Locksley on Taulia Tagovailoa's elusiveness, protecting him vs. Michigan State

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLskan85UXM Maryland is preparing for their stiffest test in the trenches through the early stage of the season as they prepare for a Michigan State front entering conference play second in sacks (10). Granted, the bulk of Michigan State’s production game in their week two win against Richmond where the defense tallied seven sacks with five players registering at least one, but with Gottlieb Ayedze looking to make his first start at Maryland, Maryland’s offensive line will look to build off a ”good, not great” performance against Virginia. “We gave up some pressures. Fortunately for us, our quarterback has the ability to be elusive in the pocket. Had he not been an athletic guy, could have been more trouble for us,” Locksley said on Thursday. “Wasn't necessarily scheme related as much as it was fundamentally and technical, some technical things that we had to get corrected. And again, we're continuing to try to put the best five out there and we'll continue to evaluate that position. But I thought they were good, not great.” Quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa enters this weekend with at least one touchdown pass in six consecutive games, along with a Big-Ten leading 17 games with at least two passing touchdowns, while leading the Big Ten in passing yards (889). How he and the protection fare could determine Saturday’s fate, but the confidence in Taulia’s ability to make plays inside and out of the pocket adds a different element to the Terps’ offense with Locksley adding “where dangerous is outside the pocket. “I've also seen now that, some teams, as we call it, like to break the pocket where they force him out in one direction and that's where he's been really good this year because when he leaves, he's just not, as I call, rat trapping,” Locksley added. He's leaving with a purpose and we've done a pretty good job in the scramble drills and he's been finding guys open when we've needed him to as he's extended plays.” More from Mike Locksley in his final update ahead of Saturday’s road game vs. Michigan State:

On ‘good-on-good’ periods during this week's practices “It went well. I only cut one period out of it, which was the team period. We still did good-on-good team run the last few weeks. It was just had cut one of the periods, which is our last period of the day is typically a team good-on-good period. Normally we'll do a team run, we'll do a 7-on-7, which helps us and those we had kept going. But I do think the team period brings it all together whereas team run is focused on a run team, the 7-on-7 is focused on the pass and then we usually bring it together to do it all in a team period at the end of practice. We've instituted it back this week because we've had two days off. When you have the schedule that we had, obviously with 13 straight days without a day off, because Sundays typically the day off and when you play on a Friday, we move everything up a day. And coming out of training camp, you know, our bye week is in a few weeks. So we definitely pay close attention to the player loads. We pay close attention to all the analytics and all the data that we get every day in practice. And to me, you know, I think the compliment is when you see how fast we play on game day. I would say we are a fast team and it's a lot of it's due to how we try to practice and ensure that our players are at an optimal level of conditioning and speed on game day. So, we did implement the team good-on-good periods back. So far so good, but you know what? We'll know a lot better Monday or Saturday in the first quarter.”

On grass vs. turf fields, whether it makes a difference “We practice on both each week. You know, our Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday practices are on grass. Our Thursday practices on turf inside the Jones-Hill House indoor facility. So I can't say one way or the other the effects that it has. I do know, because of the speed we recruit and how we try to condition and develop our players that depending on how high the grass is. I know a year ago, I thought that the grass was a little high or higher than expected. Those things sometimes have an effect, but It's not something that we've spent a lot of time discussing. Just got to make sure that from an equipment standpoint, if it's wet out or if it's a high surface of grass, that we go with the long studded cleats, which Drew Hampton, our equipment guy, is the best in the business. And he usually has our guys prepared to be able to perform on whatever surface that we end up playing on.”

On how the fatigue becomes evident through the season “I mean, just by watching how we practice. I'm just I'm confused when you say…we have the data. We know how many full speed yardage, how much high volume. We were the GPS is in the back. And so when we study our GPSs from a week ago to a year ago, game four, we usually put the data together. We correlate and see where it was different. If we see a guy is not hitting the high-speed yardage in the daily practice that we normally have, those are all signs of fatigue.”

On LB Jaishawn Barham “We’re a zone coverage team. We do play some man, but typically when we're playing man, he's a rusher. So as far as his ability to drop in coverage, I mean, I haven't seen there be any deficiencies. The deficiencies usually show up in man coverage. He’s one of those guys that every now and then he ends up on the back or maybe a tight end. But because of his ability to rush to passer, we usually are blitzin Jaishawn. So, you know, to me, I've seen him, the understanding of knowledge of where he wants to be or where he needs to be in relation to our coverage scheme, he has a great understanding of it. The inside linebackers here are like the quarterbacks of the defense. They make the calls, the checks, the adjustments along with the safeties. I've seen him take that role and continue to get better and better at with the experience he's gained.”

On QB Taulia Tagovailoa progressing with evading pressure “He’s always showed this ability. I mean, I say we are protecting him a little bit better to where now if something breaks down, there's not two or three guys to where they've had him contained. Where he's dangerous is outside the pocket. I think the most dangerous Taulia is, is if we get firm A and B-gaps and we get the rush outside to where, because he is a 5-10 and 5-11, maybe a six-foot quarterback, that vision is really important in the pocket. When we're firm in the A and B-gaps and we get the rush outside of the field, that's where it usually hurts you. But I've also seen now that, some teams, as we call it, like to break the pocket where they force him out in one direction and that's where he's been really good this year because when he leaves, he's just not, as I call, rat trapping. He's leaving with a purpose and we've done a pretty good job in the scramble drills and he's been finding guys open when we've needed him to as he's extended plays.”

On the balance between Taulia extending plays vs. taking hits “You can take hits in the pocket and outside. The key to that is knowing when to say when and I think he's displayed a better understanding of that the last few games where he's thrown it away, he's given up on a play. I think we had maybe one poor decision a couple weeks ago where he got sacked out of the red area. Those are the plays we keep trying to eliminate with him, but I have no problem. I don't want to ever take away his ability that when he leaves the pocket, his ability to improvise outside the pocket and extend things gives defenses fits. And so we've not tried to tell him to stay in the pocket as much as when outside the pocket and he's not protected, get out of bounds, throw it away, get down quickly to not have to continue to take those extra hits.”

On whether there was a kicking competition heading into the season “There wasn't much of a kicking competition. Jack Howes has been our number two kicker. We did bring in a guy through the transfer portal, but it's Jack's job. We knew coming out of the spring, so there really was no kicking competition. Our partner was a returning guy. Obviously, Jack was the number two behind Chad a year ago. Going through spring, we saw what Jack was capable of. It's been great to see him take over the kickoff duties, as well as the consistency of kicking it out of the end zone. So not necessarily did we have a kicking competition this summer.” “We had Jack and we had Chad a year ago. Jack, we knew coming in. He was a recruited walk-on for us, a guy that we actually recruited. He didn't just show up here. So we kind of knew what we had and we're very fortunate that he had chance to redshirt behind an NFL kicker and has kind of shown him the way. So no, not necessarily a kicking competition, even in the spring because he was predominantly the one guy we had here for the most part.”

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