Aazaar Abdul-Rahim on Illinois loss, one penalty, what he learned in game one as Maryland football's interim head coach

5 hours ago

7 min read

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd7nYBQI51Y

After Maryland's last second loss against Illinois, interim head coach Aazaar Abdul-Rahim took the podium to discuss his impressions, what he learned and more:

Opening Statement

"I just got off talking to the young men. First and foremost, I thanked them for the buy-in. This team could have went a lot of ways [the] last two weeks with all the craziness that they had to deal with and the uncertainty. I wanted to let them know how appreciative I am to be the head coach and I think they they showed some of the new things that we talked about. I've seen great mental toughness. I want to say one penalty. I've seen the techniques that we were demanding. Seen the finishing and strain. Obviously, we've been preaching to those guys about the process and about their process the entire week, and the process doesn't have anything to do with the outcome. So unfortunately, it's not the outcome that we wanted, but it has validated that the process that we have put into place is the right process. I think they understood that. I think one of the biggest things that I that I heard before I left was I heard ten to 12 teammates tell another teammate that they love them, and that's the goal at the end of the day for these guys to love each other and love football."

On how Illinois attacked the game-winning drive

"I would probably wait to actually to really analyze what we did as far as defensively and what they were looking at. I think -- I thought our defense played well. Take away a few plays in the run game. I thought we dominated the run game if you really watched the game. They got into 12 personnel to throw the ball more. And that's not their M.O., that's not who they are. I would probably have to look at tape to really answer your question."

On one penalty in the loss

"I think that it's been stressed on both sides of the ball. I think if you want young men to play fast and carefree, you do have to condense what they have to think prior to the snap. So I think so. The other thing is when we did condense, we condensed practice. We kind of supplemented it with walkthroughs, so guys were able to see even more of the same pictures. We wanted to build our identity, so I think building our identity will, from an offensive perspective, will shrink what you want to do in the run game and the passing game because you have to get good at something. Yeah, that was the goal."

On Malik Washington's mobility vs. Illinois

"Without a doubt, Malik is a unique quarterback who can be a drawback, but also allowing him to move. He does a good job of using his legs as well, so it's more of a run-pass option. So we want to continue to give him as many looks as possible, as many ways for him to create essentially long handoffs."

On the DL rotations, changes

"Some of our quality control during the bye week was was spent really understanding and ranking our roster, figuring out who are the best pass rushers, who are the best interior guys. Then, really, when you add in, okay, versus that situation, who should we have out there? So it was the intent was to try to get the best 11 out there during -- especially critical situations, whether it's third and long or third and short. So, yeah, definitely, we felt like Nahsir [Taylor] would be an added interior pass rusher. Trey [Reddick] coming off the edge. He was a pass rusher his freshman year. So just trying to get guys in the best position to be successful."

On the support from AAR's former players, community

"Means a lot. Personally, I don't do it for for that, so it sometimes it's uncomfortable, when the calls come and the posts and what have you. But I'm extremely grateful and I'm extremely appreciative. Probably more than anything that I'm able to influence young men, and that I get to tell them stuff and they actually listen and it works. So I'm grateful for that. But yeah, this area it means a lot to me, as you know, and I spend a lot of time and a lot of different facets of my life, you know, really just servicing young men in this area and young ladies. So I'm extremely grateful and appreciative."

What AAR learned as a head coach at the college level

"It kind of validates what I feel inside. I've been a head coach in my head longer than I've been an assistant coach. I've been a head coach for 12, 13 years in high school. So I walked that sideline. I know how lonely that that feeling is when you do something good or bad. I understand how to lead people personally. And it's not just really about football. I feel like I'm great with conflict. And I think because you have to be great with conflict in order to be an effective leader because sometimes you might have to hurt someone's feelings that you care about. So I don't struggle in those facets. And again, I've walked the sidelines. I know -- Friendship [Collegiate Academy], we barely had grass on the field. But I've walked the sideline. I've been in this situation a long time. So it's a bit of a comfort zone for me."

On AAR's message to fans

"Yeah, I think it's what you saw. It was a clean game, and things we stress. We stress discipline and it's kind of invalidated because we had we had one penalty. We've stressed energy, and I felt like our energy was really good. And I think it was I thought it was sustained energy. It wasn't just the first play. We usually started off fast, and we were kind of fizzle out. Sothe proof is in in the product of what was out on the field. I'm not a big talker. I'm ready to go back to work right now, personally and start working on Purdue and go 1-1. But yeah definitely I encourage all fans to continue to support us. Support these young men. You understand what they deal what they deal with and what they have dealt with. And we appreciate all the fans. We appreciate the fans that came this week."

On team unity

"It's what we stress. I think -- they're kids still, right? So they still need leadership, right? And I think an important part of leadership is a singleness of purpose. It has to be, like really condense a lot of the verbiage, and probably one of the biggest compliments you have as a program if I say the book with the bullets on the program, and then a kid organically says those same things. And I think what that means that we have a program that's in alignment right now, and I think that's what you saw on the field. I think college football sometimes can be such a business. Coaches forget that it's a team game, and you're going to need an individual around you. You're going to need someone else to support you. You're going to need someone else to have your back. We talked a lot about the storm. You're either in a storm, coming out of storm, or about to go back in another storm. And that's kind of how the game was. And so, again, you seen validation by what they were saying to each other, not what they were saying to me, because they can lie to me and say, "Yeah, we love you, coach." Yeah, they can lie, but they're not gonna lie to their teammates. So I think we're on the right track. Looking forward to the next one."

On the end of first half, why Maryland let time expire with three timeouts

"Again, I go off sometimes analytics, but I also go off of feeling. I thought we were in a good place going to halftime. The reality is we got the ball coming out, and sometimes when you can get too aggressive, and if you watched our season [in] previous weeks, sometimes those two minutes, we let the defense get on the field again, and I wasn't going to do that. I felt good about where we were at halftime, and again we were getting the ball coming out."

On avoiding the game from snowballing after Illinois 4Q touchdown

"That's a great question. I think the storm analogy was preached. We had a tight plan to win, and a lot of stuff that was in the plan to win, it ended up hurting us or helping us. So I think, again, going back to clearly stating the expectations, the standards of the week, they understood the job at hand. I think what else helped us, I think we created a lot of competition periods in practice for the last two weeks. We call them Terp alley. Like you're in the alley, it's Terp versus Terp, somebody got to win, somebody got to lose. But what I think it does, it kind of replicates a game. Like a third and one a critical down. And the mind sometimes doesn't know the difference between practicing. If you get the mind to a level where it's about competing, whether it's practice or a game, so I though that they understood the moments a lot more. I hthought they understood situations, and it worked out for us on some of them, and it didn't on others. And you learn from it."

On allowing eight 15+ yard plays through the air

"One of our goals or standards as a defense is to limit explosives. So no, that's not [what] we want at the end of the day. But I would have to watch film again because you're definitely right. It was a little bit too many explosives, but I would have to watch film and because I can't think about what play it was or what type of defense we were in during that moment, I'd be lying to you. But yes, definitely we want to limit all explosives, and we weren't happy. We felt good about our matchups with [Amari Jackson] and [Jamare Glasker] versus their wideouts. Some of them, they made plays. I would have wished if they would have made a few more, put them in some you know some really critical situations, man as far as just playing zero coverage, because our main goal and our first focus was to stop the run. This team wanted to run the football."

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