COLLEGE PARK, MD -- Maryland stayed perfect with a 37-16 victory over Kent State on a sunny Saturday afternoon at Capital One Field at Maryland Stadium. The Terps are now 4-0 for the first time since 2016 heading into a huge match-up with #5 Iowa next Friday night. Tickets are available here.
Quarterback
Taulia Tagovailoa continued his hot start, throwing for 384 yards on 31-of-41 with three touchdown passes. Tagovailoa has thrown for 300-yards in three of four games this season and four of his eight career games as a Terp.
Dontay Demus Jr. (game-high four catches for 108 yards),
Rakim Jarrett, and
Corey Dyches each hauled in scoring receptions. It was the third time in four games this season Demus and Jarrett have scored touchdowns in the same game. Overall, the Terps had 12 different players catch a pass.
Tayon Fleet-Davis rushed for 60 yards and two touchdowns - his second-consecutive multi-touchdown game and third of his career.
The Terps' defense pressured Kent State (1-3) all afternoon as they had five sacks including the first career sacks for
Beau Brade,
Demeioun Robinson, and
Kobi Thomas -- all in the fourth quarter.
After a Kent State field goal, the Terps offense came alive as passes to
Jeshaun Jones and Fleet-Davis set Maryland up in Golden Flashes territory. Tagovailoa then found Demus Jr. for a 33-yard strike over the middle for the Terps' first touchdown of the afternoon, giving the Terps a 7-3 lead.
After another Kent State field goal, Maryland once again marched down the field after passes to
Chigoziem Okonkwo and
Challen Faamatau brought them to the goal line. The first play of the second quarter was a third-and-goal pass to Jarrett which was good for another touchdown. The receiver contorted his body in order to make the diving 6-yard catch, allowing the Terps to extend their lead to 14-6.
A defensive stand and a fair-catch interference penalty followed by a 64-yard catch and run by Demus Jr. set the Terps up with yet another goal-line opportunity. Fleet-Davis punched the ball in from three yards out to give Maryland a two-possession lead at 21-6. It was the third consecutive game with a rushing score for Fleet-Davis. When the Golden Flashes began to gain a little momentum, it was quickly taken away as
Ruben Hyppolite II forced a fumble that was recovered by
Tarheeb Still. The team's traded field goals towards the end of the half to make it 24-9 Maryland heading into halftime.
Maryland opened the scoring in the second half with a 29-yard rushing touchdown by Fleet-Davis, his second of the game and third time in his career he's achieved that feat. The offense kept it rolling on the next drive as bruising runs by
Isaiah Jacobs allowed Tagovailoa to later find Dyches for a nine-yard score, the first of Dyches' career, extending the Terp lead to 37-9.
A Kent State touchdown cut the lead to 37-16 but Head Coach
Michael Locksley still decided to empty his bench late in the game, allowing some of his younger players to get meaningful game action.
From The Coach:
"You know, proud of our team. We were able to handle our business today. Sitting here 4-0, an opportunity for a big game coming up here this Friday here at The Shell. I respect winning enough that obviously I'm obviously visibly disappointed that we haven't played to the standard but I definitely want to give our team credit that we're sitting here 4-0. And we're disappointed so that means we're heading in the right direction. We've got a locker room full of guys that are happy we won, but not happy with the way we played and we know we can play better. It's my job to get us to play better and we'll get that thing turned around. Obviously, it was a sloppy game with the penalties and the drops. On both phases there at the end of the half we just didn't finish the way we wanted to, but I felt we played strong in the second half. I thought our team came out, we made some good adjustments, had some good energy. I thought we started out a little lethargic as a team and I thought the second half we played better. But as I told our team, winning is hard. It is hard to win ball games in this league and being in the Big Ten. As well as playing a team like Kent State. You know, they came in battle tested against two top-ten teams. Obviously our defense gave up some yardage this week but what I did appreciate and like about how we played defense this week was third down and how they didn't allow those touchdowns in the red-area, which I thought we improved from last week. I thought our quarterback really showed command. I thought our quarterback, you know, obviously threw for over 300 yards, was playing at a high-level. Obviously the turnover there with the tipped interception was disappointing but you know, he's been incredibly efficient at running what we want to get run on offense. I think he'll continue to get better. The normal 24-hour (celebrating a win) rule obviously is cut in half now. We've got to come back in again tomorrow, which is typically their day off and we've got to put this game behind us, getting things cleaned up, and and start on our Iowa prep tomorrow.
Still Perfect
- The Terps moved to 4-0 for the first time since the 2016 season when they also started 4-0 and finished the non-conference slate undefeated.
- The last time the Terps started 5-0 was in the ACC Championship season of 2001 when the Terps started 7-0 on the way to the Orange Bowl.
Taulia's Torrid Start Continues
- Taulia Tagovailoa continued to rack up impressive numbers as the Terps' signal-caller. Tagovailoa threw for 384 yards and now has 1,340 on the young season, averaging 335 yards per game, which is among the national leaders.
- His 384 yards is the 11th-most in a game in Maryland history, right behind his own mark at 10th of 394 when he threw for a career-high 394 vs. Minnesota (10/30/20). Tagovailoa moved ahead of Scott McBrien's career-high of 381 in the 2004 Gator Bowl vs. West Virginia.
- The 31 completions are one shy of his career-high of 32, set earlier this year against West Virginia. The 31 rank tied for 14th in a game in Maryland history,.
- His yardage total is the most for the first four games of a season since Scott Milanovich threw for 1,607 yards in 1993.
- Tagovailoa posted the fourth 300-yard passing game of his career and third this season with 357 yards.
- With three 300-yard passing games in four contests this season, Tagovailoa is tied for fourth-most in a single season in Maryland history. Only Scott Milanovich (five in 1993), John Kaleo (four in 1992) and Dan Henning (four in 1986) threw for more. Milanovich also had three 300-yard games in 1994.
- With four 300-yard games in his career, he is now tied with Chris Turner (2007-09), and Kaleo (1991-92) for the third-most in a career. Milanovich has the most with 10 from 1992-95 and Henning had five from 1985-87.
- Tagovailoa continued his accuracy completing 31-41 passes for a 75.6 completion percentage. He came into the game third in the nation at 75.5.
- Overall this season, Tagovailoa's numbers are now: 111-of-147 for 1,340 yards for a 75.6 completion percentage with 10 touchdown passes and just one interception.
Demus-Jarrett Touchdown Makers
- For the third time this season, Dontay Demus Jr., and Rakim Jarrett scored receiving touchdowns in the same game. They also did it against Howard and West Virginia.
Demus Dominating
- With four catches for 108 yards, Dontay Demus Jr. has caught a pass in 26 straight games, dating back to October 27, 2018, tied for the 12th-longest streak in the country and fourth-longest in the Big Ten - entering the day.
- Demus Jr. had his seventh 100-yard receiving game and third this season, following 128 vs. Howard and 133 vs. West Virginia. He's now tied for second all-time in career 100-yard games with Vernon Davis and Torrey Smith. Jermaine Lewis holds the school record with 14 from 1992-95.
- Demus Jr., moved to 11th on the career receiving yardage list as he had 108 against Kent State to give him 1,714 in his career. Demus passed Ferrell Edmunds (1,641).
- With his touchdown in the game against Kent State, he now has 13 in his career to stand tied for sixth Darrius Heyward-Bey (13) and Guilian Gary (13) in career receiving touchdowns at Maryland. Next on the list with 14 is Stefon Diggs.
Fleet-Davis Fleet Of Foot
- Tayon Fleet-Davis had his second-career multi-rushing touchdown game, with the first coming at Bowling Green (9/8/18).
- It was his third overall multi-TD game as he also had two last week at Illinois (9/17/21) on a rushing and receiving score.
- Fleet-Davis scored a rushing touchdown for the third consecutive game marking the first time Javon Leake scored rushing touchdowns in three consecutive games in 2019. Leake scored five total touchdowns against Rutgers (2), Purdue, and Indiana (2) from Oct. 5-19, 2019.
Sacks Galore
Petrino on The Charts
- Kicker Joseph Petrino stands 10th in career scoring with 181. Next on the list is Steve Atkins, who stands ninth all-time with 192.
- Petrino has 25 made field goals in his career to rank 13th all-time. Next on the list at No. 12 is All-American Dale Castro, who had 27.
- With 106 extra points, he also ranks fourth in Maryland history. Third on the list is Brad Craddock with 126.
Terps' MAC Attack
- Maryland is now 10-4 all-time against teams from the Mid-American Conference, winning its first-ever meeting with Kent State on Saturday.
- Prior to this Kent State game, the Terps' last game vs. a MAC team was a 45-14 win over Bowling Green in 2018.
More Notes
- The Terps had 12 different receivers catch a pass, the most in a game for Maryland since they had 11 against Indiana (11/7/15).
- Corey Dyches scored his first-career touchdown on a 9-yard catch in the third quarter.
- Anthony Pecorella pinned Kent State at the 6-yard line with his first punt of the game and added another inside the 20 later in the first half and now has five punts this season that landed inside the 20-yard line
- Challen Faamatau had the longest rush of his career with a rush of 19 yards in the first quarter. He also had his longest career reception, for 11 yards, on his second-career catch.
- Colby McDonald had a career-long 19-yard rush in the fourth quarter.
Up Next
- Maryland will welcome the No. 5 Iowa Hawkeyes to College Park on Friday, Oct. 1 at 8 pm. The game will be broadcast on FS1 and can be heard on the Maryland Sports Radio Network.
- Tickets are available here.
