top of page
Writer's pictureAhmed Ghafir

Taulia Tagovailoa Returns As Starter vs. Wisconsin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUSBAg0b0tM

Fresh out of the bye week, head coach Mike Locksley gave the Maryland fanbase good news when he took the podium for his midweek press conference.

After being sidelined for the win against Northwestern, quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa will return as the starter this weekend when the Terps travel to face Wisconsin.

“He’s playing Saturday,” Locksley said.

The extra bye week helped give Taulia additional rehab time, meaning he missed just one game in a major break for the offense. “I feel good, you know, I’m ready. I had a good time recovering, rehab and stuff like that so I feel good. Just ready to get back on the field with my brothers and get back.” With Maryland also missing linebackers Jaishawn Barham, VanDarius Cowan and Ruben Hyppolite along with cornerback Gavin Gibson against Northwestern, Locksley admitted the extra rest time was crucial. “The goal was to try to get them time off on the front end which after the Northwestern game, they had that Sunday, Monday off. We went back to work and introduced our Wisconsin game planning Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.” Maryland will hope Taulia is one of several expected back and on this weekend’s travel roster.

“We were being held together by threads as we missed I think five or six starters didn’t play in the Northwestern game. And that time off has given us the opportunity to get some of those guys back and healthy.”

It’s an expected, but notable return for Maryland’s offense which struggled with its vertical attack against the Wildcats. Taulia enters the weekend fourth in the nation with a 72.5 completion percentage while his 69.1 career completion percentage is currently fourth among all active FBS quarterbacks. He also stands top-20 among all FBS quarterbacks in career passing yards per game (240.4), completions per game (20.1) and passing efficiency (151.4). He’ll face a Wisconsin defense that allows just shy of 230 yards through the air.

“I think they’re leading the country in interceptions and they have a really good rush stop defense and they’re good in the redzone,” Tagovailoa added. The Badgers elevated defensive Jim Lenhard to interim head coach after Paul Chryst was fired last month. “They run a lot of simulated pressures, which means they only rush four at the end of the day, whether it’s blitzing linebackers and dropping ends or blitzing safeties and stuff like that.”

Both teams enjoyed a bye week during week nine, giving additional preparation for both coaching staffs ahead of the showdown in Madison. “There was no added data for us to evaluate so we were able to kind of take what they’ve done thus far, start formulating our game plans. We got two to three days ahead of schedule and then we’ll go back through our normal week and clean things up, take stuff out and add things that we think gives us a chance to win.”

0 comments

コメント


bottom of page