7 storylines about Wisconsin football's next foe, Maryland

Some storylines and stats to know about the visiting Terrapins, along with some connections between the programs.

MADISON, Wis. — Dilin Jones could see one of his close friends this weekend during a game that holds plenty of connections between two Big Ten teams.

Jones played alongside defensive back Judah Jenkins at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Olney, Maryland. Both were 2024 recruits, and now their programs will face off Saturday when the University of Wisconsin football program hosts Maryland at Camp Randall Stadium for an 11 a.m. kickoff (NBC).

Jones has emerged as the Badgers’ starting running back the first three weeks of the 2025 season. Though Jenkins has been listed as out on Maryland’s three pregame availability reports thus far, the sophomore defensive back played in 12 contests for the Terrapins last year.

“We call each other every day, just talking,” Jones said. “I’ll be ready to ball out against him.”

Each school has recruited the DMV (District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia) region. Jones, fellow running back Gideon Ituka and outside linebacker Ernest Willor Jr. are all from Maryland. Willor and Terrapins defensive lineman Sidney Stewart both played at Towson Concordia Prep in the Baltimore metropolitan area.

Then there’s Wisconsin quarterback Billy Edwards Jr., who departed Maryland via the transfer portal last winter and found a home in Madison. Edwards completed 65% of his throws for 2,881 yards and 15 touchdowns and eight interceptions, along with five additional rushing touchdowns, in 2024. He also was among the Big Ten leaders in passing yards per game (261.9) last season.

Whether Edwards will return from his Week 1 injury is still unclear and is a storyline to follow this week for Wisconsin. He was not made available to reporters during the team’s normal Tuesday availability for players and Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell called Edwards “day to day” and didn’t know the quarterback’s playing status as of early Monday afternoon.

“I think that anytime guys play their former team, it's an emotional thing. It's a difficult thing,” Fickell said. “I … had have had it several times, all the way back from five years ago. And so it was always something that I said, ‘Okay, look, we're not going to overlook this. We're gonna make sure we communicate, to talk about this, but it's not going to go away either.’

“So, yes, Billy's mature. Yes, he’s obviously an older guy that's been through a lot of things, but it's not something that we would go unnoticed or say, ‘Hey, let's let the elephant in the room be the elephant in the room, and let's not talk about it.’ But there's a lot of other things on his plate, which maybe is even a little bit more better for him so that he's distracted from maybe people talk about that, as opposed to just saying, ‘Hey, am I going to be good enough? Am I going to be ready?’ There's still a lot of things to to be had.”

Here are six other things to know about Maryland heading into Saturday.