Mike Locksley on blowout homecoming loss: "that's on me as the head coach"

Ahmed Ghafir
3 days ago
7 min read

Everything that head coach Mike Locksley said after the latest loss for Maryland football:

Opening statement

“One as always, I'll give credit to the Indiana. Team that’s as advertised, well deserving of their ranking. I thought we had opportunities early in the game. The interception by Jamare [Glasker] gave us some momentum. We ended to drive with a field goal. We had the sack, TFL to force a punt the second series. We have to find ways to turn those type of opportunities into touchdowns, not just field goals or points. I thought we came out the second half - the second half drive by Malik I thought gave us a little bit of light, but then to have the kick and then the drive start and they answered with a big drive there to score and match our touchdown. And then really, for the first time, the turnover bug hit us. And for a team that's number one in the country in turnover margin, I thought we had three straight turnovers, a turnover on downs there in the third quarter and then the wheels kind of fell off. So can't hang our heads. We got a big game next week on the road. We got to get this thing watched. I obviously didn't coach well enough. The players obviously didn't execute well enough. One of the things that I'll continue to say is that we're not going to be victims. We'll get this thing corrected. I'll get on the tape here the next couple of days here, get us back in here Monday with an opportunity to go to New Jersey against Rutgers and try to get this thing back on track.”

“As I said earlier, this team will continue to fight. I'll continue to coach the crap out of them. They continue to show up. I thought they put the necessary work in but just weren’t good enough today and that's on me as the head coach to make sure we’re good enough on gameday.”

On first two offensive drives

“Again, I mean, I didn't coach us very well. We’ve got to do a better job when we get those opportunities. I can't say it enough, we have had opportunities to seize momentum, to maybe put doubt in people when we start the game. I thought we started really fast on defense the last few weeks and we've been really inefficient on offense and it typically starts with being able to have balance. I always say balance is being able to run and pass. And today weren't very good running the football. We weren't very efficient when we tried to run the football. They offered us a defensive style that we saw on tape where we thought Malik [Washington] would have to be able to get the ball out because the run game against Indiana's defense wasn't something that they've given - I think they've given up one explosive run all year. And that's where there's a lot of pressure on the young quarterback to have to make some plays and that's where we have to do a better job of making sure we help him when he's struggling like that. That's where you'd like to have the ability to run the football a little bit to take some pressure off of him. And again, I'll continue to coach that kid up. We’ll get these things corrected and we'll get back on track this week.”

On what it’s going to take to get season turned around, coaching & execution

“It's just the work. I mean, when I tell you Gene, I'm usually pretty authentic up here at the podium that we've had probably one of the best Tuesdays and Wednesdays we've had and those are two work days that are really tough. But today, again, some of these young guys played like young guys against a really good team. When we had opportunities early in the game, we did not take advantage of them. Our defense continues, as I say, to get off to a fast start and somehow, someway, we got to get the offense going. To me, the inefficiency on offense is just the inability to have balance. And to me, that's my job. I'm an offensive guy. If I’ve got to get back involved and making sure that we can create the balance to take the pressure off of them. I hate putting the kid in that situation where all on him, and it wasn't. It’s on me as the coach. It’s on me as the leader to make sure that we have the ability, when he's not at his best, that we have other answers.”

On Indiana’s pass defense that unsettled QB Malik Washington

“It was so hard to judge that because if you judge it based on the type of week he had for us and I thought we went in with a good plan but sometimes the best plans don't get executed. I thought we protected him again so some of the issues that maybe he faced were self-inflicted because we protected him well enough. And there were some opportunities early on. Again, this is part of the learning curve of a young quarterback, but also for me as the leader to make sure that when he is struggling - I hate putting it all on having a freshman to have to carry us through there. And that's where we will need to have some answers for taking pressure off of him when he's not at his best. And this isn't on Malik Washington. This is on me as the head coach. As y'all know I'll stand in front of you and own it. I own this one.”

On 37 rushing yards vs. IU

“It's really not that hard. Like they're a middle field close team. So when you play middle field close defense, you usually have eight guys in the box. If you count and do math, you have to throw the ball versus eight men in a box, which puts pressure on our quarterback. And then when you don't throw the ball efficiently, now you're grabbing for straws, and that's where we'd like to be able to line up, have the ability to run the ball efficiently whether they have extra guys in a box, make a guy miss. I saw - we've seen people make our own extra guy in the box missing. We just haven't been really efficient in the run game. I mean, if you watch it and you look at what we're doing on the inside, it's mostly when the ball is on the perimeter people bring the extra guy to blitz and we have to have the ability to make a guy miss or get it blocked up and use the quarterback a little bit more as a runner.”

On keeping the locker room from unraveling

“I've already done it, Michael, I've done it. I have a relationship with these players. These players will play hard for me. I would coach them hard and I'm hang in with them. I've done that work. It ain't a year ago. That's why when I talk about not we’re not the same old Maryland, it ain't. These guys will work and they have put the work in. I've got to coach better obviously. My staff [has] gotta coach better and we gotta have better answers to help this group and this inexperience. Because we're not young anymore. It’s game eight. We're not young, we're just inexperienced. And so we have tremendous amount of experience as coaches and I think what we have to do is figure out kind of what we need to do to get the run game going on offense, score in the red area on offense, get our quarterback when he's not playing well, that we don't have to put it all in for the freshman quarterback.”

On bad tackling vs. Indiana

“I would say that was late in the game. But I thought early on, we tackled the ball really, really well, minus a few where guys maybe they need to wrap a little bit better. But I thought early in the game we tackled well. I thought our defense again, once again, they played a lot of plays because of our inefficiency on offense. I think we had 21 plays in the first half - time of possession which we typically have been pretty good at was not very good today. And when you have a defense that doesn’t have the depth that it’ll eventually somebody like in boxing with body blows wears you down, and all of a sudden these missed tackles pile up. We gave up 400 yards rushing. I think the quarterback pulled the ball a couple of times for some big, explosive runs, but we played pretty good defense early in the game. I think if we could create a little balance on offense to score points that changes the momentum, that changes the energy there. And we had it there in the first half with the way the defense played and didn't answer on offense.”

On the lack of fundaments in a game coming out of the bye week

“I mean, I guess I would answer it is that if we were number one in the country in turnovers margin I would imagine we worked on ball security issues. And today I’m [going to] chalk it up with just we weren't very good. It was not our time, our day today because we do ball security drills every day to start our practice. We've been a really good team on offense in protecting the ball. Defense has continued to create turnovers, but today in that third quarter, Malik put one on the ground, I don’t know who put the second one on the ground, and then [Jahmari Powell-Wonson] at the end, then we had the turnover going downs, which is, again, turnover.”

Related Links