After a Rose Bowl championship the year prior, the Huskies began the season ranked #2 in the nation.
They responded by winning their first seven games of the season while rising to #1 in the polls after the first week, though they slipped to #2 before a matchup with Stanford.
Maryland, in its first season with Bobby Ross as coach, rebounded from a 4-6-1 record the previous year to win eight games.
Maryland began the season with two losses to ranked opponents (#7 Penn State and #17 West Virginia) by a combined total of nine points.
They lost to #11 Clemson two weeks later, though they did rebound with a win over Virginia in the regular season finale to rise to #16 in the polls while finishing 2nd in the Atlantic Coast Conference.