Maryland football dropped its third consecutive game and fell to 1-5 since wrapping up non-conference play, sitting at 4-6 (1-6) overall. With two games left and one more inside SECU Stadium, head coach Mike Locksley detailed everything that went wrong in Saturday’s 31-17 loss vs. Rutgers:
Opening statement
“Coach [Greg] Schiano, his team, job well done. As I kind of replay this thing that, thing that jumps out to me that there were a lot of plays we left out there on the field and at least on offense and defense. We had some explosives that we didn't hit on early that we need to be able to make, and then on defense, when we had some opportunities to get off the field, we couldn't get off the field. It’s been the issue here the last few weeks. We were able to get Roman going early with the emphasis of, hey, let's try to create some balance and run the ball. Offensively, we were able to move the ball but just could not finish drives and we're not scoring enough points, and we're leaving some plays on the field. We had opportunities in the end zone to finish on the ball and we didn't. But like I told our team, we've got to find a way to turn the page on this one pretty quickly. We've got Iowa coming in here with an opportunity again, to keep our season alive with three one game seasons. We didn't get it done today and we're running out of chances and opportunities and we've got to find a way to get this thing fixed. Iowa's coming here next week off of a bye week, so it's going to be important for us to get back in here, figure out how to get us going again. For right now, it's all about our seniors. You think of this group, they've led our program the last three, four, five years these guys have been here. Our mission is to send them out the right way. We've got two opportunities that are guaranteed left and we need to find a way to get it going again for our seniors and finish it off the right way for them.”
On Rutgers scoring on three consecutive possessions
“They kept themselves in those manageable third downs. And then when we did win the second down to where they had the long situations, we couldn't get off the field. I mean, the third down, I think the one drive there that you're referencing, they had four third-down conversions and then they had a fourth-down conversion. And that's kind of been for us, on the defensive side of the ball, our inability to play well on third down has allowed teams to sustain or continue drives. We've got to get off the field. I mean, that's our job, to get off the field on third down, and we weren't and haven't been able to do it, and it's come back to hurt us in critical situations because then there are times we'll get off the field, but in the critical situations, we got to find a way to get off the field.”
On whether QB Billy Edwards has regressed over the last month
“When we use words like his play regress. Like the thing I'd like to see Billy do is with some of the accuracy passes, the balls that when we have a chance to complete, and we got to make those plays. But some of these interceptions, I've always said, it's easy to say, throw an interception, but when we don't run the right route, or we're not in the right location, throwing the ball is timing and spacing. Some of it's on the quarterback. Some of it's on the receivers being where they need to be, and then some of it's on the protection. So as I've said before, quarterbacks get a lot of credit but they also get a lot of blame. I think Billy, for the most part, we got to be able to hit the open guys at times that we didn't do that today. And I think anybody that knows him knows he'll hold himself accountable for those type of plays.”
On why Rutgers had so much success on third and fourth-down
“They made plays. I mean, you just said it. I mean, there's really no secret plays to call or things you have to call me. At the end of the day, it comes down to we got to make plays that are there to be made. And today, Rutgers made enough of them and we did not.”
On Roman Hemby’s lack of second-half touches
“Again, trying to emphasize the run game. But when you give up and you get down two scores, to mix the run game in there. We also mixed in [Nolan Ray] which the goal wasn't just to get Roman going, but to get the run game going. We were able to do it early. The second half, when you start dealing with where you are in the game, it's hard sometimes to continue to feature and hand the ball off when we've got to score enough points, and we knew what Rutgers was doing to shrink the game and use up the play clock that was going to be important for us to, every drive, was really important in the second half.”
On the inefficient drive to end the first half
“So that's one of those game situations where you want to get enough to be in field goal range. We were in the fringe area. And during that time out, we talked about everybody getting enough to get the first down. And in college, when you get the first down, the clock stops because they have to move the chains. And I guess we didn't get it verbalized for us to make sure we get enough distance to get the sticks to where when you – we call it church, or which is the declare down. He declared down, but he's a yard short, and then we need to get the sticks. And that's – we got to do our jobs.”
On Tai Felton setting more records in the loss
“Obviously disappointing for him to have the type of year he's having, but we all know that individual awards are good when you are successful as a team. And I'm sure Tai will be the first to tell you, obviously he's a good player for us, a guy that's made some plays for us, but right now to sit here with four wins and had opportunities in some games, I'm sure he’d give up some of those yardages and some of those catches to add a few more wins, which we have a chance with two more guaranteed opportunities to continue to extend our play.”
On what was different about this year’s Rutgers team
“They’re a veteran group. Our guys didn't make enough plays. Those guys executed their game playing to a tee. They shrunk the game. They got, I think had it close to 100 yards rushing. [Kyle Monangai] made it back out there today and they made clutch plays when they needed to make them and we didn't.”
On the offensive line rotations throughout the game
“We were preparing. We played everybody we thought that gave us a chance to win. We always go in with a plan for how we want to play our players. When you look across the board, we were struggling a little bit at the left guard position early on. A couple of those plays, those negative plays, took place, and to move Josh [Kaltenberger] over gave us a veteran player. Michael Hershey has really come on here the last few games, and gave us a chance to help settle that left guard position down for us a little bit. Isaac Bunyun and Tamarus Walker both are over there sharing time, but the veteran player, like Josh and then what Hershey’s been able to do is, the last couple of weeks getting healthy, gave us the opportunity to add some more depth.”
On LT Terez Davis
“He went into the medical tent at some point.”
On the decision to run the ball on the final play
“No, we wanted to get the first down and declare down. We had an RPO on it. They forced the run. I mean, we're down 14. I would have loved to see us punch one in. We hand the ball off, we don't get a yard, which has been the story of our life, and we've added RPO to the play with a short yardage situation. We're just not running the ball in short yardage situations as well as we need to and we didn't get the yardage.”
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