With Maryland almost one week away from kicking off the 2024 season, veteran defensive lineman Taizse Johnson joined Glenn Clark Radio on Monday to talk about his final season in College Park, becoming a building block for Mike Locksley’s culture, playing alongside Jordan Phillips, EA Sports College Football ‘25 and more.
On the 2024 DL room
“I wouldn’t say we have a nickname or anything like that. We’re just excited to go out on the field every day and just prove ourselves right each and every time we step onto the field.”
On whether Taizse always knew he wanted to play at Maryland
“Initially when I was playing football during boys and girls club days, of course I had eyes like elsewhere in terms of like where I wanted to go in college, but as I progressed through in middle school and high school, like the love slash the admiration for Maryland just kept being there. Throughout my recruitment process when meeting with coach [Brian] Williams and coach Locks, like that love only grew and I just saw myself playing here. I like what they had going on beforehand when I got here and I liked the progression in which the team looked like they were going to and I felt like I could add into what they were doing.”
On building the defense under Brian Williams
“Between Coach Williams, who was recruiting me at the time, and both coach Williams and Coach Locks, like, I felt like they had the pieces in place, but they just were trying to get those gears turning, if you know what I’m saying? And with me being here now, I feel like I’ve been one of those building blocks of the foundation for what they’ve had going on here with not just play on the field, but culture as well. We’ve done a great job to establish a culture here at Maryland over the past four years.”
On being part of building the culture at Maryland
“To sum it up, the speed of the pack is determined by the speed of the leader. Coach Locks does a great job of emulating of what the culture should and will look like. The leaders in this program just do a good job of like a trickle-down effect, everything is determined by Coach Locks and how he emulates himself both on and off the field and I feel like just culture-wise, we’ve done a good job of just embracing that culture and just having that trickle down from top to bottom, whether it’s upperclassmen, underclassmen, or whatever. When people step into the building, they know the standard is the standard and nothing more, nothing less.”
On what it takes to elevate the program
“At the end of the day, it’s all about execution. Our coaches do a good job of putting us in position to make plays with game plans and things of that nature throughout the week and when it comes down to Saturday, it really just boils down to execution, man. When we do have success, we’re executing. And when we don’t, we are not executing effectively. So that’s really what it boils down to. Execution at the end of the day.”
On eliminating the self-inflicted wounds in 2024
“With the self-inflicted wounds piece like that has been a killer for us for over the years. The message has just been like if you’re executing, those self-inflicted wounds won’t happen. Whenever there’s self-inflicted wounds there’s obviously people who aren’t focused on executing the plan that was given to us beforehand. And that’s when we come into having issues, whether it’s penalties, whether it’s misalignments or things of that nature. At the end of the day, we need to be able to focus on the task at hand, which is winning the game and executing the play calls given to us by all our coaches.”
On DL Jordan Phillips
“Aside from what he looks like on the outside, like Jordan Phillips is, he has his nose down, he has his head down, and he’s just here to work and he’s also just emulating the standard in which, like, and we’re not just talking about working out and playing. We’re talking about personally. Guys, we want a culture in here that we’re all hard working, we know that we have to take everything, we’re not going to be given everything, and Jordan just emulates that. And like I said earlier, things like that just trickles down if you see people emulating the standard, like, people aren’t exactly forced into the standard, but they have no other choice if that’s all they’re saying around, if that makes sense, you know?”
On how the defense competes in practice against the ongoing QB battle
“Knowing that we have a quarterback competition going on, iron sharpens iron, just like you said. Not only the defensive line, but the defense as a whole, the offense as a whole knows, each and every day we come out to practice, we have to execute in order for the other side of the ball to be able to get a grip, a real good look of what they’ll probably see on Saturdays, you know? If we’re in practice giving up 100% effort each and every play, no matter what we’re doing whether it’s offense or defense, we won’t have a choice but to get better if we’re just putting out our best foot forward when we step out onto the field.”
On EA Sports College Football 2025
“For me personally, like I’m a big gamer so like just having the opportunity to be in game, like it’s not even about overall or anything like that, I feel like I’m really blessed to have this opportunity. I feel like that’s where everybody feels in this place. We’re just appreciative of all the opportunities we get in the game. It’s just a super big opportunity. Because we were growing up playing games, wishing that we could be on games, whether it be Madden or
EA College football. It just feels good when you can see yourself out there on an actual game.”
On whether Taizse always plays as Maryland
“That’s definitely an issue because everybody here wants to win for Maryland when they’re playing the game. So, we’ll probably try to do like a little bit of a random kind of situation. But for the most part, whenever guys are in here playing in the facility, it’s a fight to see who gets to use Maryland.”
“I’d say more of an upperclassmen thing, upperclassmen get dibs on the Maryland thing. Everybody’s just excited to use Maryland because we’re all excited about what we can do and it’s even better when we can showcase that on a video game as well.”
“The worst is actually when I’m in the game on the, on the video game, I miss a tackle. I missed the sack. That frustration is there no matter who’s in making bad plays. It’s like you know the guys, it’s more personal.”
On the best EA Sports player on the team
“I feel like Andre Roye is a pretty good guy at the game. Andre Roye is actually a pretty good gamer if I do say so myself.”
On the development of OT Andre Roye through fall camp
“Coming from a [defensive] line perspective, like just seeing where he came from when he got here to now, I’m honestly proud of him because he’s also a local guy. He’s one of our guys. Like, I knew him a little bit before we came in but it was already a little bit of a personal feeling with him, and I’m just proud of everything he does up until this point because he really came into his own, like you said, and basically stole a spot this year. And I’m really excited to see what he’s going to do and see him shock the world as well. He’s definitely put a lot of smiles on our faces with how he’s played throughout this camp this year.”
On what Taizse would tell a Maryland fan on the fence for the 2024 season
“I hate to like piggyback on last year, but in big games last year, we just came just short. So I feel like building on that confidence right there and like building with all the confidence we’ve had in this upcoming offseason, there’s nothing but uptick for this team. It’ll be great to see The Shell packed to the brim with fans because at the end of the day, the fan gets us going. The fans are also a part of this family, whether they believe it or not. And if we could get fans in The Shell, like I’m sure the energy will be even more exhilarating. If we can hear all the fans behind us screaming and cheering like. The fans are a part of our family as well. So if there’s any fans listening right now, we need you guys just as much as we need ourselves.”
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