Maryland head coach Mike Locksley took the podium on Tuesday at Big Ten Media Day to preview “probably the deepest football team that we’ve had since I’ve been back here at Maryland.”
After suffering a season-ending injury last fall and a setback in the spring, senior receiver Dontay Demus has been back on the field this month as he continues his rehab process while Locksley added there is “an expectation that we see Dontay Demus” in the week one matchup against Buffalo.
“Dontay is ahead of schedule,” Locksley added. “Actually really, really been impressed with the way he’s returned. Our training staff led by Brian Simerville has done a tremendous job getting Dontay back. I think last week he broke 21, 22 on the catapult which means he’s got that explosiveness back. We do expect him, barring any setbacks during training camp which we’ll do a good job trying to protect him, and get him to that opening game, but there is an expectation that we see Dontay Demus playing in the first game.”
Demus would rejoin a room littered with talent as Rakim Jarrett, Jeshaun Jones, Tai Felton and Marcus Fleming all return while Maryland added wide receiver Jacob Copeland after hitting the transfer portal earlier this offseason. Maryland returns ten starters on offense from last season and with Taulia Tagovailoa at the helm, the next step is the emotional maturity from the veteran quarterback. Locksley took the opportunity to reinforce his confidence in Maryland’s leader. “I don't think there's a more underrated player in the country than Taulia Tagovailoa and I'll continue to say it as he's a guy that has really been the catalyst to making us go on offense.”
Maryland opens the season on Saturday, September 3 against Buffalo.
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Full Transcript
Opening statement: “Good morning. Excited to be back here in Indy looking forward to seeing all you guys throughout the day. I want to thank commissioner Warren for his leadership. Last year for us was a big step in the building process of the Maryland football family. We had a winning season, bowl victory, moved into a brand new facility, the Jones-Hill house and saw our team really come together up in New York. We have high expectations for ourselves this year. When you have the type of year we had last year, the natural reaction is to say, let's build upon it. We don't see ourselves building on it because last year's version of Maryland football is no longer here and I hope what we can take from last season is the work that we put in, the necessary process that we put in place for us to have that type of year and so we're looking forward to this year's version of the Maryland football family, doing the necessary things, playing with the type of discipline, the type of toughness, the type of effort, as well as being committed and connected to take the next step that we need to take as a program. We have high expectations for ourselves heading into the ’22 season. It's probably the deepest football team that we've had since I've been back here at Maryland. On offense, we have over 163 starts, 15 different guys that have started a game on the defensive side of the ball. We have over 113 starts with 16 different guys having started a game. I'm a strong believer in continuity and leading to success and for the first time, we have a coaching staff, whether it's the offensive coordinator Dan Enos coming back along with Brian Williams, our defensive coordinator who took over the last couple of games of last season and both those guys have done tremendous jobs on those two phases and I expect us to continue to take that next step. Taulia Tagovailoa returns for third season after breaking numerous Maryland football records. I don't think there's a more underrated player in the country than Taulia Tagovailoa and I'll continue to say it as he's a guy that has really been the catalyst to making us go on offense. All five of our starting offensive linemen are back and to me, that is the most improved unit on our team and I'm looking forward to seeing us take that next step. Consistency in the coordinator room. As I talked about earlier Dan Enos has been a godsend for me being an offensive guy. He's one of those guys that has come in and called plays with his personality and really did a good job leading the offense last season and I expect us to continue to play really well and be explosive on the offensive side of the football. Brian Williams was elevated to the defensive coordinator position right before the Rutgers's game and I thought he did a tremendous job leading the defense from the front of the room. He's been with me since I hired since I got hired in 2019, we brought in some new coaches in on both sides of the ball that I think have continued to bring and add to what we. I wanna give give a lot of credit to our players. These guys have really put the work in. Like all programs, they've really done a great job of buying into all of the things that we've asked them to do as well as our strength and conditioning staff headed up by Ryan Davis, who continues to be the glue for our program. We report to training camp in exactly one week and I'm really excited about seeing what this version of the Maryland football family looks like and I'm really, truly appreciate all that you guys do in terms of covering college football and really looking forward to this season.”
On WR Dontay Demus: “Dontay is ahead of schedule. Actually really, really been impressed with the way he's returned. Our training staff led by Brian Simervillehas done a tremendous job getting Dontay back. I think, you know, last week he broke 21 or 22 on the catapult, which means he's got that explosiveness back. We do expect him barring any setbacks during training camp, which we'll do a good job of trying to protect them and, and get him to that opening game, but there is the expectation that we'll see Dontay Demus playing in the first game.”
On QB Taulia Tagovailoa: “The biggest thing for me with Taulia is as we talk about in our program, you know, every play has a shelf life meaning when the play is over it dies. And for Taulia, he's one of those guys that puts a lot of pressure on himself. There's nobody that has more expectations than he does and what we've seen him do here from, I say midpoint of last season on is I've seen the maturity in how he manages himself, whether it's a good play, not letting that good play get 'em too high, or if it's a bad play, letting it kind of get him too low. We like to keep him at that neutral position. I've seen that growth out of him. I see a comfort level in our system. And to me that's probably, if there was one area we wanted to see him improving, it's just the emotional maturity and we've seen that out of Taulia.”
On Big Ten’s addition of USC and UCLA: “I think it's a win for the conference and obviously, you know, the commissioner and the powers that be felt that they are a fit for the Big Ten, very likeminded to a university is a very likeminded to the, to what the Big Ten’s all about. Great academics and great, great athletics. And so, to add those two type of teams that have storied history is a win for the big 10, as far as the flight, you know what it's, it is what it is and for us, you know, we'll play the games that end up on our schedule. We'll manage it and come up with a way to hopefully allow us to get out there and play our best. But great to have those two storied programs come to the Big Ten.”
On Maryland’s improvements in the front seven: “The biggest thing I'll say about the front seven. First of all, we've got a lot of experienced guys with Mo Kite coming back for a third season, Ami Finau. We've had a lot of injuries. That's kind of been our Achilles heel on the defensive side of the ball. We've had a lot of injuries, you know, Durell Nchami is healthy, one of the best pass rushers in our program. And like you talked about having our secondary back, a guy like Deontae Banks, Jakorian Bennett, Tarheeb Still. All three of those guys lost games last year due to injury and having those guys healthy and as well as, you know, that second level of our defense last year, we lost Fa’Najae Gotay in our opener a veteran player that has played a lot of football. And then there's been the addition of some really talented players. We brought two freshmen in mid-year, Caleb Wheatland and Jaishawn Barham who we think will add tremendous depth, but I think the biggest thing with our front seven on the defensive side of the ball is that we have experience and then we're healthy and it's, you know, we need to keep those guys healthy.”
On NIL: “NIL is one of those things that, as we've all said, it's good for, it's good for the student athlete. They deserve it, as you continue and as we continue to kind of figure it out as coaches, there are some guardrails that we need to put in place. Obviously once they're in your program for them to take advantage of their name, image, and likeness, and for a place like Maryland being located in between two major metropolitan areas, you've got over ten Fortune 500 companies in that area. I think it would be very beneficial for kids in our program, but what we've gotta do is control it and how it's being used in the recruitment of players. And to me that's where I think we've gotta continue to try to find a sweet spot with how it's managed and how it's used, but I'm all for it. I've been on the record for being all for NIL and we'll continue to navigate it as we learn it.”