Maryland was able to control Michigan State for the bulk of Saturday’s game, leading to a 31-9 win, as head coach Mike Locksley and his team moved to 4-0.
“Really proud of this team, man. Proud of the way they responded to the coaching. We’ve talked a lot the last couple of weeks about starting fast and we were able to do that today. Any time you’re able to win on the road in the Big Ten, that’s huge and so for us to be able to come up here and do something I think that hasn’t been done since 1950, which is to win here in this stadium, definitely proud of the team,” Mike Locksley said following the win. “Happy to be 4-0. We talked all week long and for the last couple of weeks about getting off to a fast start and that’s what we’re able to do. Defense came up big early on with the turnovers. We were able to convert those to scores. Any time you come up with turnovers like we did today, it really helps you on the offensive side of the ball.”
Everything that head coach Mike Locksley said following the win, including how Sean Greeley kicked off the game’s scoring, the defense dominating the turnover battle, and Donnell Brown’s impact for the third straight week.
“The best part about this is that that locker was still disappointed a little bit that we didn’t finish the way we like to, and there’s some things that we can get cleaned up. And as I said before, it’s always great to clean it up with a win. Got to give credit to the players in terms of how they responded and did the things necessary. We’re back in The Shell next week against Indiana. I hope our fans show up for these kids. They’ve earned the right to have you guys there to support them. And our student section has done their part. Now everybody’s got a part to do in there. I know we’re excited with the opportunity to go 5-0 at home in The Shell and the players are excited about that as well.”
“It was big. I mean the defense, the offense, special teams came up big again today. They created some opportunities with the fumble there on the kickoff return. A punter pulled one down and rushed one for first down to extend drive. Offensively, we were a little off today, just missing on some things. But defensively early on, the turnovers were big and what I’d like to see is those just get off the field a little bit better on third down.”
“I mean, players play. The execution early on, the turnovers. We were able to finish those turnovers with touchdowns, which helped us. I’d love to say that that was the reason why. I can only speculate. We did go back to some good-on-good stuff this week. But we also got a better look out of our development team and them understanding that their role is to prepare us for the speed of the game. I don’t know if that was the fix, but I’m really happy that we were able to get the turnovers and we were able to convert ’em to scores early.”
“I saw him not having field awareness and I would’ve loved to see him finish it and stay in-bounds and go score, but it came up big because we gave up some yardage today. But as we got down to that red area, we buckled down and we’re able to kind of keep them out of the end zone perse. So it was big interception there by Heeb and a big play by our defense.”
“I mean, as we all know, football’s the ultimate team sport. And I think, you know, we picked it up in other areas. As I said earlier, we were just a little bit off for whatever reason with our base offensive systems, whether it was just off on the perimeter block, that would’ve allowed us to maybe create some big plays, maybe off on a few throws. But we showed the balance that we have and the ability that different guys have opportunities and different guys can make plays for us. Roman [Hemby[, he was nicked up a little bit this week and was limited but some other guys stepped up when we needed him to.”
“That’s huge and that’s what we need to do. What I like to see us do though is the consistency on offense. I always talk about us being a rhythm team on offense and just for whatever reason, everything was just a little few steps here, a few inches off there, which we’ll get that part fixed. As I said, it’s great to have to fix it coming off of a win and to win on the road in the Big Ten, this is a tough league. Give credit to Michigan State, give credit to Harlon [Barnett] and the job that he’s did to get his guys back because they fought today. But I was really proud of our team, the way they started fast, which gave us this opportunity to come out with the W.”
“Anybody that’s followed for years will understand that we play a lot of players, we’ve improved at depth, we’ve had the opportunity to get a lot of guys involved. It’s great to see that type of diversity but as I said, there’s still some things that we got to get cleaned up. Still some things that we’ll be able to get fixed here this week.”
“I’m gonna take credit for that. Hopefully I’ll get coach of the week because I called a punt down inside my own 20. I promise you we didn’t call a fake punt down in there, but based on the scheme of the rugby stuff that we do, the rules tell him that if the end and there’s no contain to pull it down and go now. I looked at [James Thomas], our special teams coordinators said, man, you need to be careful with doing that down in our area of the field, but again, players make plays. Colton’s one of those guys, he’s athletic enough to do it. I’m glad he did it because he was able to extend the drive for us, but I cannot take credit for calling a fake punt down in there.”
“We always try to use the personnel we have in our program and we got a bunch of tight ends, but we lost some fullback bodies. Sean’s one of those athletic guys. He plays as a reserve on defense. He’s been a special team guy for us. And because of his athleticism, we’ve used him and Colby McDonald the last few games when we’ve gotten in the goal line. You probably didn’t see it initially because we hadn’t thrown in the ball, but he’s been back there playing in our goal line package all year long. We saw a look on tape that allowed us to call him into the flat area. Lia made a nice easy throw and, you know, Sean’s one of those athletic guys and it’s great to see him make some plays.”
“I’ve been happy with his production but when we brought him here, we brought him here to get after the quarterback and as I joke with him, he’s dropping into space and getting interceptions and doing everything other than getting sacks. So I’d love to see him get after the quarterback a little bit, but he’s one of those guys that’s always around the ball and he’s an athletic big guy so we utilize him in a lot of different ways. What I found out is he has a knack for the ball and we need to continue to have him make those plays.”