College Football

Maryland football schedule 2013: Dates, toughest opponents and more

For the Terrapins, it’s time for one last tour through the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Aug 28, 2013, 2:45 PM UTC

Rob Carr

Maryland’s final foray with the ACC is here; the last league game the Terrapins will ever play as a member of the conference will be at N.C. State to close out the regular season. (Well, barring a surprise ACC title game appearance.) Maryland is coming off a 4-8 campaign that qualifies as progress for Randy Edsall, at least from a strict wins-and-losses perspective, and with the way the schedule sets up this season, the Terps have a good opportunity to reach bowl eligibility.

2013 Maryland schedule


Date	Opponent	Conf.	Projected ranking
8/31/2013	Florida International	CUSA	101
9/7/2013	Old Dominion	FCS
9/14/2013	at Connecticut	AAC	54
9/21/2013	West Virginia (Baltimore)	Big 12	47
9/28/2013	Open date
10/5/2013	at Florida State	ACC	19
10/12/2013	Virginia	ACC	71
10/19/2013	at Wake Forest	ACC	80
10/26/2013	Clemson	ACC	21
11/2/2013	Open date
11/9/2013	Syracuse	ACC	55
11/16/2013	at Virginia Tech	ACC	24
11/23/2013	Boston College	ACC	69
11/30/2013	at N.C. State	ACC	61
12/7/2013	ACC Championship (Charlotte)
Date	Opponent	Conf.	Projected ranking

Projections from Football Outsiders’ 2013 college football almanac.

More: Terps' first Big Ten schedule Maryland's 2012 season in review

The Terrapins can make more progress with a little luck -- avoiding multiple serious injuries at quarterback would help, for starters -- but they most likely aren’t going to win a division title on their way out the door. Road trips to Florida State and Virginia Tech are the toughest games on a schedule without any truly hazardous non-conference matchups. They most likely would have to spring an upset of the Seminoles to even consider a run at the division.

Maryland will have another shot at UConn and West Virginia, teams it lost to by a combined 13 points in 2012. The trip to UConn will mark Edsall’s first visit to Storrs since leaving the Huskies for the Terps.

The Terps face both Florida State and Clemson in October, though they get winnable games against Virginia and Wake Forest between those matchups with the Atlantic Division favorites. The back half of the league slate doesn’t have any tough runs, either; the trip to Blacksburg is sandwiched by home games against Syracuse and Boston College.