Maryland (6-6, 3-6 B1G) vs. Virginia Tech (6-6, 4-4 ACC)
December 29, 2021
Yankee Stadium
2:20 pm EDT

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – The University of Maryland football team will make its 28th all-time bowl appearance when it meets Virginia Tech in the 2021 New Era Pinstripe Bowl on December 29 at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, N.Y.

BOWL GAME STORYLINES

TAULIA SETTING RECORDS

• QB Taulia Tagovailoa is rewriting the Maryland record books this season, already having set three program records.
• In the last two games of the season, Tagovailoa broke the 29-year old single- season completion record set by John Kaleo (1992) with 19 completions against #8 Michigan (11/20) and the 28-year old single-season passing record set by Scott Milanovich (1993) with 312 yards at Rutgers to give him 3,595 yards this year.
• The junior’s seven 300-yard passing games this season is also the most in program history.
• The signal caller’s 24 passing touchdowns is second all-time and stands two behind Milanovich (1993) to tie the program record.
• Tagovailoa is also fifth all-time in career touchdowns (31), seventh in career completions (383) and eighth in career passing yards (4,606).

JAKORIAN PBU-BENNETT

• DB Jakorian Bennett leads all Power Five players with 16 pass breakups this season.
• In 11 games played, Bennett has 13 pass breakups and three interceptions, for an average of 1.5 pass breakups per game.
• The senior has a pass breakup in five straight games, with eight deflections over that span and has five games this season with at least two pass breakups, tied for the third-most in the country.
• Bennett’s 16 pass breakups this season are the most by a Terp since Domonique Foxworth had 22 in 2002.

TAULIA TERRIFIC

• In his time as a Terp beginning in 2020, QB Taulia Tagovailoa has averaged 287.9 passing yards per game, the fifth-highest over that time span of any Power Five quarterback that has played in both 2020 & 2021, and the most in the Big Ten.
• Tagovailoa, who has totaled 4,706 yards in 16 games as a Terp, trails only Virginia’s Brennan Armstrong (328.3 per game), Pittsburgh’s Kenny Pickett (306.2 per game), Mississippi State’s Will Rogers (306.0) and Ole Miss’ Matt Corral (303.5 per game).
• Tagovailoa is 12th in the country and second in the Big Ten, averaging 299.6 passing yards per game this season and has set the Maryland all-time record for passing yards in a season (3,595).

• In his time as a Terp beginning in 2020, QB Taulia Tagovailoa has averaged 287.9 passing yards per game, the fifth-highest over that time span of any Power Five quarterback that has played in both 2020 & 2021, and the most in the Big Ten.
• Tagovailoa, who has totaled 4,706 yards in 16 games as a Terp, trails only Virginia’s Brennan Armstrong (328.3 per game), Pittsburgh’s Kenny Pickett (306.2 per game), Mississippi State’s Will Rogers (306.0) and Ole Miss’ Matt Corral (303.5 per game).
• Tagovailoa is 12th in the country and second in the Big Ten, averaging 299.6 passing yards per game this season and has set the Maryland all-time record for passing yards in a season (3,595).

BOWL HISTORY

• The New Era Pinstripe Bowl will be Maryland’s 28th bowl appearance all-time.
• The New Era Pinstripe Bowl is the 19th different bowl the Terps have played in and it will mark the second-straight bowl game against an ACC team (2016, Boston College).
• With the New Era Pinstripe Bowl taking place in Yankee Stadium, this will be the first time Maryland has played in a baseball stadium since the 2007 Emerald Bowl (12/28) at AT&T Park in San Francisco against Oregon State.
• It will be the first time Maryland has played in New York City since 1936, when it beat Syracuse, 20-0 at the Polo Grounds.

RICHIGULOUS

• Over the last four weeks of the season, TE Chigoziem Okonkwo tallied 29 receptions for 259 yards, the most receptions ever by a Maryland tight end over a four-game span and the most by any Maryland player since DJ Moore tallied 30 in the first four games of the 2017 season.
• The senior’s 259 yards are the most yards by a Maryland tight end over four consecutive games since Vernon Davis had 385 against Clemson (9/10), West Virginia (9/17), Wake Forest (9/24) and Virginia (10/1) in 2005.
• Okonkwo recorded 12 receptions vs. #22 Penn State (11/6), the second-highest reception total ever by a Maryland tight end, only trailing Frank Wycheck’s 14 vs. Virginia Tech in 1990 (9/1).
• Okonkwo’s 112 yards at #8 Michigan State (11/13) were the most by a Maryland tight end since Davis had 139 yards at North Carolina in 2005 (11/12).

COURTESY MARYLAND ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS