Maryland football opens as big favorite for regular season finale against Rutgers

The Maryland football team has opened as a heavy favorite for its regular season finale against Rutgers on Saturday at Byrd Stadium, according to odds released Sunday by Vegas Insider.

The Terps (7-4, 4-3 Big Ten) opened as a nine-point favorite.

At Michigan last Saturday, Maryland came back from a touchdown deficit at the start of the fourth quarter to win, 23-16, before an announced Ann Arbor crowd of more than 100,000. C.J. Brown and Wes Brown scored late touchdowns to vault Maryland ahead.

The Scarlet Knights (6-5, 2-5) are, like Maryland, in their first Big Ten season. Keeping with a trend in conference play, the Knights lost by 42 points at Michigan State last week. They have both the conference's 11th-ranked scoring offense and defense, to go with its seventh- and 12th-ranked total units.

Senior quarterback Gary Nova leads Rutgers. Freshman defensive lineman Kemoko Turay has had an impressive debut season, notching 7.5 sacks over the Knights' 11 games.

Maryland defensive end Andre Monroe enters the game just a half-sack away from setting the university's all-time record.