It is July and the smell of football is starting to fill the air, which also means there will be plenty of preseason polls that will be coming out and hopefully will tell us just how well the Terps will or wont do this upcoming year.

So, we have our first preseason poll of note, as the Big Ten’s unofficial poll was released via Kings of the North podcast.

This year begins a new era in the Big 10 as the conference welcomes its four new schools (USC, Oregon, Washington and UCLA) onto the gridiron as well.

Maryland placed a very respectable #11 out of 18 teams that received votes:

KOTN Preseason Big Ten Football Poll

1. Ohio State

2. Oregon

3. Penn State

4. Michigan

5. Iowa

6. USC

7. Wisconsin

8. Nebraska

9. Rutgers

10. Washington

11. Maryland

12. Minnesota

13. UCLA

14. Illinois

15. Michigan State

16. Northwestern

17. Indiana

18. Purdue

The Terps this upcoming year are facing playing in the life after the all-time Big 10 passing leader in QB Taulia Tagovailoa, as well as a revamped and untested offensive line that is made up of mostly transfers, which will have an affect on most preseason polls. The battle to take over the reigns in College Park will be between Billy Edwards and NC State transfer M.J. Morris. in what will be the first quarterback battle in quite sometime.

The cupboard will not be bare for whoever wins the starting job as the Terps and Head Coach Mike Locksley return several skilled players in RB Roman Hemby and WR’s Kaden Prather and Tai Felton, as all three will be asked to take there game to another level in order to help out the QB position.

With the new conference alignment this year and the new west coast teams joining the league this year, the 2024 schedule is not looking to bad and couple that with a defense that is looking to be a strong unit and veteran returning skilled players, the Terps should return to a bowl game in 2024. The question is, which bowl will it be.