The Terps continue to move up in the polls this week despite coming off of a bye this past Saturday.
Maryland received 36 points in this week's Associated Press Top 25 poll, the most points the Terps have received in an AP poll this season. The Terps were also third among 'others receiving votes' in the Week 10 poll behind Texas (58) and Kentucky (57), unofficially coming in at No. 28 in this week's rankings.
Despite entering Saturday's game at Wisconsin with their highest AP ranking of the season, the Terps open as 5.5-point underdogs versus the Badgers, who are also coming off of a bye week.
It has been a rollercoaster of a season so far for the Badgers, who fired head coach Paul Chryst in-season after starting 2-3. They have gone 2-1 since, with wins over Northwestern and Purdue and a loss at Michigan State.
The Terps got some much needed time to rest and heal up this past Saturday, coming off of an impressive homecoming win over Northwestern on Oct. 22, clinching bowl eligibility after just eight games for the first time since 2010.
The bye week couldn't have come at a better time for the Terps, as starting quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa did not play versus Northwestern after re-aggravating a sprained MCL he suffered earlier in the season versus Michigan. The Terps were also without true freshman star linebacker Jaishawn Barham, who missed his first game of the season, as well as fellow starting linebacker Ruben Hyppolite, who has been dealing with a nagging ankle injury for much of the season.
The biggest question for the Terps heading into Week 10 is obviously the status of Tagovailoa, which Head coach Mike Locksley addressed during the bye week.
"The expectations is he should be available to play in the Wisconsin game," Locksley said during his weekly press conference. "This week, it's a game-time decision still. We expect him to participate in practices, as much as he can do. It's a day-to-day deal because it's about how his body feels. It's about strengthening, he's done a ton of rehab work last week, he'll get a ton of it this week, as well as next week. For us, it's mostly trying to get him back into conditioning. Limiting how much we do with him early in the week, to see how is body continues to respond. But the expectations is that Lia should be back and as close to 100 percent as he was prior to the Indiana game."
The Terps and Badgers will kickoff this Saturday in Madison at noon ET and the game will be broadcast on Big Ten Network.
