Billy Edwards Jr. was among the first Maryland football players to step onto the field Saturday morning, hours before the season-opening kickoff against Connecticut at SECU Stadium. The redshirt junior, wearing noise-canceling headphones, had a bounce in his step and smiled broadly while enthusiastically acknowledging the teammates who began emerging from the tunnel to join him.
The confident, almost carefree body language provided the initial indication Edwards had won the starting quarterback job following a competition that began in the spring and stretched through training camp this past month in the quest to replace record-setter Taulia Tagovailoa.