As a preteen in 2002, Terrapins football running back Brandon Ross watched Ohio State tailback Maurice Clarett tear up opponents and lead his team to a national title.

In 2006, Terps nose guard Darius Kilgo followed Buckeyes quarterback Troy Smith as he threw for 30 touchdowns and took home the Heisman Trophy.

And in 2008, when he was in high school, Terps outside linebacker Yannik Cudjoe-Virgil saw the next Ohio State sensation, quarterback Terrelle Pryor.

“They are a great football team, they’ve been a great football team, they’ve had a lot of great players come out of Ohio State,” Cudjoe-Virgil said. “That’s really a great program.”

That’s why the Terps’ matchup with No. 20 Ohio State on Saturday afternoon is the most significant game in coach Randy Edsall’s College Park tenure. Yes, it’s the Terps’ first Big Ten home game, and it’ll be broadcast on ABC, and it’s a chance to beat a ranked opponent for the first time since 2010.

More importantly, though, the Terps are playing against one of the three most recognizable programs in the country. The Buckeyes are the Big Ten’s marquee member, most consistently successful team and the type of program the Terps can measure themselves against.

Football fans all over the country — just like Ross, Kilgo and Cudjoe-Virgil — have memories of watching Ohio State parade around the field, and they could name several stars in the scarlet and gray. But outside of the Mid-Atlantic, nobody knows or cares about the Terps.

For that to change, the team needs to start beating programs like Ohio State, programs that have clout. And Saturday presents as good of opportunity as any for the Terps to knock off a perennial powerhouse.

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While the Buckeyes blew out Cincinnati and Kent State in their past two games, they do seem vulnerable this year. Starting quarterback Braxton Miller had season-ending surgery in late August to repair a torn labrum, and Ohio State struggled to pull away from Navy in a season-opening win. Then Virginia Tech topped the Buckeyes by two touchdowns in Week 2.

The Terps, meanwhile, enter the game on the heels of two convincing wins over Power Five conference opponents. The status of starting quarterback C.J. Brown is uncertain after the sixth-year signal-caller suffered a sprained wrist in last week’s win at Indiana, but backup Caleb Rowe has starred in two relief appearances so far this season.

With linebacker Cole Farrand healthy, the Terps defense was stout at the Hoosiers and should match up well against the Ohio State offense led by true freshman J.T. Barrett.

Plus, the Terps will have a sold out crowd behind them.

“It makes for a louder environment, it makes the opposing team think a little bit,” Edsall said. “The excitement and the energy continue to fuel our guys.”

Byrd Stadium hasn’t been sold out since a Nov. 22, 2008 loss to Florida State, several seasons before coach Ralph Friedgen left town. So the packed venue isn’t just an added boost in the Terps’ aim at an upset, but also a nod to the significance of the contest.

“It’s great,” Edsall said. “Hopefully we can start to do that on a consistent basis.”

The Terps will fill Byrd Stadium more often if the team wins more games and begins to approach the type of consistent success Ohio State has displayed.

Really, the Buckeyes represent everything the Terps — or any other football program ­— could hope to be.

They draw more than 100,000 fans on average to their home games at Ohio Stadium, while Byrd Stadium only holds 54,000. They’ve won at least 10 games in eight of the past nine seasons while the Terps haven’t hit the 10-victory mark since 2003. And the Buckeyes garner national attention while Edsall’s team has battled to keep the students at this university engaged in the recent past.

The Terps, however, have a chance to knock off Ohio State this week and take a step toward becoming a similar program, becoming the type of team future college football players will recall years from now.

“The Ohio State, that’s how I remember them,” Kilgo said. “It’s going to be a great experience to say we were able to compete with those guys.”

But if the Terps want to reach the bar the Buckeyes have set, they need to do more than compete Saturday. They need to win.