1950 Maryland Terrapins football team
Maryland was led by fourth-year head coach Jim Tatum, who "Time" magazine called "the most successful major college coach in the game" during his nine-year tenure at College Park. To date, Tatum remains the winningest Maryland football coach of the modern era, with a winning percentage of 0.819. The team was led on the field by sophomore quarterback and future Heisman Trophy runner-up Jack Scarbath who made his first career start in the season-opener.
Split-T
In 1946, Jim Tatum became the Oklahoma head coach. He installed the split-T offense that he had learned as an assistant coach under Don Faurot at the U.S. Navy's Iowa Pre-Flight school football team during World War II. In his first year, he turned around Oklahoma's losing record and delivered a Big Six Conference championship. In 1947, Tatum left Oklahoma for Maryland, where he saw even more success with the split-T, including a consensus national championship in 1953.