No. 12 MSU football will enter unfamiliar territory on Saturday — College Park, Maryland.
For the first time since 1944, MSU (7-2 overall, 4-1 Big Ten) will travel to Capital One Field at Byrd Stadium to battle Maryland (6-3 overall, 3-2 Big Ten) in a crucial road battle. To shed some light on how long it’s been since the Spartans last played at Maryland, Jack Breslin scored the game-winning touchdown — the same man that Breslin Center is named after.
With a new road challenge on the schedule for the first time in league play, players and coaches understand there will be changes MSU will need to adapt to this weekend.
“This is the first time down there, so there is change,” head coach Mark Dantonio said. “There’s a little bit of, ‘OK, what is the environment like?’ I’m sure it will be very exciting.”
Dantonio added that with the addition of Maryland to the Big Ten road trips out east, like this Saturday, it will give Spartan fans on the East Coast an opportunity to attend more games.
“I would expect there would be a lot of Spartan fans there from the East Coast,” Dantonio said. “I would think there are going to be a lot of people there that are going to make that drive to Maryland, whether you’re from New York or wherever.”
The new atmosphere will be even more elevated on Saturday with Maryland making this week its annual blackout game. The game is being built up as a marquee matchup for the Terrapins, with kickoff set for 8 p.m. as a primetime game.
Maryland head coach Randy Edsall said he’s expecting the Maryland faithful to be out in large numbers on Saturday and suiting up in plenty of black.
“I know it’s close to a sell-out and we’re going to need all of that enthusiasm from our crowd because (we’re) going against Michigan State, an outstanding football team,” Edsall said during the weekly Big Ten football head coaches teleconference. “It should be a really nice crowd, an enthusiastic crowd, and we are looking forward to it.”
With an anticipated sell-out crowd, senior wide receiver Tony Lippett knows it won’t be easy to come back home with a win. Lippett said he’s expecting a raucous Terrapin crowd on Saturday, and it’ll be key for MSU to come out firing to steal that home field momentum.
“It’s going to be a hostile environment,” Lippett said. “I heard they are wearing all black and things like that so we are just trying to go out here and just execute and play fast, start fast and finish.”
