Maryland will look to move to 2-0 this weekend when they host Charlotte for a 7:30 PM kickoff on Saturday night as head coach Mike Locksley met with the media one final time prior of kickoff.
After Locksley provided optimism that offensive lineman Gottlieb Ayedze would be able to make his season debut this weekend, the secondary is also expected to return former Miami (FL) defensive back Avantae Williams against the 49ers.
“Yeah, we expect him to be. He is available this week,” Locksley said on Thursday. “A week ago, obviously, coach’s decision, but definitely hopes us that he’s available and we can figure out a role and get him on the field here.”
More from Locksley on the roster and coaching familiarity, pass blocking development and where the offensive line stands heading into week two.
“It’s really hard to tell because as I said at the press conference, I don’t know how much they showed or how much they needed of their offense a week ago. I do know that Biff’s philosophy, Biff loves gap schemes and he loves to run the ball downhill, power, counter, create walls and kicks. And so I would imagine that we expect to see some of the things that maybe they did at Michigan because of this background there. Obviously we have Josh [Gattis] here and so he’s familiar with Biff’s philosophy offensively, just being up there with him together and then with Mike [Miller] being here. So we’ve got a lot of hypotheses about it, but we’re gonna have to kind of let it play out and be prepared for a little bit of everything.”
“He is an impact player from day one, for sure. We just don’t know what day one is. We’re still waiting to find out when day one is, but there’s no doubt that he has that ability to be an impact player, especially in some of the areas that we need help, which is rushing the passer. And, as soon as he’s ready and available, I would imagine he would become an impact player.”
He put on maybe a freshman 15.
I would hope, I really don’t know. A lot of this stuff I get told to me from the medical standpoint.
The first thing is there’s three phases to pass protection as a running back. One is closing the distance, meaning we want to make that block happen as close to the line of scrimmage out of our quarterback’s lap as possible. Second thing you want to do is stop the charge or rush of the defender. And then the third thing is to mirror the movement. And so, when we break down the skill of past protection, those are the three areas from a fundamental standpoint that we really work on. Coach ]Latrell] Scott and those running backs that work really diligently because we’ve got to keep our quarterback safe and out of harm’s way as much as possible. And so to me, when we evaluate, that’s what I’m looking for. I’m looking to make sure that within the fundamentals of the [ass protection that those three things are happening. And again, something we work on quite a bit.”
“I think Kellen ate his way to the JACK position. He come in at 220, 225 and, get into our weight room with coach [Ryan] Davis and his staff and he’s put on some size. He still has kept the ability to move. Kellen’s a football player. When you think of a guy that can kind of do everything, stop the run, rush to pass or be physical, drop into space, he’s kind of that guy. And our SAMS and JACKS are somewhat interchangeable the way we use them. And then, when we get into our dime rabbits package, he’s becomes basically a pass rushing defensive end from a stand up position. So again, really diverse skill set, has the ability to play both with the advent of the teams that don’t utilize a bunch of tight ends. Instead of the Sam who usually comes off the field for the nickel, instead of losing a really good player like him because they don’t offer the personnel groupings that gets them on the field, having the ability to play both allows him to be able to help our team still as a pass rusher and as a JACK.”
“I think we gave up one sack, near the end of the game, Nolan Ray, freshman. They brought six, the extra guy and and he blocked one, but we’ve got to get the protection set there. As I’ve said before, on the record, our A gaps, we got to be a little firmer in the A gaps because of our quarterback and how he plays. Some of the things happen because of him extending plays, yeah you know what? We aren’t built to protect for five, six second plays. It’s just not normal. And so with Lia and his ability to extend plays, we just got to have some of the new guys that really their first time playing with Lia, understanding that this guy is going to find ways to extend it.
Now I’m working really hard with Lia to continue to develop him to understand it is okay to throw it away. It’s okay. If things come awry and all of a sudden somebody comes free, get yourself out of trouble, throw it away and play the next down. And so to minimize the amount of hits he takes, especially, when he’s outside of the pocket, one of the other things we’ve got to do is really do a better job of pushing up into the interior part instead of floating outside the pockets. And again, we continue to work on it. Do we need to improve the firmness of the A and B gaps in our protection? Definitely. And as we continue to work through solidifying those best five the guys that will play will be the guys that give us the best chance of doing just that.”
Taulia pushing up in the A and B gaps. If all of a sudden a guy shows up in the backside B gap, escape inside instead of flushing, because when you flush, the tackles are trying to, it’s geometry. The tackles are trying to keep them outside and when you flush the pocket, now you put yourself in harm’s way instead of protecting yourself.
“No, not at all. That’s why I got paid coaches to get that stuff taught. So not real difficult. We ask a lot of our centers, guys like Aric Harris and Corey [Bullock] were here. Obviously, Mike [Purcell] just getting here. The rotation for us is still one trying to figure out Who gives us the best chance to solidify the firmness in those interior gaps. And we’ve got a pretty good idea. We’re still missing a couple of pieces from the O-line that we’re hoping to return maybe this week, which would allow us to again, move some people to, to the normal positions we’ve been practicing at. Again, it’s still a work in progress that we’re getting better and better at making some decisions as to what are the five gives us the best chance.”
“I don’t necessarily think you have to be a big back to be a great pass protector. I mean, it’s just about the explosiveness of the back. Cause I’ve had guys, I mean, Bruce Perry. I had a chance to coach here at Maryland, was not a big guy. But when I think of past protectors, Bruce was probably one of the better past protectors that I’ve coached over the years including some big guys that were first round draft picks. So I don’t know if the size is as important.
I think [Antwain] from a technical standpoint, because he’s a dense guy, really thick guy that, has the ability to play with a lot of power, tends to show up. But for Roman, he has explosiveness, obviously, with his speed. And I think technically, some of the things that you need to do from a past protection standpoint was something that we talked to him over the offseason about. We always give our guys what I call prescriptions of things they gotta do a little bit better. And that was one of the areas and I hope something that Roman is really focused his energy and effort and trying to improve.”
“I think what you saw with [Octavian] a week ago from the amount of plays he played was a byproduct of one, he’s still a young player that we were trying to continue to develop. Once we scored there in the first drive of the second half and we got a lot of our starters out of there, I thought it was important to keep younger players like Octavian, who didn’t maybe play a ton of snaps a year ago, give him as many as we could. Definitely because of his speed. Here’s a guy, I think they finished first or second in the state in 100 meters because of his speed, the things he’s been able to do in the return game. Definitely one of those guys amongst our receiving core that has a diverse skillset.
He was a quarterback in high school, so throws the ball well, you know, don’t be surprised if all of a sudden you see a trick play out of Octavian. Let’s make sure he put that on social media so that help kind of have them play a little conservatively. But no, he has a unique skill set being a former quarterback, ball skills, speed. So definitely a guy that we, we continue to try to find ways to utilize the different way he’s capable of helping our team.”
In-state OL Davon Watkins breaks down commitment to Maryland (+)
In-state athlete set for first gameday experience at Maryland (+)
Four-star Khani Rooths scratches Maryland official, updates top group
What I’m hearing on Maryland’s chances with four-star Jaeden Mustaf (+)
Young Terps: what to expect when Maryland hosts Charlotte
As familiar faces head to College Park, Maryland preparing for “faceless, nameless opponent”