Mike Locksley on Maryland football's penalties vs. Nebraska, fourth quarter collapse, defense's missed

Ahmed Ghafir
Oct 11
6 min read

Everything that head coach Mike Locksley said after Maryland suffered its second consecutive loss:

Opening statement

“Obviously one heck of a game for anybody that was there in the stadium, one great college football game. Obviously hurts for anyone that's in our locker room. They work really hard to give themselves a chance to have an opportunity to win there at the end. Really love the fight, the effort that this team continues to show. They showed resiliency in this game, down two times ten or more points, and they battle back. And to me, when people leave here, they look and they see that this team has and will play hard. Obviously, one of the things we talk about around here is nobody's going to give us anything. And I'm not coming in here to - anything we get, we're going to have to take or earn. And that's one of the things that again, a week ago, we didn't make enough plays. This time we get it to the zeros on the clock, and we're competing, scratching, scraping and fighting to find a way to win. And I think with that type of effort, you'll see the results of it. Obviously, didn't do it today. Credit Nebraska for Matt [Rhule] and his team. Again, a week later, these guys made plays that they had to make, and it's something you got to give them credit for.

On next game

“But now we'll take it back on the road. We got a short week where we got to head out to California. We'll leave Thursday, so we got to get a lot of work done and get this one behind us pretty quickly, while making the necessary corrections for the trip out to LA, and so we'll turn the page quickly. We'll get back on the horse. We'll continue to coach the crap out of this team. And I feel really good about this team. I know you guys gonna write what you got to write, but nobody can watch what we did today and feel like it's the same old Maryland because I don't see that. And I'll continue to tell you those things.”

What Nebraska capitalized on in two fourth quarter scoring drives

“Missed tackles. Again a week ago, we had opportunities to finish on the quarterback. if you take a look at some of the plays, they had explosive plays in those long drives, and then we fight and hold them in the red area. But there were just too many explosives in the run game. I think they had 177-yard rusher, which for us, we've played the run really well but the missed tackles again, showed up in critical parts of the game,. And the good teams get the ball on the ground and we didn't do it in critical situations.”

On eight penalties for 100 yards

“If it was the same person, I'd say that, hey, yeah, let's pile on. But when it comes from leaders like number 10, Cam Rice, obviously those after-the-play penalties are critical. Like I've told you, I equate a lot to being a parent and as a parent, all I can do is draw the line in the sand. We'll continue to coach our guys up on the proper way to play. As I've said before, we get our share of penalties but we also don't get our share of calls that tend to go our way, and that's where when I talk about taking things and making your breaks, we can't rely on officials, and we can't obviously do things that allow us to give things away. I mean, that's the part for us. We played clean on offense. The defensive side of the ball, those penalties showed up today, which hadn't been an issue. We'll take a peek at them. Sometimes after being evaluated, they don't always end up that way. So I'm looking forward to watching some of the penalties on tape.”

On multiple players with 20+ receiving yards

“I would say that anytime you show diversity in your touches, it makes you a tough defense. We've got quite a few guys that have the ability to make plays on the offensive side of the ball for us. Obviously, we personnel and we try to create opportunities for our top players, which we give them opportunities to make plays. Anytime you have that type of diversity, it makes defenses a little tougher for them because they can't say let's take away this guy or let's take away that guy. But obviously today, we didn't make enough of those plays in the end and we got to figure that out.”

On losing the fourth quarter, 10-0

“Make a play. I mean, we can sit here and we can analyze every call. We can analyze what, but at the end of the day, this is one of these opportunities where we've been in the fourth quarter. I've watched the other team make some plays, and I've watched us not make the play. And so for me as a coach, that's the area that I'll focus on. Why are these plays not being made on our end? How can we put the guys in better position to make those plays? Credit again, to Nebraska. They made the play they needed to make. We needed to finish with one more drive on offense. We get it to third and two and we get a negative play there. And then on defense, we needed one more stop, and we couldn't get off the field, and they made the plays necessary. So we'll keep working it. We'll keep emphasizing it and we'll get back in here tomorrow and get it figured out.”

On the defense’s missed tackles, why it was consistent

“It’s always tough to comment on when you miss tackles what happened until you actually see it. We have the luxury of those iPads. Usually when we miss tackles in space, it's over running the football, over pursuing, long stride, short stride in the open field, pursuit to the ball. Today they had a couple screens that spit out and we did not get the ball on the ground. And typically, when we don't tackle well, it's a byproduct of the fundamentals of tackling. And so we'll get to take a look at it and make sure we continue to work to do a better job of finishing.”

On 130 rushing yards

“Yeah but still not enough. I mean, obviously, if you do the research, and as we gameplan, Nebraska is a team that hadn't given up a lot of passing yards. I think we probably threw for the most passing yards based on game situations. But we needed to get the run game going. We're still not getting enough explosives out of the run game. If you really want to look at this game, it comes down to explosive plays and turnover battle. We have not made enough explosive plays the last two weeks. When you have players like we do that have the ability to make them, we've got to figure out and make sure we're putting them in the best possible position to have the outcome that we want. But it comes down to not enough explosives on offense the last two weeks, and then obviously on defense, limiting those explosives that we gave up today.”

On Dontay Joyner’s pick six

“He's one of those guys that, a week ago, he's penalized and not feeling a little good. I love the way that the kid responded. Obviously, the maturity level of being able to bounce back after not having a great day at the office a week ago, I'm glad to see that. We saw a lot of guys maybe take some steps forward in terms of the resiliency of bouncing back. We talk about when you have the type of friction we've had the last couple of weeks, it's a mirror in terms of who we are as a program. I kind of like what we saw. Other than the result, I like that we got a team that will fight, a team that will continue to play and not worry about the scoreboard, which I thought we did a better job of that today. The finish was not what we wanted. Obviously, to win the fourth quarter, something we emphasize, had chances, didn't take advantage of those opportunities.”

Whether Locksley’s messaging is a failure regarding penalties

“I mean, I don't even know how to answer that question. You're saying is it messaging of why we keep having penalties? I think the penalties happen when players play beyond the whistle. They got to make better decisions. Again, as a parent, that's like saying why your kid continues to make mistakes. Well, as a parent, I'm gonna keep coaching. I'm gonna keep teaching them. When you get to this age, you'll learn. They don't always do exactly what you say when you tell them, but at some point, they'll learn, and we'll continue to make the necessary changes. If guys don't get it, we'll do what we can do to get it fixed.”

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