PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Antwan Raymond rushed for a career-high 240 yards and Athan Kaliakmanis passed for four touchdowns to keep Rutgers’ postseason hopes alive in a 35-20 win over Maryland on Saturday.

Rutgers (5-5, 2-5 Big Ten) plays at Ohio State in two weeks before hosting Penn State on Nov. 29 to try to secure a bowl bid for the third straight season.

Raymond’s 240 yards are the most in the Big Ten this season and the third highest in the country behind Cameron Dickey of Texas Tech and Ahmad Hardy of Missouri. The sophomore ran for a TD and carried the ball 41 times for a 5.9-yard average. It was the third-highest yardage total in Rutgers’ program history. Former Raven Ray Rice holds the top two marks for the school.

Raymond, who has taken over the bulk of the carries for Rutgers since Kyle Monangai graduated and was selected by the Chicago Bears in the NFL draft, has 1,000 yards for the season. Raymond’s 41 carries tied Savon Huggins and Jawan Jamison for the most in Scarlet Knights history.

This is the first time in school history that Rutgers has consecutive 1,000-yard rushers in a season. Monangai ran for 1,279 yards in 2024.

“It’s definitely a special, special moment for sure,” Raymond said. “All the work that we put in, not just me, but the coaches, all the other running backs, all the work we put in.”

“I’m not surprised about anything that’s going my way, because I know I work so hard for this. I put my whole life into this. I come from really far away [Quebec]. I left my family, so I think that I’ve done a lot of sacrifices to be here.”

There was an inkling this could be a big day for Raymond from the beginning. He set the tone by running six straight times up the middle for 30 yards on the Scarlet Knights’ first possession.

“Every game, we anticipated really wanting to run the football,” Rutgers coach Greg Schiano said, “but to say that I anticipated 41 carries, that would not be true.”

Maryland (4-5, 1-5) has lost five straight.

Ian Strong caught three TD passes for the Scarlet Knights, and Kaliakmanis passed for 229 yards. Strong’s 14-yard TD reception in the third quarter increased the Scarlet Knights’ lead to 28-17

Maryland freshman quarterback Malik Washington ran for 164 yards on eight carries, including a 73-yard touchdown run on the second play of the game.

“We are a very young team,” Maryland coach Mike Locksley said. “The development of a young team and an inexperienced team sometimes has its ups and downs, and we’re in the middle of a tough stretch for this group, and the young guys, as I told them in the locker, don’t understand that now we’re running on limited opportunities for some veteran players that have done some good things around here.”

The Terrapins managed 83 total yards in the second half.

Takeaways

Maryland: Four of the Terrapins’ five losses have come by a total of 18 points.

Rutgers: This was the Scarlet Knights’ most balanced game of the season. They were 9-for-12 on third down, passed for 229 yards and ran for 256 yards.

Up next

Maryland is at Illinois next Saturday. Rutgers is at Ohio State Nov. 22.

This article has been updated.