Following Maryland’s loss against Penn State on Saturday, head coach Mike Locksley noted that he didn’t believe the Nittany Lions were “51-15 better than us.”
“They are as advertised, a good front, but I don’t think they’re 51-15 better than us. And so to me, that’s where I don’t think we play to our potential,” he said.
On Tuesday, Locksley explained why he believes Saturday’s scoreboard isn’t indicative of the gap between the two programs.
“That it was a competitive game and up until the third quarter where we turned the ball over and we kind of cut it within two scores, then we give up the big long kickoff return. A year ago against a really good Penn State team, it was from start to finish not very good. We’re playing spurts of good football,” Locksley said. “You think of the three quarters against Ohio State. You think of the last half against Illinois. You think of the last half against Northwestern. Both those games we ran out of time at the end. This was the one game that we’ve played all season where I just didn’t think that we competed. A lot of times it’s Terps versus Terps but again, you’ve got to get Penn State credit. They’re a good football team.”
After the staff reviewed the tape on Sunday, Mike Locksley admitted the team “didn’t even watch the tape” as they now turn the page to Nebraska.
“Of the four losses we’ve had, this one is one that is not even worth watching the tape because we came nowhere close to the standard that we have come to expect for our program and that game showed us that we’re not there yet. As I look at that game and as we watched it as a staff obviously to make the corrections, we’re still our own worst enemy in terms of Terps vs. Terps,” Locksley added. “You can’t lose the turnover battle four to zero, the explosive play battle and expect to win and that’s not what we’ve done. And so we’ve got to do is obviously starting with me and the staff is instead of looking in terms of what the problem is, we know what the problems are. We’ve got to protect the football, we’ve got to execute, we’ve got to tackle, we’ve got to play to the standard. But we focus on trying to be solution-based as I’ve always tried to do with any part of our program. And I’ve challenged everyone from coaches, players and staff when you start looking to figure out kind of what the problem is, ask what can I do to be part of the solution and that’s the approach we’ll take. It’s a way to do it. Three to four losses, we’ve been right where we wanted to be and just didn’t close it. This one, we never got started and so credit to Penn State and their staff in the job they’ve done.”
What will it take for Maryland to get over the hump?
“Starts with the work you put in during the weekend. As I told our team, everybody has to do a little bit better, just a little bit better. A little bit better in how we focus to prepare, a little bit better in how we’re recovering and get our bodies right to play and play at our best on Saturday. As a coach, putting a little more time into making sure that the plan that we put together, our players know because it aint what we know, it’s what they know. So just everybody doing a little bit of their job a little bit better.”
Meanwhile, after co-OC and TE coach Kevin Sumlin was spotted along the sideline on Saturday, head coach Mike Locksley confirmed he’s back with the program following his DUI during the bye weekend. “He’s back with the team,” Locksley added.
More from Locksley on Nebraska, generating more explosive plays and the rushing attack:
On bouncing back from loss
“I challenged each person, like I said, to look within themselves first and foremost, and ask the question, what can I do better? And for me as the head coach so, for me as the leader, that’s always where I start. That’s always be who I am in terms of how I lead is what can I do first and foremost to get us back on track and we’re not as far away as maybe some people may think. Again, the people in that building continue to show up each week. We had another good practice on Monday. But as I told our guys it’s not about having just good practices. It’s about being able to execute on gameday, the things that we do all week long.”
On Nebraska
“We have another great opportunity this week against a good hard, well coached Nebraska team on the road in the Big Ten, a historic venue there, Memorial Stadium. Great place to play, I’ve coached there before. They’ve got great fan support. Win, lose or draw they show up there and support their program and I got a lot of respect for the job Matt Rhule has done. When you look at those guys on film they’re really tough, hard nosed, well coached, play with tremendous effort. They’ve got a really good defense. Their defense is one of the top defenses that we’ll face. Some interior guys that are strong, heavy handed guys up front. Their linebackers are really good tacklers in space and they execute their defensive scheme really well. On offense, I’ve seen an offense that’s gotten better and better with each week when you watch them on tape. Obviously they made the change at the quarterback position and the kid’s playing fairly well for them from the standpoint of executing the things that they want to see get executed. They’ve got a really good offensive line, really good length and size on both tackles, especially the right side of the line where they bring back a lot of experience. I expect this to be a tough game for us but I also expect from knowing the team that that I have in that locker room and the staff that we have, we still have a lot to play for. We’re still hunting bowl eligibility. We’re not gonna let what’s happened in the past define what we do in the present and our players have embraced that and I’m looking forward to our players and our staff doing the necessary things Monday through Friday and then Saturday, have an opportunity to go play well. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a victory and this team deserves it because of the way they’ve worked and I have no problem continuing to push these guys and they continue to show up and I expect them to do that to Saturday as we go on the road to Lincoln. Our captains for this week, Donnell Brown, Antwain Littleton, DJ Glaze will lead us as captains as we head the Lincoln.”
On Nebraska’s run defense vs. Maryland’s rushing attack
“With them and their run defense it starts with the size and their two interior players. They have a unique defensive structure that they play. They base out of a four down front but they’re an umbrella five safety or three safety look with two corners and a nickel. They execute their scheme really, really well. I mean they move a lot up front. On the interior part of their defense they have a lot of what we call ETs and NTs and NEs where they try to cancel the gaps and then their linebackers really do a great job of tackling the ball in space. Their safety, [Isaac Gifford] is kind of the guy that makes the defense go. He’s a deep third, deep middle player but they also involve him quite a bit in the run game. And so you look at the way they play run defense that starts with the amount of numbers they get in the box and to the ball. Our inability to run the ball just comes with our inability to execute and we’ve struggled with the interior part of our run game. When you try to run zone schemes and gap schemes, which are two primary things we like to run, we’ve got to be able to be stout or more stout in the interior part where we don’t allow penetration. We don’t allow guys to get knocked back on us which doesn’t allow our backs to start and get momentum coming downhill. We’re gonna work real hard this week to figure out how the best way is for us to run the football. And there’s no doubt as you prepared and play in the Big Ten, the ability to run the ball especially this time of the year is really important. So we’re working hard to get the run game corrected and figure out what are the best runs and the best way for us to run the ball based on what we’re doing on our offensive line and based on what our backs can get executed.”
On getting team to believe in a winning mindset again
“It’s with open honest communication. It’s one thing to be positive and put a smile on your face and show up and say hey, it’s gonna eventually turn and be okay, but it’s another thing to understand the reality of where we are. It’s been five weeks since we’ve had a victory. And so I told our players, we got to understand that we didn’t watch the Penn State tape. We didn’t play to the best of our ability but here’s the reality of where we are. We’re a 5-4 team. We have an opportunity to be bowl eligible three years in a row still. We have the last quarter of our season or the last third of our season starts with this game, so it’s almost like a fresh start. And it’s about how you finish which is one of the paramount or pillars of our program is starting fast and finishing strong. So this is like a fresh start for us. The best part about being the coach of this team is, and I said this to them yesterday after practice, there hasn’t been one day I’ve shown up. And I’ve been a part of some teams here where we’ve had losing streaks for longer than four weeks and you can tell by the energy on the field that it’s gonna be a long, long day or a long, long week. This team is not that team. They are built for the adversity. They are built for the turbulence that we’re facing. I can tell you that we’re facing it together. We know that the only people that believe in us right now is us. And as long as they continue to show up with the right mindset, as a coach and as a leader, I’m gonna continue to coach the crap out of them, push them. We still have a lot of a lot of things, good things to play for and I think they see that and they believe it.”
On how to fix turnovers and lack of explosive plays in offense
“The turnovers are the ones that, we do ball security drills every single day. If you look at the way the game went Saturday, we had one critical turnover that happened in the course of the game and as the game got out of hand, obviously everything kind of snowballed downhill with the three late turnovers and, unfortunately for us, we have [a] very little margin for error. You go back and look at the Tai Felton fumble coming off of a big run and it was extra yardage. That’s a play that you know, obviously I’m a little disappointed because I thought that the whistle had been blown to blow the play dead and, for whatever reason, it is what it is. And those are the types of plays where, again, he was protecting the ball. He had a vice tackle, we work the vice tackle drill, you just have to put the off hand. It’s a point of emphasis every week. Trying to get turnovers on defense, it’s just again, we’ve got to continue in practice go after the football. We didn’t have very many opportunities Saturday where I thought that we were getting after the football and the explosives, we’ve got explosive players. What we’ve got to do is obviously to most of our explosiveness comes from the perimeter players. We’ve got to be able to protect a little bit but also a guy’s got to make a play and make a guy miss and just with how we call it. We also need to make sure our best players are touching the football and I don’t think right now, when you look and see Roman Hemby having seven touches and Kaden Prather having however many he had a game and Jeshaun Jones. We have to make sure we are keeping those players involved with how we call it and not just call plays because they are good schematic plays but good schematic plays they get our best players the ball. And usually when you get your best player to ball, they make plays for you. So it’s just a matter of a few of those things.”
On limiting Nebraska’s rushing offense
“I think the biggest runs that we gave up against Penn State were the quarterback runs. A couple zone reads that were not typical runs that they shown. The quarterback made some plays in the run game where assignment football wise, we didn’t take care of our jobs. As far as stopping the run, the biggest difference I saw was the knock back tackles. Penn State had a lot of yards after contact, which typically means we’ve got to get guys running to the football again, running to the ball better. To me, the run game has not been the issue in terms of consistently, we’ve given up some explosive runs but most of them have come from the quarterback and now what we’ve got to be able to do against a good Nebraska team is it goes back to it’s no secret formula to how you stop the run in our defense. You have to have guys in their gaps that they’re responsible for being in. You’ve got to do a good job of getting off blocks and then we’ve got to do a great job of tackling.”
On what mistakes are showing up on tape
“I’m one of those guys, I am not a dude that likes to place blame anywhere other than right here with myself and I’m not gonna even get into it in terms of you know, it starts with what can I do? We know the problems. Up front, on our interior part of our offensive line we’re trying to figure out how to manage that and get the best players in there and be able to execute. Our quarterback, how he goes we go. He started the first half of the Penn State game 17-of-17. I didn’t realize it, didn’t know it, but the consistency in our drives. We’re an offense that really thrives off of explosive plays because we have explosive players. The missing piece for us on the offensive side is can we drive the ball down? What happens when the explosives aren’t showing up? Can we show the discipline and the execution to consistently get the four or five yards to convert the 4th-and-ones, the 3rd-and-ones to extend drives. To me those are the things, and that’s where I put a lot of the energy of my actions into is how do I get us to where we’re not a big-little offense where it’s either big explosive plays and we’re moving the ball downfield or it’s three and outs where we’re missing blocks on the perimeter or we’re not executing the things we’re getting coached to do. But also as a coach, it’s our jobs to make sure that the right players are in and that the right players are getting the ball.”
On player-led culture showing up through adversity
“That’s been the most encouraging thing for me is that there has not been a change. There has not been a waiver of how these players have shown up. I met with the leadership group the last two Monday’s because I think when you’re in the situation we’re in, it’s important to hear where we are as a team and you hear from inside. And with the leadership group that we put together, our leadership council was about 16 players, all demographics, all different classes, all different positions. And I can tell you that sitting in there with that group, it starts with them telling me. I say where are we. You know what, this is about us. We got to take care of our business. So they’ve been trained and developed because they know that nobody gives us anything here at the University of Maryland. Everything we get, we’ve got to take, we got to earn, we got to fight for. It was great to start out 5-0. We’re also in the reality of a four game losing streak and the only people that are going to get us out of it will be the people in Jones-Hill House. And we ain’t quitting. Quitting is not an option. And that’s the part that this team I love about them and I’m gonna continue to coach the crap out of them. And we’ll find a way to get to six which helps us extend our season and we’ll continue the process of developing this team to compete for championships.”
On playing in Memorial Stadium’s atmosphere, winning on the road
“The good thing is the weather supposed to be 60 degrees there, which knocking on wood that we are blessed to be able to have that type of weather this late in the year in Lincoln. But what do we need to do to get a win on the road is we have to play to our standard. And again, that’s such a coaching cliche answer but our standard is real. That’s starting fast and protecting the football, not watching scoreboards, not beating ourselves, playing to the best of our ability guys, the best versions of ourselves, putting the work in Monday through Friday. I mean, they know all these things but now it’s just a matter of Saturday putting it all together and I feel good about our opportunity this weekend. Like I said, I have this optimism because of the players and they are practicing. They’re doing the things that we need to do and now we’re pushing them just to do everything a little bit better to see if we can get a different result this weekend.”
On the hire of general manager, player personnel Merci Falaise
“Merci has joined us as our General Manager. Talented guy, played there at NC State, was a big offensive lineman. Have gotten to know him a little bit. We had Will [Christopherson] who worked here, worked with Merci, came highly recommended. You look at the way NC State has built their program and I’ve got a lot of respect for Dave Doran and the job he’s done down there with his program and facing them in the bowl game a year ago. A program very similar to ours. He understands the importance of evaluation. I think that’s one of the best things we’ve done as a staff, is our evaluation process of who we bring in here and he’ll add tremendous value to that with the experience he’s had running the NC State recruiting office and their program. He wanted to be here. This was a program that he looked at as the type of place he wants to be, and we’re excited to have him.”
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