Mike Locksley after Rutgers loss: "we're running on limited opportunities for some veteran players"

Ahmed Ghafir
12 hours ago
6 min read

Everything that head coach Mike Locksley said after Maryland's 35-20 road loss vs. Rutgers, dropping the program to 4-5 (1-5) and just 2-12 in conference play since the start of the 2024 season:

Opening statement

“I’ll start by saying give credit to Rutgers, [the] job they did today. I thought we played a relatively clean game. Showed a little more balance on offense in terms of just the ability to get the run game going and put both sides of the ball on third down, did some good things. I'll say this, our defense has carried us for seven games and have played their butts off and they’re a little banged up on that side of the ball, being inexperienced and banged up, but the last two games haven't been good enough on the defensive side to complement what we were able to do offensively a few drives. We did get the run game going today. I thought Malik's ability in the run game, as you saw, opened up the natural run game, where our back started being able to get some positive yardage. And it was good to see Malik make that point of emphasis go for us on. The development of a young team and an inexperience team sometimes has its ups and downs and I can tell you that we're in the middle of a tough stretch for this group. The young guys, as I told them in the locker room just now don't understand that now we're running on limited opportunities for some veteran players that have done some good things around here the last four or five years and that we're down to playing for pride and opportunities for these guys to extend. And so as I told them, it's my job to remain positive. It's going to be my job to keep showing up for these guys and coach them through this tough stretch. They've got the commitment from me, the staff that will do that, and we're going to remain positive about it. It may not feel real good right now but I can tell you that I know this group will keep pushing and we'll keep fighting for each other and finish this thing up the right way.”

What Locksley needs to see in final three games to call 2025 progress

“It's always about being better than you were a year ago. There's a difference between progress and expectations. This inexperienced team created an expectation with how they played early. We're a little banged up right now and they keep showing up for me. So as I said, it's my job to remain positive. I have no problem with the expectation that we've created when you have a young team, I told you, the inexperience of the ups and downs of the season like this. The good thing is their energy levels been good and I'll keep remaining positive, and they'll keep showing up. But it's gonna be important for us, but the limited opportunities to make sure we do all we can for these older players that deserve it.”

On specific signs of progress

“We're playing a lot cleaner. I know we want wins and look at us, we still remain pretty good in the turnover margin. I don't know if you noticed the penalties continue to get cut down. I think today. I don't know what it was, but either way…defense continues to get their hands on the balls. If you know football, you see that type of progress. If you want the police report, we ain't winning enough, and that's the end result that we got to get.”

On how banged up the defense is

“I don’t even do medical. You can look at the police report and see when number 46, Dillan Fontus isn't out on the field. Look and see 29 [Sidney Stewart], coming out, coming in. [Zahir Mathis] the last three, four weeks has had a toe issue. We're limited. Number one is a warrior, and Daniel [Wingate] is playing on one leg, but he's playing and playing hard and that's why, for me, I'm gonna remain competent for seven games that defense carried and did a really good job. And we got to get some guys healthy air as quickly as we can. We'll get some bodies back, but in the meantime, I got to keep developing this offense, the young quarterback, and get some things corrected over there, which we will do.”

On evaluating the program and where things stand

“I'm not going to evaluate us right now. I mean, I'm sorry. Meet me at the end of the season, I'll have end of season review for you. I'm playing for Illinois, I think it is next week, and not into the evaluation of us as a program with three games left to play. I'm in to tell you I'm gonna keep showing up with a positive attitude because this team deserves it and I'm gonna tell you that this team will play with pride next three games. We'll keep trying to build on some of the things we're doing well. The things we aren't, including getting some guys healthy. That's been the main thought process. We'll deal with the end of the season at the end of the season.”

On what led to Maryland’s short passes late

“If you watch tape, they play zone coverage and when they play zone coverage, it means they drop deep. So you got to check it down. So short passes, make a guy miss, run for the extra yards. That's typically what you like to see. We didn't do a great job with run after the contact or run after the catch in some of these situations. Hadn't watched the tape enough to fully evaluate it, but typically, they played a lot more zone coverage than man and that's where check balances are important and the quarterback did his job there.”

On Locksley’s stance that Maryland-Rutgers are similar programs after the result

“It was a good ball game. I think we're very similar. I mean, I think they made enough plays near it at the end, but we were pretty evenly matched going in at halftime. If you look at the stats, very similar. So yeah, I'd stand by that both are probably around the same where we are as programs in the Big Ten. But I'd like to say that I also don't have every piece of the puzzle for us as we show up here, but the guys that show up, we’ll coach them and get them to play better.”

Building on the run game

“Well, I mean, I think anytime, when you put that on tape, the quarterback run, as I said a week ago, it’s going to be important for our quarterback to show that he has the ability to pull the ball because of the numbers. If you either want to throw the ball against numbers or if you want to force the run and use clock and help your defense, which doesn't have all its weapons, you go to the run. And we talked to our quarterback all week about you're gonna have to help us in the run game this week to try to control the ball and have a little more time of possession. And he made some guys miss early on, had some big runs. Some of the runs came off of dropback passes, which is progress if you watch how he's developed over the course of this season where he wasn't taking advantage of people dropping out of coverage. So we'll keep coaching him up. He'll get better.”

On Malik Washington’s impact in the run game

“That's the part that - I keep saying that in here, yall maybe don’t understand what I said, but everything that we emphasize with this group and that we're putting out, we're plugging holes all over the place because we're just running out of bodies. Every time you see our trainer walk up, you say, hey, he's out. This guy's out, and it's a Rubik's Cube putting people in. But we're gonna keep coaching the guys that are out there. We'll keep putting plans together. And these guys are fighting man, we'll play with pride. We'll finish up with pride.”

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