Mike Locksley after UCLA loss: "I'm not gonna ask why. Why is a victim question"

Ahmed Ghafir
Oct 18, 2025
4 min read

Everything that head coach Mike Locksley said after Maryland dropped its third straight game, this time a 20-17 loss at UCLA:

Opening statement

“I'll give credit to coach [Tim] Skipper, his staff, for the job he did with their team has fought for four quarters. They battled, a tough opponent and they're playing together, playing for each other and you can see that. Obviously disappointed, but continue - not discouraged. We've lost three Big Ten games by combined, I guess, 10 points the last three weeks. And here's what I'm gonna tell you, so that your questions, you can give however you want. I'm not gonna ask what the issue or why this keeps happening. I'm not gonna ask why. Why is a victim question. And I'm not a victim. I'm gonna ask what we need to do, what I need to do to get us to be able to finish these games. And to me, that's a growth mindset that this team has, and I promise you, that's where we are. That's how I'm coaching them. That's what my job will be next week with the bye week coming upon us is to not say why. We're not victims, but what we can do. And me, I've always been about growth mindset.”

On UCLA loss

“Obviously we have to do better. I thought our defense played lights out. They scored points, they got turnovers. They stopped the bleeding before the half with a turnover there. They played well enough for us to win and I know they gave up the touchdown there at the end. The other two phases, we didn't play complementary football. Our lack of offense in the first half and three quarters is disappointing because it's an execution thing that that we got to get fixed. But I do like the fight they showed to go down and score to give us a chance to put it in overtime. Obviously, we have the bye week coming up, and as always, I evaluate everything that we do, starting with me, myself as to as to what I can do, what I need to do to continue to lead us through these tough finishes that we've had the last three weeks. But we'll do whatever we have to do to put ourselves in a position to compete and find a way to get back on the right track for homecoming at home against a really strong Indiana team.”

Why Maryland can’t close in the fourth quarter

“Use the word why again. I'm not a victim. It's what I need to do to get us to finish. I promise you, we spent a lot of time trying to answer the ‘what.’ Part of it is getting all three phases to play complimentary to where we complement each other. That helps us. Didn't help to lose three starters in the fourth quarter again today, which for second week, Chicago called in and I lose a player because of not the flag on the field, but coming from Chicago. I'll probably get in trouble for saying that, but it's one of those things that I'll keep asking what I have to do, how I need to Coach, what the position I have to put us in and practice to teach us and let us learn from these tough three weeks that we've had.”

On the impact of the targeting call, why it keeps happening

“I'm not a victim. I'm gonna say what do I have to do? And I'm gonna look at them. I mean, I sent a play very similar in last week at the end of our game where Punch got the dig route, and I thought it should have been called and it wasn't. Chicago didn't call in. And again, it's my job to make sure I coach the football team, and I'm gonna stick to that part of it.”

On the lack of offensive execution

“We missed some easy throws. And we had a couple of times with the ball, the receiver should settle and throw it behind or the receiver doesn't make the catch. It's just out of sync and out of rhythm. In the past, what we've done earlier in the year to get Malik going, we'll go back, evaluate those things, but I thought that for the most part what we're seeing is not allowing us to get the explosives over the top and a young quarterback having to continue to find the rhythm and every play for us, we got to execute to our best of our ability.”

On QB Malik Washington’s game-tying drive

“It was so hard to say based off of just the emotion of coming off of another tough loss to evaluate him. I will say this, we didn't make enough plays on offense - whether it's Malik, the receivers, the running backs up front when we need to run the ball. And to me, that's the part where when I say what do I need to do? We need to get the watched, figure out the things that we can do to kind of keep us on time with four yards on first and second down, which allows us to stay in third medium. So I thought we played pretty well on the third down situations.”

On Malik Washington using his legs

“This was probably by far the best I saw him. When he's seeing the coverage drop, the toolbox he's built is starting to grow to where he's understanding it's two-man, it's cover two. Find my check down or use my feet and I really like to see that growth. Just got to see it a little quicker.”

On DL Sidney Stewart, Nahsir Taylor

“The defense played well enough for us to win. They scored points, they got turnovers. I thought we tackled better this week. The fourth quarter, we missed some tackles there again. Our defense gave us a chance to win the game today and I thought the other two phases did not do their parts to complement the way we played good defense.”

Related Links