Quarterback position up in the air for both Cats and Terps

The quarterback position will be up in the air on Saturday when Northwestern takes on Maryland in College Park, Md. For both teams.

It could be a battle between a pair of veteran multi-year starters, or a couple of redshirt freshman backups with very little experience under their belts as both teams wrestle with decisions at the game's most important position.

Maryland star quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa will be a game-time decision after reinjuring the MCL in his right knee against Indiana last week, according to Terrapin head coach Mike Locksley.

Northwestern, too, has a much less publicized question mark at signal caller. Ryan Hilinski has been in the concussion protocol since being helped off the field Oct. 8 against Wisconsin. Regardless of his game-time status, head coach Pat Fitzgerald could decide to go with Brendan Sullivan at QB to try to give his 1-5 team a spark.

Even with Tagovailoa's status unknown, the Terrapins (5-2, 2-2 Big Ten) are 13.5-point favorites to beat Northwestern (1-5, 1-2).

Locksley said there was “a huge sense of relief” when they got word that Tagovailoa’s injury was not as serious as initially thought. Tagovailoa was carted off the field early in the fourth quarter of Maryland’s 38-33 win at Indiana last Saturday and coaches feared the worst.

But rather than an ACL tear, an MRI showed that the Tagovailoa “just re-aggravated” the MCL sprain he suffered against Michigan on Sept. 24. He was able to play the following week after that first injury.

“You know, I stood there watching them, you know, the way it played out, looked like it was very painful,” said Locksley. “I'm just very thankful that you know, he had the knee brace.”

Still, Locksley may decide to rest Tagovailoa against the Wildcats to get him ready for a difficult November stretch. The Terps have a bye next week, and then face games at Wisconsin, at No. 16 Penn State and home against No. 2 Ohio State over the following three weeks.

If Tagovailoa doesn’t play, Maryland will go with Billy Edwards Jr., who led the team to the come-from-behind win over the Hoosiers with a pair of fourth-quarter touchdown drives. Edwards finished 0-of-3 passing but had a 31-yard run on third-and-2 to set up the Terps’ go-ahead TD, and then scored the second one on a three-yard run. He finished with 53 yards rushing for the game.

“Edwards jumped in and man, that was impressive to watch the way he played down the stretch,” said Fitzgerald.

A Wake Forest transfer in his first year at Maryland, Edwards is 9-of-16 passing for 97 yards for the season, with two touchdowns. Tagovailoa, a dynamic playmaker, leads the Big Ten with 2,001 yards passing and has completed 72.5% of his throws, with 13 TDs and five interceptions.

Fitzgerald, too, has a decision to make, even if Hilinski is cleared to play. Northwestern’s offense has scored just 28 points over the last three games and has been erratic since a season-opening win over Nebraska in Ireland.

One of those four touchdown drives was led by Sullivan, who got his first action of the season, and his career, in the Wildcats’ 42-7 loss to the Badgers, the team’s fifth straight setback.

“When he came in, I thought he was gritty, I thought he was gutsy,” said Fitzgerald. “I thought that he did some things really well, I also thought he looked at times like it was his first time out there.”

Sullivan led two three-and-outs in the first half, when he said he was, “running around like a chicken with his head cut off.” But he settled down and finished 11-for-17 for 114 yards and a touchdown passing – respectable numbers, though virtually all of it came in the second half, when the game was already decided. Sullivan also rushed for a team-high 33 yards on 10 carries and presents much more of a running threat than Hilinski.

Hilinski, meanwhile, completed just 10 of 22 passes for 147 yards and two interceptions against Wisconsin.

Fitzgerald may be ready to make a change at quarterback to try and reverse a slide that has seen the Wildcats lose 11 of 12 games over the last calendar year. His plan was to play both quarterbacks against Wisconsin, even before Hilinski struggled.

Fitzgerald noted on Monday that there wasn’t a big separation dividing the two quarterbacks coming out of training camp in August, and that Sullivan has gotten 30% to 35% of the reps in practice.

“He’s practiced well all year,” he said.

But, as usual, Fitzgerald wouldn’t give any hints about whether he is leaning toward playing Sullivan, Hilinski or some combination of both of them against the Terrapins.

“However we decide to play our quarterbacks, they’ll be each other’s biggest fan,” he said.