Maryland football fails to "headbutt the finish" vs. Nebraska as Locksley, players review loss

Chase King
Oct 12
3 min read

In a game that head coach Mike Locksley and his players emphasized the need to “headbutt the finish,” Maryland football fell short of doing exactly that.

For the second straight week, Maryland is back to the drawing board after suffering a loss at home, this time a 34-31 defeat vs. Nebraska to fall to 4-2 (1-2) on the season.

“Obviously hurts for anyone that's in our locker room,” head coach Mike Locksley said postgame. “They work really hard to give themselves a chance to have an opportunity to win there at the end. Really love the fight, the effort that this team continues to show.”

While the end result provided a similar feeling, Saturday didn’t go exactly like it did the week prior. Nebraska jumped out to an early lead after a 43-yard field goal to open the second quarter made it 10-0 before a pair of touchdowns nearly three minutes apart gave Maryland a 14-10 advantage, its first of the day. It’d mark the second of four lead changes on the day with CB Dontay Joyner’s 67-yard pick-six midway through the third quarter put Maryland ahead by a touchdown.

But the heartbreak wasn’t far off after Nebraska scored ten points in the final 7:47 to secure the 34-31 finish. Nebraska was held in the redzone to settle for a 27-yard field goal with less than eight minutes left, but a five-play drive spanning four minutes ended near midfield to give the Huskers one last chance.

It took just two plays for Nebraska to reach midfield before QB Dylan Raiola connected with WR Nyziah Hunter for a 33 yard gain to set up inside the redzone, four plays before Raiola connected with WR Dane Key for a three-yard touchdown with 77 seconds left.

Maryland would get one last chance, but an early hurdle on Maryland’s final drive was a close intentional grounding call on QB Malik Washington, pushing the offense back from near midfield to the MD 31 with 37 seconds left.

“In the situations like that, time is more important than yardage. So once I felt like, I was away and I didn't want to take a sack in an instance or try to run around and make a play just being able to get the ball out of bounds,” Washington added.

Two plays after missing a wide open Dorian Fleming on the left side of the field, Washington tried to connect with Fleming on fourth down but fell short, cementing the first losing streak of 2025. Nebraska allowed the fewest passing yards per game in the country, going into the game with just 91.8 passing yards per game, and despite that, Washington ended the game 27-for-37 with 249 passing yards and a touchdown.

“This is one of those games where we’ve been in the fourth quarter. I’ve watched the other team make some plays, and I’ve watched us not make plays,” Locksley said postgame.

In the end, Maryland was outscored 10-0 in the final quarter in a failed attempt at closing out a game.

“It's all about, really communication and fighting and straining and finish. We gave up those plays and it's plays that we know we can defend. So at the end of the day, we just got to finish,” safety Jalen Huskey said.

It didn’t help that Maryland finished the day with 100 yards on eight penalties, the second game this season the team has eclipsed the century mark in penalty yards this season.

“When it comes from leaders like number 10, Cam Rice, obviously those after-the-play penalties are critical,” Locksley added. “Like I've told you, I equate a lot to being a parent and as a parent, all I can do is draw the line in the sand. We'll continue to coach our guys up on the proper way to play.”

Now, Maryland will look to end the slide as QB Malik Washington added he and his teammates will look to have “kind of a player meeting” on Monday to right the ship ahead of next week’s road game vs. UCLA with the Bruins coming off a two-game win streak.

“I like that we have a team that will fight, a team that will continue to play and not worry about the scoreboard,” Locksley said.

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