Maryland football steps into famous Michigan Stadium

Someday, the novelty will wear off.

Maryland and Michigan are conference and divisional foes now, so the Terps will visit famed Michigan Stadium every two years for the foreseeable future - maybe forever - and nothing will ultimately be new about trips to Ann Arbor. But Saturday, when the Terps (6-4, 3-3 Big Ten) charge through a tunnel into the stadium with the biggest capacity of any (American) football venue on the planet, everything will feel unmistakably new.

"I think it'll be cool," center Sal Conaboy said. "You always hear about it and everything. It's the one stadium that I was excited about and getting to see and getting to play in once I saw the schedule, so it'll be cool."

The Wolverines (5-5, 3-3) have had a troubling season. They've suffered five on-field losses, a humiliating quarterback concussion episode, the departure of their athletic director and, just this week, the dismissal of a starting defensive end over ugly domestic assault allegations. Attendance is down, and so have been ticket prices.

But even as the ambience around college football's all-time winningest program has faded, some things haven't changed. The stadium is still enormous, capably seating comfortably more than 100,000. And the climate is still cold, with cold and rain forecasted for Saturday. In such an environment, little comes easily.

"It'll be fun," quarterback C.J. Brown said. "We're trying to go up there and get a win, get another win in that 'W' column, but at the same time, I think it's something that we'll reflect on later in life. Right now, it's just another game for us."

Maryland coach Randy Edsall said it would not be different than some of Maryland's other road trips to famous Big Ten sites this year. The Terps will take a walk-through at the stadium on Friday.

"We've been to Penn State. There was a hundred and some thousand there. We've been to Wisconsin and the number of attendance there," Edsall said. "This is what you face in the Big Ten, week in and week out, when you go on the road for the most part. I don't think that's going to change anything."

Andre Monroe, the Maryland defensive end who is one sack from taking a share of the university's all-time lead, allowed that it would be a neat experience to play there.

"It is exciting. It's a place with a lot of tradition, and when you get to a place that has a lot of tradition, it's nice to actually, finally see it for yourself. You've seen everybody else be a part of it," Monroe said. "It's nice to actually [say], 'OK, I finally feel like I'm a part of it now.'"