Maryland’s football team bursts onto the field before game against Michigan State on Nov. 15, 2014 at Byrd Stadium.

After the Terrapins football team wrapped up its regular season with a loss to Rutgers on Nov. 29 at Byrd Stadium, the ensuing week featured speculation and whispers as to where the Terps would land in the postseason. Some questioned whether they would qualify at all. 

But when the dust settled and the bowl slate was set yesterday afternoon, coach Randy Edsall and his squad had accepted a bid to play Stanford in the Foster Farms Bowl, hosted at Levi’s Stadium on Dec. 30 in Santa Clara, California. 

And in the process, they officially punched their ticket to the postseason for the second straight year and achieved something the program hasn’t done since 2007: reach a bowl game played outside this state against a Power 5 team. 

“Our kids played hard all year long and gave everything that they had,” Edsall said in a conference call last night. “Then to be able to have this opportunity extended to us from what we did on the field, it goes to show that the work that they put in was worthwhile.” 

The Terps’ bowl outlook reached a low point on Thursday, when ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg reported a Big Ten team with six wins or more could miss a bowl if a member of the conference earns a bid to the Orange Bowl. In that case, Rittenberg wrote, the Big Ten would lose its spot in the Citrus Bowl, leaving the conference with eight bowl-eligible teams and seven spots. 

At 7-5, the Terps were one of four teams along with Penn State (6-6), Illinois (6-6) and Rutgers (7-5) that could have lost out on a bowl-game opportunity. 

Instead, the SEC’s Mississippi State jumped Michigan State in the final College Football Playoff rankings and got the nod for the Orange Bowl, while the Terps slid comfortably into an open slot for the Foster Farms Bowl. 

“It kind of came out the way we wanted,” Edsall said. “When they asked us to give three bowls that we wanted, this was right there at the top of our list. So from that standpoint, we were excited about the opportunity.” 

Having finished 7-5 and in second place in the Pac-12’s North division, Stanford is in the midst of a down year. The Cardinal hasn’t lost this many games since 200and has qualified for a BCS — now known as New Year’s Six — bowl in each of the past four seasons. 

Still, with the nation’s second-best scoring defense and an experienced quarterback in senior Kevin Hogan, Stanford will provide the Terps with a stiff test even with the return of standout wide receiver Stefon Diggs, who missed the final two games with a lacerated kidney but returned to practice this past week.  

“They’re extremely well coached,” Edsall said. “They’re an outstanding football team.” 

Edsall said with finals looming, the Terps’ practice schedule over the next few weeks will be on the lighter side. 

The team will have off through Thursday before practicing Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The Terps will then take a five-day break from Dec. 15 to Dec. 19 during exams, though Edsall said the weight room would be open for optional workouts while the coaches game plan for the Cardinal. 

The Terps return to the field Dec. 20 and practice every day until Dec. 23, after which the team will go home to celebrate the holidays. They will then hop on a plane to San Francisco on Christmas afternoon before practicing each day until the game Dec. 30. 

While in California, Edsall said the Terps would participate in a number of festivities, including a trip to Alcatraz. 

But the coach was clear his focus is on one thing: winning his first bowl game at the helm of the program. 

“You’re going there to play a football game,” Edsall said. “It’s good for our team to be able to get on a plane and go play and go to a different part of the country and experience that and experience the hospitality that the Foster Farms Bowl will afford us.”

Terps players voiced their excitement on Twitter.