Mike Locksley talks injury to LB Fa'Najae Gotay, OT rotation in West Virginia win

Junior linebacker Fa’Najae Gotay was penciled in as the starting WILL linebacker heading into the 2021 season but left the game early in the 1st quarter of Saturday’s win against West Virginia.

Head coach Mike Locksley announced today that Gotay completed an MRI on Tuesday suffered a “significant upper-body injury” that will sideline him for an extended period of time. “Because he just had the MRI, they literally told me at 10:30 [AM] that he's going to have to require surgery,” Locksley said. “I'm not sure, I would imagine it'll be a significant amount of time though. They wanted to have surgery so I can't say if it's for the year or whether he’ll have a chance to come back later.”

Maryland turned to true freshman linebacker Branden Jennings to fill the hole on defense as he registered four tackles, including a key forced fumble late in the final seconds of the third quarter to help the Terps maintain momentum. With Gotay unavailable this weekend, Maryland released the week two depth chart with an “OR” designation between Jennings and freshman Gereme Spraggins at the WILL with converted safety Osita Smith listed as the backup MIKE linebacker. Locksley added the team will look to get Ahmad McCullough back healthy and available to bolster the linebacker depth once more.

“Fa’Najae Gotay won't be available for us, but we have some young talent at that position as we've created some depth guys like Branden Jennings who came in and made a big play there forced the fumble. Osita Smith, you know, coming in there as well and then, Gereme Spraggins, ‘Worm’, also guy that’s repped there and we’re hopefully able to get Ahmad McCullough back going into this week which will create, you know, some depth fours there at the inside linebacker.”

Fans also noted that left tackle DJ Glaze started the first two series of Saturday’s win, while wide receiver Jeshaun Jones saw his snaps come in the second half as both nurse injuries sustained during fall camp. “Jaelyn [Duncan] and Jeshaun [Jones] both missed some significant time there the last couple of weeks of training camp with injuries and, you know, we try to bring guys along and we've had, we have all the science that we use with our GPSs and player loads and volume. And so, we went into the game with a plan for how we wanted to play the guys, but because of the time, the significant amount of time that they both missed during training camp the last couple of weeks, we brought them along the right way. I think they both play some significant time, but just did not start.”

As the staff tends to the early season nicks and bruises heading into week two, Maryland is set to host Howard for the second time during Locksley’s tenure after the Bison were outmatched 38-14 against Richmond last weekend. Maryland is focused on themselves, though, and not the name of the opponent heading into this weekend.

“As I talked to our team this week, you know, after a big win against a border rival now bringing in a local opponent like Howard University, the goal for us is to not play the team, but to play to the standard and that's been our talk with our team throughout the course of the summer,” he added. That standard also extends to Terps’ fans who helped create the atmosphere in Saturday’s electric win. “You know, we set standards and we played to standards, we don't play the opponent and so I think the same can be said for our fans. They've set the standard for what ‘The Shell’ could be and should look like in terms of the energy, the atmosphere. I mean, I've had numerous, numerous recruits were there at the game, talk about just the effect of having a full stadium and our student section being there for four quarters. And so again, you know, it was great to see that, and I know our players really appreciated it, and they did have an impact in the game with the energy that they brought there in the fourth quarter.”

In honor of the 20th anniversary of September 11, Maryland will wear a special helmet decal on Saturday honoring the fallen Americans. “Many of our players were three years old, I think was the average age of the guys when I brought it up because I did think it was important for me to talk to our players about the significance of 9/11 and being here in DC and this area, obviously we were affected with the Pentagon being attacked and I kind of addressed it with our team about the significance of what it means and how it affected a lot of people here in this area, if not in the country. Because of that, we'll be wearing a special helmet decal that was designed by players on our team. And I can tell you that, you know, it'll be in the back of our minds and we also, as a program, understand just how important it was, but to pay honor to those that lost their lives we’ll have a helmet decal on our helmet.”