's second year in the Big Ten Conference, but it also begins a daunting stretch of games that could prove telling about the course of the Terps' season.
After playing No. 22 Michigan, Maryland has matchups at No. 1 Ohio State, versus Penn State in Baltimore, at unbeaten Iowa, versus No. 19 Wisconsin, at No. 2 Michigan State, and versus Indiana (4-0) before finishing up with a Thanksgiving weekend tilt against a discombobulated Rutgers program.
That's not an easy stretch, even for an upper-tier team, not to mention a Terps squad coming off a 45-6 loss at West Virginia last week.