Mike Locksley talks Big Ten's injury report rule, development of TE room, trenches and rotations
- Ahmed Ghafir
- Aug 31, 2023
- 7 min read
Maryland head coach Mike Locksley met with the media for the final time ahead of Saturday's opener against Towson. Everything that Locksley said, including his stance on the Big Ten's new rule on injury reports, a nugget on the tight end room and future scheduling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWjzsIZfQZw
Locksley on how RBs will be used in the passing game
“You fell for the trick man. I told Lia to drop that out there that we're gonna be doing a bunch of stuff with lining Roman up all over the place. So our running backs, when we recruit, we look to, if you look at the way our offense has run, running backs, tight ends, catch a lot of balls for us. We try to recruit the skillset that allows our backs to create advantages. And so if lining them up wide gives us an advantage as a receiver, we'll do it. If it doesn't, we won't. If you watched us over the years, it won't be the first time we've lined a running back up out wide. Um, You know, an empty, just give you an idea. Sometimes we do that just to see who lines up over and I'll give you a little football one-on-one. So when y'all watch it from the press box, if we do line Roman up outside and they put a linebacker on them, guess what coverage it probably is? Probably man coverage. If they put a corner on them, it's probably not man coverage. So when we line guys up wide, sometimes we do it to try to get some information from it, so I wouldn't read too much into it, but we do try to recruit running backs that can catch, run routes, have versatile skill sets because they create advantages for you.”
Locksley on the TE room
“I'll give you guys a little nugget that last year, I said I thought our running back room will be okay and that we've got some good players there that were kind of unknown. I would say the tight end room is very similar as to what that was a year ago because I've been really pleased with the room. We're really young, but guys like Rico Walker and Dylan Wade and Preston Howard, who didn't play a lot for us a year ago. All those guys are tall, athletic, big, strong bodied guys that can block the C-area, run routes vertically, get open, create advantages. And I've been really happy even with, you know, AJ Szymanski is a guy that also as a young player, because of his size, he's got it. I expect to be able to create a role for himself. I'm really pleased with the tight end room. We're just young. And I've got to, as I like to say, grow them fast, as fast as I possibly can and get them game experience that'll benefit them in the long run and benefit us.”
Locksley on his message to the team heading into the season opener
“We do our messaging. I think you guys got it and hear kind of what it is. You know, I'll say this because I hate the way sometimes it's reported when it comes out that I declared that we're going to compete for the Big Ten championship. I said we're ready to compete for Big Ten championships is the exact quote. And so for me, that means we've got to create the habits and behaviors that allow you to do that. And so to me, that's the messaging, is that if you want to compete for Big Ten championships, good teams don't beat themselves. They have standards in which they practice and play that don't change. And if the actions match the standards, usually you'll put yourself in the best position at the end of the year to be where you want to be. And so to me, that's what we've talked about.”
Locksley on how Maryland is handling Towson prep
“We’ve had we've had a pretty good week. I think defensively, the consistency through Tuesday, Wednesday, which are our big work days, not that Thursday isn't but Thursday is a little bit more dress rehearsal, cleanup, game plan, stuff, correct any mistakes from the Tuesday/Wednesdays practices and our defense has put together really two really good ones. And I thought offensively, Tuesday’s practice probably wasn't to our standard but then yesterday they bounced right back and it's like, whoa. And as I questioned them at the end of practice, look we can't be a team that's kind of up and down. We've got to show the consistency. And that's when I talk about doing the work that's necessary to compete for Big Ten championships, that's part of it. The consistency of meeting the standard of how we got to prepare to have success on Saturday. And so I was glad to see the offense kind of bounce back after a not so good Tuesday and as I told them, we can't be a team that gets externally motivated, meaning the only time we react to respond is when a coach or the media or fans are getting on your butt about stuff. You’ve got to be a self motivated guy that says this is the standard and this is how I got to operate.
And so I feel like we've had two good days for the most part. Today is going to be really important. The emphasis for us is it's going to be what we do and our execution and the challenge for us as coaches is you've got all of your offense, defense, and special teams available to you because we're coming out of training camp. So then the sweet spot for us is figuring out what did we do well and make sure we call it be able to execute the stuff that we need to get executed.”
Locksley on offensive line rotation, status of starters
“As far as is it who we run out there day one, does that mean that that's our locked in starters? No. Like I said, we've got probably in my opinion, nine guys that can play winning Big Ten-type football and we're developing the other guys that are younger players to try to grow as fast as we can. And so, the challenge for us is to continue to put the best five in the best positions and because our O-line, the way we recruit offensive linemen, the position flexibility is huge for us because we've got guys that can play both sides tackle, both guard positions, guys that can play guard and center. And so, we were going into this game with a pretty good idea of how we want to play our players. But how they execute and how they play is going to be important. In terms of whether or not they're consistently the guy that runs out there first to starters or how much they play. So no, it's still going to be, we're still trying to figure out once games start, what guys are performing at the standard or level that we need them to play at for us to be successful.”
Locksley on team’s health heading into season opener
“I guess you got to wait till two hours before the game there…you'll have a really good idea. No, in all honesty, I mean, for the most part, we've gotten through it. We've had some guys, we've had some injuries, not too terrible. I feel confident we will be able to put guys out. But no, just like anybody else, man, training camp football is a physical sport. You'll have the injuries as anybody that's covered us since I've been back know, I'm not big on talking about the injuries and you know. It's next man up. And so we have had a couple of guys go down maybe that that we would love to have available for this game. And hopefully we'll be able to get them back for the next one. But for the most part we did have a pretty good camp where they weren't a ton of those season-ending type injuries, but like everybody else, we do have some knicks, bumps and bruises.”
Locksley on new Big Ten rule for injury reports
“Obviously the new thing with gambling and all these other things, I think the Big Ten looked at this and I happen to be part of a committee of four coaches that kind of, they ran through the process of what they thought. We've, I think, adopted similar to the NFL policy. I didn't understand it other than to kind of take pressure off of kids from people trying to gather information, I would imagine. It’s a policy that we have to do. We'll comply and comply in a way that is the way they want us to use it. And I really don't have an opinion on it, to be honest with you.”
“No, not at all. We typically have a meeting on Saturday. I know which players, our trainer sits in and we know which players will be available. I tell our coaches kind of how I want to see our players play, especially the younger guys mostly are guys that we're trying to develop. It has no effect on anything we do.”
Locksley on facing Towson again in the future
“Part of my scheduling philosophy, and I work really closely with, Colleen Sorem, our deputy AD, who is overseas football along with Damon Evans. And so I'm big on if we're going to play out of conference game, I like to play local teams. We played Howard, we played Towson. I talked to him about possibly playing Morgan State. I do think it's good for the DMV area is good for those teams to have opportunities to play and so from a scheduling standpoint, if we are going to play a lower level, lower division team, I'd like it to be a local team because they bring fans, they bring people to The Shell and it's good for this area. So definitely something that's not just necessarily Towson, but any of the local schools that play FCS or Group of Five ball that are within a throw here. You know, if you look at we played the West Virginias, we play Virginia. I've tried to get back into some of the natural rivalries that we've had over the years from the time of being in the ACC. Those are the type of games that philosophy wise, I’d like to play because I think it helps our program.”
Related Links
Projecting Maryland football’s week one depth chart vs. Towson: defense (+)Projecting Maryland football’s week one depth chart: offense (+)
