A pair of undefeated teams will square off on Saturday when Maryland travels to Michigan for the Big Ten season opener. Maryland head coach Mike Locksley met with the media one last time before the matchup and offered the latest, including injury news.
Locksley talks Michigan’s QB situation
After bouncing between JJ McCarthy and Cade McNamara the first two weeks of the season, Michigan will trot out McCarthy as the starting quarterback vs. Maryland with McNamara sidelined. After posting 516 passing yards last season, McCarthy is up to 473 yards and three touchdowns on 30-of-34 passing through the first three games. He’s also approaching the century mark for rushing yards this season, but head coach Mike Locksley is familiar with McCarthy’s after facing him in last year’s 59-18 loss.
“We’ve seen enough of JJ. You know, we watched the tape from last year, JJ played in that gam some, we know kind of who they are. They, they have an identity that they want to run the football and establish the ability to run the football. JJ adds another element with his legs as a runner, but also the ability to throw the ball down the field when you do commit to stopping the run. They got talented skill players on the perimeter so a well-coached team. For us, it’s just about us executing and being able to stop the run, force these guys to beat us doing something that maybe they don’t want to go into the game having to do. Anytime we game plan on offense, defense and special teams, we want to take away or work to take away the things they do well and for us, we know it starts with us and our ability to stop the run, to force them to throw the ball to beat us.”
Michigan enters Saturday leading the Big Ten in scoring offense (55.3 points) and sit second in rushing yards (231.3 yards), giving Maryland’s defense a stiffer test after allowing over 500 yards of total offense vs. SMU.
Hyppolite Is Game-Time Decision
Maryland linebacker Ruben Hyppolite went down with an ankle injury in last week’s win over SMU, going down on the first defensive series of the game. Hyppolite did not return to the game and despite being listed in Maryland’s depth chart ahead of Michigan, the junior linebacker was not seen during the opening portion of Tuesday’s practice. With one more practice until Maryland departs for Michigan, head coach Mike Locksley says that Hyppolite remains a game-time decision.
“He’ll be a game-time decision for us. Has an ankle sprain but we’ll continue to evaluate him and make a game-time decision,” Locksley added during Thursday’s press conference.
Hyppolite is up to ten tackles on the season as Maryland turned to its depth in Saturday’s win, an angle that Locksley spoke fondly of following the SMU outing. “Best thing for us to happen is we play a lot of players on defense. Obviously when you lose a leader and production that Ruben brings to the table, it was good to see Ahmad [McCullough] make plays, Fa’Najae [Gotay] coming off of his injury played a lot more players. Jaishawn Barham, the freshman, has really grown up and having to grow up fast and even Gereme Spraggins came in.”
Locksley Comments on The Best is Ahead Foundation
Maryland announced its new NIL foundation for football on Wednesday with the official launch of The Best Is Ahead Foundation. With Torrey Smith, Bonnie Bernstein, Kevin Plank and Vernon Davis headlining an event for donors on Wednesday night, head coach Mike Locksley explained how the new NIL collective benefits both the student-athletes and the university.
“Obviously this is the space we’re in and we actually call ours a foundation. We’ve tried to stay away from that collective word. But with this foundation that was started, Dan Crowley, Jeff Leventhal, guys that are very familiar with the football program here. Both guys, Dan, with a background in fundraising and was a college teammate of mine, as well as Jeff Leventhal, both decided to create this foundation basically on the premise to allow our players currently in our program to take advantage of the use of their name, image, and likeness with the caveat being paying things forward. I think The Best is Ahead Foundation’s four pillars in which our players will have opportunities to earn money from their name, image, and likeness. You know, in this area in particular, the DC Baltimore area, on gun violence, which is very prevalent in this area and our players can be BR great proponents for putting down the guns and creating peace in these communities that surround our campus. Literacy is a big part of it. You know, our kids already take part in going to different underserved areas and, and working with youth, reading and literacy. Also, mental health, which is something that is really, really, important to our program and obviously the personal story of my son dealt with mental health issues…all these things have been really important to our program. I think Jeff and Dan have basically taken this, created this foundation and it allows our players to pay things forward, you know, get anything free. Drug and alcohol abuse being the fourth pillar. So, for us, this will hopefully allow our players, everyone in our program to benefit from it while also paying things forward to the DC Baltimore area, which in turn, hopefully gives people a better feel for what our program’s all about.”
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