Maryland head coach Mike Locksley took the podium for the final time during the 2023 regular season as the Terps prepare to face Rutgers during the upcoming holiday weekend. Locksley reviews what stuck out about Saturday’s loss to Michigan, how to limit Rutgers, Taulia Tagovailoa’s impact and more.
Opening statement
“Looking back at the Michigan game, I thought our players came in dialed in. As I said after the game, [I’m] obviously disappointed. [I] don’t believe in moral victories at all but I do feel like our guys were dialed in, in preparation for the game, played with tremendous energy, played with tremendous effort. Our defense for the last couple of weeks I think has played well enough for us to win. On offense, we outscored their offense but the turnovers, you don’t win big games losing the turnover battle. Losing that turnover battle, 3-1, is costly. It’s the part of our program development that we have got to get fixed and, you know, we’re doing everything we can and we’ll continue to do everything we can to get that part fixed. We wanted that win for our seniors in the worst way, a breakthrough win, but there were some things that I feel we can take away from it, that we can build off of as we headed to the finish, the finale.”
On preparing for Rutgers
“Probably one of the most improved teams in the country, not just in the Big Ten and I give a lot of credit to Greg and his staff and their program and those players for the work they’re doing up there. I know it’s a hard, it’s hard. We’re going through some of the same things and we both came into the league at the same time. They started 6-2 and you know, although they dropped three in a row, they faced three of the best defenses in the country the last three weeks and they’re extremely talented. They’re running back, number five, their quarterback, when you look at them on defense, they don’t give you anything and I say this week in and week out but this is one of those defenses that they don’t make a lot of mistakes. They don’t do a lot but what they do, they do really, really, really well and it’s a testament to how well coached they are and how they want to win. They want to win by winning the vertical field position game on special teams and when you look at how they play special teams, they make a lot of plays, whether it’s the different array of kicks that their kicker can do in the kickoff game. Fake punts, some exotic formations on the punt team. You can tell that they’re doing things to create an advantage in the special teams and we need to match that and do a better job this week and how we play in the special teams game. On offense, they try to shrink the game. They don’t run a bunch of plays. They’re not a big tempo team. They want to run the football. They want to control the time of possession and they’re going to make you make the plays. They’re not going to give you anything. So really strong defensive team and I know there’ll be looking to send their seniors out the right way and win with their home field advantage. For us it’s all about finishing the right way and finding a way. You’re usually judged—movies, relationships, what you remember most is the end and for this 2023 iteration of [the] Maryland football family, this is the end of the regular season and as you guys know the bowl game is the start of next year, so this is the crescendo for us. This is us needing to find a way to win on the road. Huge difference between 7-5 and 6-6 and it definitely plays a huge role in where we go bowling so still have a lot to play for for our team. We have a chance to guarantee a third straight winning season, a winning record on the road this year, something we haven’t done. And then most importantly sending our seniors out the right way during their final regular season game wearing the Terps uniform.”
On game captains
“Our game captains this week. Sean Greeley, Corey Dyches, Tarheeb Still and Beau Brade.”
On the impact of Taulia’s initial transfer to Maryland
“Lia has played an important role in the foundation. Anybody that is a Terp supporter or fan like I have been my whole life knows that the quarterback position over the last ten, 15 years has not been a settled position here, whether it’s injuries, whether it’s transfers. It’s just never been settled. So to be able to have a guy that started four years here, has done some tremendous things in terms of laying a foundation for our program, can’t put a value in what him coming here has done for us. Definitely elevated our program, or at least created a foundation that I think we will be able to build on. And even more importantly it has shown that you know, if you’re a quarterback in the country and you want to have an opportunity to do some really special things, you can come here and this system is a system that is a quarterback-driven system on offense that we always have really good skill. So I think Lia has become a poster child for what we want to try to recruit the type of quarterbacks we want to recruit. We all know that if you have a quarterback, you have a chance and we’ve had a quarterback around here for the last four years and we’ll miss his ability but we’re really happy what he’s been able to do for our program.
On what Taulia’s priority is vs. Rutgers
“Take care of the football. We take care of the football, we win games. We lose that turnover battle and you know, the explosive play battle, we won this weekend. I think it was seven to five or seven to six. I think Michigan had six explosives in terms of runs and passes and we had seven, but the turnover battle and those critical turnovers in some of these games have been costly. To go win on the road up against Rutgers, we’ve got to take care of football.”
On whether he’s financially incentivized to win this weekend
“Not at all. I will coach for free and I have coached for free over the years. So no, financial incentives for me aren’t important as it is for these kids. Anybody that knows me knows that these kids come first.”
On how both Maryland and Rutgers navigated the challenge of transitioning into the Big Ten
“New kid on the block coming in. We’ve been a part of this league since 2014. When you’re new, you get the bottom. The scheduling is always tough. You know, it’s hard. We both have similar challenges in that we’re trying to grow programs against a conference that has quite a few teams that are what most of us would consider blueblood programs. Go to travel to Nebraska and you see 395 straight sellouts. As a coach you look at that and think man, they’ve had some lean years but they still, their support still there. So we both face to some of the challenges. We’re in major metropolitan areas. Everybody comes and recruits in our backyards and we’re grinding to develop programs to compete for championships.”
On what is it about the 2023 Rutgers team that’s taken a jump compared to years past
“They’ve taken on the personality of Greg. They tough, hard-nosed, really disciplined. They don’t make a lot of mistakes. They know who they are. They know how they want to win. Their players have bought into all of the things whether it’s, you know, shrinking the game, running the football, protecting the football. That quarterback he makes them go. They’ve got two good tailbacks, their defensive front. Like I said they know who they want to be. They know what they want to run. And they create problems for you with some of the scheme things because they’re not willing to make mistakes and allow you to come create the big plays. They’re going to make you drive the ball down the field and win the game. They’re not going to give it to you.”
On Maryland’s turnover issues on offense
“Well one, first and foremost like all of the turnovers haven’t been Lia turnovers…when I was asked a question that what Lia needs to do as a quarterback, he needs to protect the ball. But we’ve had turnovers by receivers. We’ve had turnovers by sack fumbles, things like that. So by no means am I putting the turnovers on Lia. The things we talk about, he’s a player, I’m a coach, we make corrections. Do I spend time talking about the negative things? No, I’ll let you guys write that and I’m super positive with what we need to do. I’m a solution-based guy. I can point out the problems as well as you guys can, but unfortunately, I’ve taken the road of instead of continuing to point out what we haven’t done, I’m going to point out what we need to do and how we’re going to deliver. That’s what leaders do. They kind of find ways to come up and lead and get us through the tough stretches and find a way to win a tough game on the road and that’s what we’ll do this week is we’ll put together a plan. Our players as I’ve told you guys here, and hopefully you guys see it now, these guys, they fight, they compete. There’s no quit in this team and that’s something that we can build upon. Our quarterback’s the same way. He’s a fighter, so I have no doubt in my mind, and he wants to go out the right way. Wants to find a way to get number seven. And I know that we’ll do the necessary things throughout this week, even though it’s Thanksgiving week to prepare ourselves to go up and put our best foot forward on Saturday.”
On challenge of having a holiday during preparation
“You still get the work done. I mean, like right now, the thing we’ve done is we’re moving practices up a little bit because they don’t have school now. And so that allows us to do more recovery on the back end. You play the type of schedule we play in the Big Ten and nine regular season games against some of the best teams in the country, by the end of the year, you’re a little banged up and so we try moving practices up, gives us more time on the backend for recovery. But the reps we take, the meetings we have, none of that changes because of the holiday. We just kind of as coaches, it’s a little tougher on us than it is the players because the practice planning. When you move up practice two hours now you lose two hours during the day that you typically can use for game planning so that we’re doing a little extra work in the evenings, which it is what it is. We’ve had to do it, got a really good schedule of how to navigate Thanksgiving and our players are used to it so it hasn’t been that big of a deal for us.”
On Kellan Wyatt’s development within the program
“He’s turning into one of those guys that I see that is gonna be one of those leaders for our program. Coming out of the Spalding program, we love recruiting Spalding. You look at some of the kids that we have in our program that are from there. The job Kyle Schmitt’s done building. I think they just won back-to-back MIAA championship. A former Terp, Kyle, leading their program and has built that program the way that I’d love to build this one and so Kellan fits right in with some of that stuff. He’s a tremendous competitor. He loves football, he’s a football guy. When we talk about guys that play the game the right way. He’s one of those guys. But it’s not surprising because when you look at Spalding and the job Kyle has done down there with his program, it’s not surprising why they win championships and why guys Kellan ends up being the type of player he’s been for us.”
On limiting Rutgers rushing attack
“I think the big thing when I run defense is over the years as you can see when we walk out the tunnel, we recruited size on the [defensive] line and to win in the Big Ten, you’ve got to win in the trenches. And one of the Achilles heels for us this season has been us on the offensive line and that’s an area where we got to make the same improvements we made on the defensive line. We lost four starters from a year ago. I think two of the four are playing in the NFL, the third should probably be playing in the NFL, but to me, I think our defensive line and our front seven plays with a physicality that that you need to play with in the Big Ten. To stop Rutgers run game, we’ve got to have another game like we had a week. Last week was our best tackling game of the year and it was a physical game. When you watched the tape, that was a very physical game upfront. Our guys did a really good job of being gap sound and really did a really good job of tackling in space and a bunch of hats to the ball which didn’t allow the ball to break last week and it’s gonna take that same type of effort this week.”
On favorite Thanksgiving dish and meal
“Fried turkey but I’m gonna make a smoothie, take it and grind it up. Add some almond milk. Take a little bit of cinnamon, maybe some flax seeds. If you haven’t noticed, Locks is on his healthy kick right now. My stress, I want to make sure I’m living so I’m staying away from Thanksgiving. I’m gonna boycott Thanksgiving.”
“You know I love my crab stuffing. I haven’t had it this year. So maybe get into some of the crab stuffing. Fried turkey for sure. Baked turkeys are dry as hell.”
On what Locksley is thankful for with the program
“I think for me just having this opportunity man. As I said before that I was a fired head coach from Ballou High School. Got a chance to get into college football because of the coaches that have been like father figures to me. The game of football has given coach Locks so much that I could never repay it. For me any time I get to pull up regardless of the record, regardless of wins and losses, having an impact on 18-to 22-year-olds that once was me. And I can tell you we had the internet when Coach Locks was coming up, I would’ve been a list guy and in trouble. Varun would be writing about me all the negative things about coach Locks because I was one of them and now look at me, standing up here. Tricked them. Tricked you all. I’m thankful to be the head coach here at Maryland. That to me is the most thankful piece for me.”
On LB Donnell Brown
“Donnell has been a great addition. He’s one of those guys that as I’ve said, I like guys want to come up so I like guys that have chips on their shoulders, that want to prove and show that they can play at the highest level of football and there’s no doubt in my mind guys like Donnell Brown, Corey Bullock, Ja’Quan Shepard. A lot of these guys that hadn’t played at this level that we’ve brought in here to have added and bought in. Donnell has been just as great for our program. Excited that we hopefully have him for another year. Unless you find out he’s not playing at the moment. Keep me in the loop.”
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