Maryland (3-1) will make its Big Ten debut against IU at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at ?Memorial Stadium.
Johnson spoke to the Indiana Daily Student at Big Ten Media Day in July in Chicago about Maryland’s move to the Big Ten.
IDS Welcome to the Big Ten, Jeremiah. What’s the excitement like around Maryland about joining the conference this year?
Johnson Obviously it’s a huge transition year. We’re very, very excited. The team atmosphere is one that is very energetic.
I think we’re all pretty anxious. I think whenever you have something new that you’ve never experienced, it’s that much more exciting.
We’re coming in with an attitude that we want to have a good season, a great season.
We think that we can make an impact in the conference right away and bring our traditions and who we are to this conference.
IDS What are some of those traditions Maryland has that Indiana or other Big Ten people might now know about?
Johnson Every time we exit our locker room and enter into our locker room, we always touch Testudo. That’s our turtle.
Testudo means a lot to us and our program, the entire state really.
It’s a sense of protection, like, the whole “protect our house” kind of thing. It’s really what we pride ourselves on.
IDS How about the jerseys you guys wear? You have some pretty colorful ones.
Johnson It’s fun, man. It’s exciting. Every year we have at least one of them that we haven’t seen, and we end up being surprised.
You see a lot of the different uniforms we have, and that’s sort of just a sense of pride to us in our team and our state.
A lot of those are pretty much different combinations of our flag. We actually have a jersey that we call Maryland Pride, which has our flag on the sleeves.
That’s what we’re all about is having that pride for our state and representing Maryland.
