Maryland starting quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa has opted out of the upcoming Music City Bowl, head coach Mike Locksley announced Tuesday during his pre-bowl press conference.
"To address the elephant in the room, Talia Tagovailoa has opted out of the game," Locksley said. "He won't be playing. We certainly thank him and his family for all he's given this program over the last four years. But like all positions, it is next man up."
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With Tagovailoa moving on to the next stage of his career, backup quarterbacks Billy Edwards Jr. and Cam Edge are expected to each see the bulk of snaps versus Auburn.
"And this provides Billy Edwards, Cam Edge, Champ Long, Jaden Sauray, some of the quarterbacks in our program an opportunity here as we head into the bowl game. And I'm excited to see what Billy can do. You almost look at this game like a preseason game leading into next year. It gives us an opportunity to evaluate our quarterback situation going into the next year. But we've got a lot of faith in Billy, we've got a lot of faith in Cam that both those guys have the ability, the skill set to operate our system."
Tagovailoa finishes his Maryland career as the Big Ten's all-time passing leader with 11,256 yards. He leaves College Park as Maryland's all-time leader in career completions (955), career completion percentage (67.1%), career passing touchdowns (76) and career 300-yard passing games (15).
Tagovailoa helped establish a new, winning era of Maryland football under Locksley, helping guide the Terps to three straight winning seasons and back-to-back bowl wins for the first time 2002-2003.
The Terps will be making their 30th all-time bowl appearance when they face Auburn in the TransPerfect Music City Bowl on December 30 at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee.
The game is scheduled for a 2 p.m. EST kickoff and will be televised nationally on ABC.
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