Continuing a trend from last season, Maryland football is one of the nation’s best at producing turnovers.

The Terps are tied for first with NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision peers California, Oklahoma and San Jose State in takeaways with 10, and they lead the country in turnover margin at plus-9.

A year ago, they were tied for 12th in takeaways (24) and tied for 38th in turnover margin (plus-3).

In Saturday’s 27-13 victory at Virginia, Maryland had two interceptions and two fumble recoveries.

Coach Mike Locksley said forcing turnovers is a priority for the defense.“Every Tuesday and Wednesday, we do a turnover circuit where we invest the time with our starters,” he said. “We’re working on protecting the football, our defensive guys are working on taking the ball off of their bodies, and it’s good-on-good work. We rehearse trying to take the ball away.”

“Every Tuesday and Wednesday, we do a turnover circuit where we invest the time with our starters,” he said. “We’re working on protecting the football, our defensive guys are working on taking the ball off of their bodies, and it’s good-on-good work. We rehearse trying to take the ball away.”

Senior defensive end Quashon Fuller said the turnover drills are designed to simulate actual scenarios from games.

“We’ll have a running back running, and then we’ll have a defensive player come from behind him and hit the ball out, and then we’ll have a second defensive player come to pick up the fumble,” said Fuller, who recovered a fumble lost by Cavaliers senior wide receiver Malachi Fields in the fourth quarter Saturday. “We’ll kind of emulate, ‘Oh, there’s a lot of players around. So you have to jump on the ball.’ Or, ‘There’s not a lot of players around, so you can scoop it up and score.’ We do a lot of things in that turnover circuit, and it’s definitely starting to show up.”

On Saturday at noon at SECU Stadium in College Park, Maryland (2-1) will face Villanova (3-0), which has turned the ball over only twice this fall. And to illustrate the importance of the takeaways, Locksley noted that Big Ten teams are 25-2 when on the positive side in turnover margin.

Locksley said the defense — led by senior safety Dante Trader Jr., a McDonogh graduate who was named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week after compiling a career-high-tying 11 tackles, one interception and one pass breakup — was especially forceful against Virginia.

“I thought this past weekend, a couple of times, we did a good job of showing one picture, disguising our coverage, and then getting out of it,” he said. “And a couple of times, we got some pressure on the quarterback where he had to make some errant throws, and Dante, who was the Big Ten Player of the Week on defense, was Johnny-on-the-spot for us.”

Returning to a strength: In his previous two seasons, quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. replaced Taulia Tagovailoa in Maryland’s short-yardage and red-zone scenarios. The team returned to that strategy Saturday.

Against Virginia, the 6-foot-3, 222-pound Edwards carried the ball 11 times compared with nine attempt in his first two starts of the season. Although his total of 12 yards was a season low, his rushing ability proved critical when he gained 2 yards to convert a fourth-and-1 at the Cavaliers’ 7-yard line and scored on third-and-goal from the 1 for the game’s final score.

Edwards credited the offensive line with opening gaps for him.

“The offensive line did a great job,” he said. “We really emphasized that all week. It’s just about going out there and being able to run the ball in those short-yardage situations. Ninety-nine percent of the people in the stadium knew that we were going to run the ball, and it’s just about going out there and executing. So it felt good, but more importantly, it just felt great to put one in there that helped put the game away.”

Locksley said the offense repeat that success as long as it has the mindset.

“It’s about physicality,” he said. “At some point, you’ve got to line up and not get cute and just say, ‘We’re bigger. Let’s show and impose our will on people.’ Going into this week, not getting those short yardages the last couple of weeks, that’s something that bothered me as a head coach, our offensive line not being able to line up in some big-people formations and say, ‘We own the line of scrimmage.’”

Stability at quarterback: Playing quarterback remains a tenuous task in college football, particularly in the Big Ten.

Wisconsin lost starter Tyler Van Dyke for the rest of the season after the fifth-year senior suffered a torn ACL in his right knee in the first quarter of Saturday’s 42-10 loss to Alabama. The Miami (Fla.) transfer, who had completed 63.2% of his passes for 422 yards and one touchdown in three starts, is expected to be replaced by redshirt sophomore Braedyn Locke, who went 13 of 26 for 125 yards and a touchdown against the Crimson Tide.

Michigan announced Monday that starter and redshirt junior Davis Warren would be replaced by redshirt sophomore Alex Orji. Warren threw three interceptions in Saturday’s 28-18 win against Arkansas State and had six interceptions and just two touchdown passes in his first three starts.

Those developments should give Maryland fans a greater appreciation for Edwards, who ranks second in the conference in passing yards (827) and is tied for second in touchdown passes (six) with only one interception. Locksley pointed out a situation in which Edwards recognized a Virginia blitz off the edge and motioned senior wide receiver Kaden Prather to the end of the line of scrimmage just before scoring on a 1-yard touchdown plunge in the fourth quarter.

“That’s mitigating risk, and that’s having the mind of a coach but still the skill of a player,” Locksley said. “Billy’s playing really clean for us, making good decisions.”

Pay dirt for Prather: Speaking of Prather, his long wait is over.

The senior wide receiver’s 26-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter of Saturday’s win marked his first trip to the end zone since Oct. 14 in a 27-24 loss to Illinois. It ended an eight-game drought.

But Prather, who ranks second on the team in both receptions (15) and receiving yards (146), said he can’t get too excited about his first touchdown of the season.

“It was good, it felt good,” he said. “It’s been a while. Looking forward to that feeling again. But you know, I can’t get too high through the highs, and I can’t get too low through the lows. So that touchdown’s behind me, and I’ll try to make it happen again this week.”

Changes to the offensive line? Redshirt sophomore left tackle Andre Roye Jr.’s availability for Saturday’s game against Villanova is unclear after the St. Frances graduate suffered what appeared to be a knee injury in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s win.

If Roye — who started the first three games — can’t go, redshirt senior and LSU transfer Marcus Dumervil might get his first start with the Terps. Locksley declined to get into specifics and relied on the next-man-up catchphrase.

“We’ll turn to whoever our third tackle has been and rotate some guys through,” he said. “I expect Dre to be available, but I have not had an update just yet. He was out there yesterday walking around, but it’ll be next man up as we’ve always done when we’ve dealt with injuries.”