The Maryland Terrapins football team represents the University of Maryland, College Park in the sport of American football. The Terrapins compete in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and the Big Ten Conference. The Terrapins joined the Big Ten Conference on July 1, 2014, following 62 years in the Atlantic Coast Conference as a founding member. Mike Locksley is the head coach of the Terrapins.
Since 1950, the Terrapins have played their home games at SECU Stadium[2] in College Park, Maryland with occasional home games from time to time in Baltimore, making them one of two FBS football teams in the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area (Navy Midshipmen) and the closest Football Bowl Subdivision team to Washington, D.C. The team’s official colors of red, white, black, and gold have been in use in some combination since the 1920s and are taken from Maryland’s state flag, and the Terrapins nickname — often abbreviated as “Terps” — was adopted in 1933 after the diamondback terrapin, a turtle species native to the state. Maryland shares storied rivalries with Virginia and West Virginia.
The program’s achievements have included one national championship,[3] nine ACC championships, two Southern Conference championships, 12 consensus All-Americans, several Hall of Fame inductees, and 28 bowl game appearances. Maryland possesses the third-most ACC championships with nine, which places them behind Clemson and Florida State with 15 each. Many former Terrapins players and coaches have gone on to careers in professional football including 17 first-round NFL Draft picks.[4]
