Maryland ready to bounce back against "senior-laden" Gophers
- Ahmed Ghafir
- Oct 20, 2021
- 4 min read
Updated: Apr 5, 2022
After a weekend off, Maryland has entered the second half of the season as head coach Mike Locksley noted the much-needed break for the staff and players during last week’s bye. It also gave the team a chance to step back and realize the team’s current 4-2 mark so far still with six games left on the schedule.
“As I told our team, we sit here 4-2 and if somebody told us at the beginning of the year that we'd have a chance to be 4-2 at the halfway point, I think every one of us would be pretty happy with it,” Locksley said during Tuesday’s media availability. Maryland will get another crack at win number five when they head to Minneapolis this weekend to take on a “senior-laden, grad-laden program” in the Minnesota Gophers. The Gophers have bounced back since their season-opening loss to Ohio State, winning four of their last five including a 31-24 victory over Nebraska last weekend. While veteran quarterback Tanner Morgan is “who makes them go,” according to Locksley, the Gophers also present a challenge in the trenches. The Gophers have allowed just nine sacks through six games and present three starters at least 6-foot-6, including 6-foot-9 tackle Daniel Faalele. Maryland still enters Saturday as the Big Ten leader in sacks, but Locksley knows the big boys have their work cut out for them.
“They're strong on both sides of the front, their [offensive] line. Like I said, a lot of career starts out of that group, their [defensive line] again, a lot of career starts. They've got a grand transfer MIKE linebacker from Abilene Christian who has been a great addition to their defensive front. I know they're highly ranked defensively and run defense and in scoring defense.”
The Gophers’ offensive line has done well protecting Tanner Morgan thus far as the veteran quarterback has thrown for 918 yards, six touchdowns, and four interceptions on 67-of-114 passing. Having receiver Chris Autman-Bell at Morgan’s disposal has helped facilitate the passing game, but Maryland safety Jordan Mosley is very familiar with Morgan given this will be the fourth time the veteran defender faces the Gophers’ quarterback. “I played him all four years but he’s a really good quarterback,” Mosley said of Morgan. “He’s a veteran and he’s behind a really good offensive line so I think they do a lot of max protection shots. I think that’s what they do best and just being able to stop him and get him out of his rhythm, but he’s a really good quarterback.” While Morgan has stepped up when called upon so far, the Gophers have had to adjust offensively this season.
Minnesota lost both running backs Mohamed Ibrahim and Trey Potts to season-ending injuries, vaulting Bryce Williams into the starting role to establish a ground game. Williams eclipsed the 100-yard mark in the win over Nebraska as the Gophers rotated their younger depth and heading into Saturday, Locksley is mindful of how the Gophers’ ground game opens their offense. “I think the big thing is, you know, they obviously are a team that wants to run the football. With their front, they do a great job in the RPO game, they do a good job of the shot plays off the run game. That's who they are. I felt like one of the things we've been able to do against two of the top teams was play the run, but we gave up a lot of explosive plays in the passing game, which hadn't been something that we had done earlier in the year.”
While Locksley added he expects linebacker Branden Jennings to play, cornerbacks Jakorian Bennett and Kenny Bennett are game-time decisions after returning to practice within the last few days and were back out on Tuesday. The potential—and likely—return of both Bennetts allows the defensive to stick with its man defense with more confidence in the experience. “Jakorian started since he's been here and has a skill set that I think that will allow him to play on Sunday, Kenny has the same type, adds length to our secondary, can run and has a physicality presence. You know, I think being able to add them back gives us some versatility and some of the things we might want to do,” Locksley added. “I think both those guys, because of their skill set, allows us to limit those explosive plays.”
Defensively, the Gophers pose a challenge along the defensive line with defensive end Boye Mafe leading the way as the Gophers allow just 86.8 yards on the ground, sitting at sixth nationally. Maryland tight end Chigoziem Okonkwo knows that’s the strength of their defensive scheme as the Terps spend the week scouting their weaknesses.
“But I do know that Minnesota is always a well-coached team. And they have a really good front, defensive line. I think that's where their strength is, they have veterans down there, so I think that's where their strength probably is on their defense. Secondary, their secondary is okay. I think that the place that we would be concerned, if anything, would be their [defensive] line.”
With four days until Maryland gets another crack at a road win in conference play, Okonkwo also knows a key to a win on Saturday starts with the Terps getting out of their own way.
“I'll say the number one thing that's probably went wrong the last two weeks offensively is just beating ourselves. You know, these past two weeks, you know, we've struggled a lot but a lot of the time, it’s not really even been what the other team is doing because it's been what we weren't doing and just not executing plays that we execute on daily basis. And, you know, just having turnovers, the amount of turnovers we had in the past games, you're not going to be many teams. We see the turnover chart after games that we see like the teams who are positive in the turnover category they are, they win a lot more times than teams who are negative so just limiting turnovers and limiting penalties and just being a more disciplined team and just executing our stuff. That's the things we've been working on over the bye week.”
