Locksley talks new starting OL, Branden Jennings update, run defense heading into Michigan State
- Ahmed Ghafir
- Nov 10, 2021
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 4, 2022
Maryland is looking for their first signature win of the 2021 season and will travel to East Lansing this weekend in hopes of topping Michigan State. Led by second-year head coach Mel Tucker, the Spartans have been the biggest success story of the 2021 college football season as Heisman candidate running back Kenneth Walker III leads the offensive attack. Walker enters this weekend’s matchup averaging just shy of 150 yards on the ground and head coach Mike Locksley knows it will be a tall task containing him this weekend.
“Our job is to take away their best players and force them to play left-handed or force someone else to beat us and we’ve got to do the same thing this week which will be a tough task because of the type of the type of talent that Kenneth Walker III has, how they utilize him,” Locksley said on Tuesday. “He’s a big-time player, I like our guys and the energy they bring in the run game and I think we’ll obviously have to fill our gaps properly, we’ll have to do a great job of tackling because when you, like I said, you look at 900 yards of after contact yardage, that means he runs with great pad level and we’ve got to do a good job of getting 11 hats to the ball.”
The Terps defensive line has been gashed in recent weeks against the run, but showed improvement against a struggling Penn State rushing attack one week ago after allowing just 2.2 yards per carry, “but the flip side of it is we gave up a bunch of yards in the passing game,” Locksley admitted. The Terps’ secondary will be tested once more with Spartans receivers Jayden Reed and Jalen Nailor at QB Payton Thorne's disposal, but it all starts with Walker as Locksley admitted the running back is “the guy that makes their offense go.”
Maryland defensive linemen Ami Finau and Mosiah Nasili-Kite were absent from Tuesday’s open portion of practice, while defensive end Sam Okuayinonu was banged up in Saturday’s loss as the defensive line fights through the final portion of the season. Still, Locksley isn’t as concerned with his front as he is with containing the edges. “Our interior [defensive] line, the three dudes—Ami [Finau], Mo [Nasili-Kite], Sam [Okuayinonu]—those guys, we’re in a 3-4 front. Very few of the big plays that have happened have happened in the ‘A’ or ‘B’ gap. Our ‘C’ gap is the area that’s kind of been exposed when we have been exposed and losing players like Durell Nchami and then Deshawn Holt, those types of players, those are starters that are no longer there and now we have young players playing it.”
After rotating in at the JACK and SAM, freshman linebacker Demeioun Robinson drew his first career start at the SAM last weekend as Locksley likes “the way that Chop is developing” while Lawtez Rogers and Tyler Baylor have helped round out the depth. “Again, hoping we can hold up in the ‘C’ area and that ‘C’ area and ‘D’ area where…people have had success.”
One defender that Maryland continues to carefully bring back from injury is freshman linebacker Branden Jennings, who was not seen in the Penn State game. “He’s injured, he’s played a little bit early. We’re trying to get the brace thing right for him to have a comfort level to be able to go play. He practiced [Monday], practiced all last week up until Thursday, was a late scratch. We’re hoping that if we can get the brace in-time, he’s able to participate fully in practice, see how that thing holds up for him and see if he’ll be able to contribute.”
While the Terps fight the injury bug on the defensive side of the ball, the offensive line has remained clean through the first nine games but fans saw a new starting offensive line last weekend after Spencer Anderson took over at center, leaving DJ Glaze to start at right tackle. It isn’t the first career start for Glaze as he replaced Jaelyn Duncan as the starting left tackle in the season-opening win against West Virginia, but his consistency has instilled trust in the staff and helped facilitate a shakeup.
“Aric [Harris] like ‘Worm’ is a junior college player and that acclimation, he acclimated a lot faster,” Locksley said on Tuesday. “Obviously came in and has a really good football intelligence level for us on the offensive line but one of the things that we’ve kind of addressed is the interior part of our run, our protection for our quarterback. Not having that interior in his lap, he’s not 6-foot-4, so having a 6-foot guy behind center you like to have the true pocket where the firmness is in the ‘A’ and ‘B’ gap, and you rush out wide and you can stay inside the pocket and moving Spencer inside has helped us shore that up. The other reason behind it is DJ Glaze has been playing at a really high level. We’ve played him in every game, he started the West Virginia game, we try to play a bunch of players because of the development of our team and as we’ve gotten to the thick of it, he’s one of those guys we felt was deserving of more playing time and our goal is to put the best five on the field. With Spencer’s versatility being able to play both tackles and center, it affords us that luxury and I was pleased with the way that group played for the most part.”
As Maryland prepares to take on their third top-ten opponent this season, one thing is clear to Mike Locksley.
“Our kids will show up. They’ve showed up every week, they’ve practiced the way they need to practice but now I’ve got to get them and as a staff, we’ve got to get our players to play to the best of their ability this Saturday and give ourselves a chance to do something special which is still to get to the sixth win which allows us to become bowl eligible and I can tell you that [Monday’s] practice, the energy in meetings and making the corrections from the Penn State game, those things are all there so that’s a good sign for us. A good sign for the culture that we’ve kind of started to create and I know we’ll be able to get things done based off of that.”
Kickoff is set for 4 PM.
