Maryland football notebook: bouncing back from Washington loss, Malik Washington's NIL growth, stopping Nebraska

Ahmed Ghafir
2 days ago
4 min read

Bouncing back from the first loss of the 2025 season

Maryland will look to avoid turning its first loss of the season into a two-game slide during the final home game in October. Before the team got back onto the practice field, head coach Mike Locksley noted the players took accountability for what went wrong vs. Washington, including CB Dontay Joyner, who stood “in front of his team yesterday and owned his stuff and apologized to his team.”

“Dontay, I love that guy. He's a heck of a player,” DL Cam Rice said of Joyner. “Step up in front of your team, that's never easy, owning up to a mistake that you might have made. Us as a team, we don't look at him any differently because of what happened on Saturday. Still happy he's on our team. He's a heck of a player, but that means a lot coming from him, stepping up and saying that in front of the team.”

With the 24-hour rule in effect with the team shifting complete focus to Nebraska starting Monday, offensive lineman Isaiah Wright noted the players can come out of the loss with “a lot of lessons” as the young – not inexperienced, as Locksley emphasized on Tuesday – team molds itself together.

“Coach Locks talks a lot about friction and how we witnessed some adversity and some friction last Saturday. But when you're working on a sword that friction kind of refines it and perfects it. So with the approach this week, we're just going to use every lesson that we could gain from the last game and just try and become a better team,” Wright said.

But as Maryland approaches the midway point of the season, head coach Mike Locksley also noted “our expectation rises” for the freshmen class that’s become an integral part of the 2025 identity.

“We've had eight freshmen basically play starter reps. As they reach and get to this halfway point, we're no longer an inexperienced team. I can't stand up here and keep using the word inexperienced with some of these guys because they've played starter reps for almost a half a season and so our expectation rises with them with each and every game. I expect us to use some of the frustration we have with the things that we can control that we didn't control.

Malik building brand

While the freshman quarterback has entrenched himself among the best freshmen quarterbacks in college football as he’s been a source of buzz within the fanbase, QB Malik Washington also inked NIL deals with Pepsi and Ledo’s coming out of the bye week.

Washington’s deal with Ledo’s features an 18-inch one-topping pizza and 12 jumbo wings for $39.99, announcing his deal one day before Sidney Stewart announced his half off Philly cheesesteak combo deal with Marathon Deli if the freshman registers a sack. Washington’s deal became the first of its kind for Maryland’s in-house NIL agency, One Maryland, as the freshman capitalizes on his growing brand one week after Locksley talked about the ability for freshmen to do exactly that in College Park.

“It's been amazing. They've done a great job helping me out and facilitating things and getting me with these local brands that I've been - I've been eating at Ledo’s as long as I can remember,” Washington added. “Me and my mom used to go all the time. Same thing, my great grandma loves Pepsi. She drinks it all the time. Brands that have had an impact in my life that I'm able to work with now.”

“Right now I'm just focused on the season and trying to win games. So when things like that come about, we take them at face value and see what we can do with it with the time that I have free and we go from there.”

Prepping for Nebraska’s pass offense, defense

Maryland will look to bounce back against a Nebraska squad that leads the country in passing yards allowed per game with teams averaging less than 92 yards per game with the Huskers allowing just one touchdown through the air in 2025. QB Malik Washington enters Saturday as one of just four Power Conference true freshmen QBs to throw for 200+ yards in each of his first career starts while he’s coming off a career-high 49 pass attempts vs. Washington, but he acknowledged the Huskers present their own challenges.

“Their front gets after the quarterback a decent amount. I think that makes it harder for teams to pass on them,” Washington added. “So as long as we hold up and protection, our receivers will get downfield and make plays.”

On the other side, Maryland’s secondary will have another tough test on Saturday with the Huskers sitting second in the Big Ten and eighth nationally in passing yards per game (320.2) led by sophomore QB Dylan Raiola. The Huskers have weapons with five players catching at least 16 passes through five games, but RB Emmett Johnson is a big part of that.

Johnson sits second on the team with 22 catches while also averaging nearly 95 rushing yards per game, giving the Terps’ front seven another weapon to limit one week after facing RB Jonah Coleman.

“Our coaches preach to us every week, it's about stopping the run. If you could control that aspect of the game, it leads to better things in the pass and then our pass rushers can go hunt,” DL Cam Rice added. “So yeah, we knew [Jonah Coleman] was a good back coming in. We knew what they wanted to do with him. We just tried our best to contain him and stop that run game early so we could get after the passer.”

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