After falling to 3-3 and still searching for their first Big Ten win of the 2024 season, Maryland football is in the midst of preparing for their marquee home game as USC heads to College Park for the first-ever matchup. Everything that head coach Mike Locksley said during Tuesday's press conference:
Opening Statement
"Let me tell you guys some things that you already know. We're at the halfway point of our season, and as I tell you, we evaluate every part of it, whether it's coaching, whether it's staff, whether it's philosophy, whether it's process. We've had some challenging moments in the first half of the season, and as a result, I've made some tough decisions and significant moves internally. And as you guys know, when I make moves internally, I don't like to talk about them. There are things that are in-house that I think I've earned the right to be able to make these decisions and changes at all the different levels. I mean, we see it when a guy goes from second-team to the first-team, or a guy, goes from a first-team to a second-team role. And that's the great thing about being here at Maryland and having endured and been through building and growing the program. When I think about these decisions that I've had to make the last couple of weeks, when you look at the program from a holistic standpoint, the first thing I talk about and think about is grit, and that's kind of being consistent and having a commitment to stay the course until these changes start to show the type of results that we need them to show. That's hard for all of us, including me. I mean, I told you, I've been doing the therapy piece. I'm a positive guy. I got to keep this because I've been around here a long time, 16 seasons. I know how it goes. That's what's called wisdom. And wisdom is somewhere between positive experiences and negative experiences, finding that middle ground for how you make decisions. And that's kind of where I'm at. It's hard for all of us, our fans, our former players, our supporters, my boss, my staff, my wife, shoot. I think my dogs are even a little upset -- they didn't come running down this week.
But what's important? It's important because that's how you get to the outcomes. We want the big outcomes. And I'm here to tell you, I've been here 16 seasons. I've been a part of these type of growth spurts that we've seen around here. I was here for Ralph Friesen's first three years. I saw Ron Vanderlinden and what he was able to do. I came back from Randy Edsall and getting Stefon Diggs and getting the program back. And so I think I have the wisdom from the good, good experiences and the bad experiences that I've faced here in different capacities and different roles that we'll get to the outcomes we want. Second thing I think about is the investment, when you look at how we've built our program, we always have given our younger, less experienced players the opportunity to see significant snaps early in their careers. That's how you grow and build a program, you don't get better on the bench, And that's how we were able to develop Tarheeb Still, that's how we're able to develop Deonte Banks. That's how we'll be able to develop the DJ Glaze's of the world. You see across the board, having great success at the next level. And it's critical that we keep developing the future of our program. I'm all about the now. And again, nobody wants to win championships more than the people in that building, Jones Hill House, and our staff and the supporters, and we'll keep doing that. . That's your article. Here's what we got happening this week, and it's Johnny Holiday's birthday. Happy birthday to Johnny Holiday. Good to see you, big man."
On Homecoming and USC
"What it means with homecoming is a lot of former players are coming back here, and [alumni] are coming home, and it's always a great time. As we have said, Terpsville is wherever it feels like family and whenever it feels like home. And so to be able to bring these people back to Terpsville is important to me, because I'm one of those guys. Every time I get off the bus to get to do the Terp walk, I'm reminded of what my past looked like here, because I see friends from the times of selling tickets at old Byrd stadium, as it was called back then. This support means a great deal to us. It means a great deal to me. We're excited for an opportunity to play a blue blood program in USC that's coming across the country. They are a really talented team that has played some really close, tough games. As we have found with college football, anything can happen on any weekend. It will be our first time meeting against them, and I'm looking forward to it, and I know our players are in the Shell too. Ruben Hyppolite, Rex, Fleming and Tai Felton will serve as our game captains for our homecoming game."
On Watching USC on Film
"They put a lot on Miller Moss. If you watch the tape of him at the line of scrimmage, he makes a lot of decisions. They're one of those teams that haven't played with pace, though we know they have the ability to, and I think a lot of that is the utilization of the coach to player [communication] system where they get to the 15-second mark to see where you're lined up. Miller is doing a lot of it at the line of scrimmage, which means that he's a veteran guy. The running game is critical. The running back is a really good player. When you look at their receivers, I think they're a lot like us. They've got good players in a lot of different areas. I almost said talking to Brian Williams, a lot of Jeshaun Jones-type receivers all over the place and really athletic on the defensive side of the ball. They play a lot of man coverage. They've got a great secondary, really good scheme. He's out of the Baltimore Ravens defensive family. D'Anton Lynn spent the time there with the Ravens. He's now the D coordinator there, very familiar with that system and how they've run it, from whether it's the Ravens to Michigan, so similar families that they play to the strengths of what they have, which allows them to play some split field coverage and man coverage and a really talented team, but a team that I feel like we match up very well with offensively."
On Red-Zone Struggles
"Before last game, it was either a big play, a 75 yard run or a 60 yard touchdown throw, or we'd have two or three, three and outs. When I keep talking about the lack of complimentary offense, defense and special teams, it's all of us doing our part in sync. And so for us on offense, it's the red zone, because we were able to get drives and sustain some drives, which we hadn't done, but then we buckled down in the red area, where, to me, typically, the run game is what you like to hang your hat on. Our Achilles heel has been our inability to run it when we want to or need to, as well as to minimize the big plays that we've seen affect the momentum of games,"
On the Big Picture
"I came here big picture thinking about competing for championships. I promise you, we've got a really good football team. And through the wisdom that I've gained from the great experiences and negative experiences, whether it's here at Maryland, being a part of winning at a place like Alabama and understanding that there's nobody in that building that's panicked. And I promise you, this isn't acting. This is what makes us. The authenticity of being able to say, here are the issues. These are the decisions that have to be made. Make the decisions and then have the grit to allow them to take shape, and that's what we were doing last week. The what now, the turnovers, how much or how is it? When you talk about having standards of not watching the scoreboard, it's a one-score game against a really good team at 17-10 with 13:42 in the fourth quarter. When you start watching the scoreboard, when you play inexperienced players, they start pressing. You know, we had an atrocious interception. Preston Howard came off, one of our better, younger players, to put two on the ground. And just in his mind he was trying to make a play. And you know what the wisdom of that for me is I gotta let them make a play. I've seen the ball thrown over a few of our young DBs heads over the last six years, and they end up first round draft picks or third round picks playing at the next level. And that's a process. You know? It's like that oak tree. It's the sapling, it's a little branch, thing. And then some of them make it to become big oaks, and some of them don't weather the storm. Well, this team, Coach Locks' team, will weather the storms. "
On DB Dante Trader Jr
"He's practicing, which is a good thing for us, but it still be a game time decision for us, because it's just how he feels."
On the Changes Made
"We've seen some of the changes in how we play our players. You see we have to continue as we grow and build this thing, we have to always evaluate where we are. Now I have a saying that my team will say to you, that if the map and the terrain don't match, go with the terrain, because that's where you are. The map was the plan. The map is where we want to get to, but here's where we are, and our team understands that. So the decisions we make staff wise, process, wise, plays wise, you know, what we eat? I mean, every part of it gets evaluated to see, you know, continue to move things around to get us to the ultimate goal, which is to be able to compete in the Big Ten for championships."
On play calling duties
"One of the things I learned being with Coach Saban, was seeing him sit in the defense every single day, and then he comes over and meets with the offensive coordinator and staff and says, Hey, what are we doing on this side? It's like, I always say, it's like an executive producer. I've always been involved with it. I did take over and became the voice in Billy's ear. You know, I feel that I need to insert myself and work collaboratively. Josh is still offensive coordinator. He is still very involved. I took over this last Friday in an effort to create the processes that allow us to maybe sustain a few drives here or there, but it's collaborative. Josh is the offensive coordinator. I'll continue to be the voice to Billy, and we'll continue to game plan the way we have, which is guys within the program, our run pods, our game plan pods, and it's been more collaborative."
On his confidence in the offense
"That's what the grit comment is about. There's no guarantees in any decisions and changes you make. You just got to have the belief from wisdom that it will [get better] and you know, one of the areas I just think I described to you was on offense, we've had explosive plays and moments, but if you want to play complimentary football, you can't have your defense playing 80 plays. Our defense played 55 plays last game. That means we had drives and sustained drives. Now what we've got to do is figure out how to score points in the red area. If you were to say evaluation, the last four games, we haven't been really sharp in the red zone, and typically, red zone offense starts with being able to run the football, and that's been a problem, which we will continue to address with how we do things. And that's to me, how the wisdom of being through there and making these type of decisions here at Maryland over the years, and seeing these type of decisions made I have a lot of faith that the offense will take shape the way we need them to and keep us moving in the right direction."
On the Struggles of Transfers, specifically at OL and DB
"You bring in Ja'Quan Shepherd, and he's paired with a Tarheeb Still that's played three or four years here. We've had to make changes where we put, I think four [offensive] lineman and four DBs at the next level, guys like Gottlieb (Ayedze) is on the practice squad for the rate the Raiders. If you look at the Breakfast Club up front, you know, Andre Roye is going to have a degree before he has 12 starts. You know, he's going to graduate next June, and this is his first time on the field playing continuous. Ike Bunyan was a defensive lineman that we moved over to play left guard because it gave us a chance to develop some of the younger players and not throw them in the deep end of the pool. Josh Kaltenberger comes over from Purdue right guard. We have a guy that didn't play at Georgia, but was really talented enough to get recruited there. . We brought up Alan Herron up from Shorter, very much similar to what we did with Corey Bullock, who happens to be on a practice squad for the Ravens. You don't grow up wise. You have to go through the experiences together. That's what we're doing, and I really like it. And if you think of the future of that, you think of the guys behind them, the Hershey's, the Terez Davis;s, who is a true freshman, was our player of the game on offense last week. He came in and played his tail off as a true freshman competing in the Big 10. Just think of that. So you can't compare apples to oranges when you bring in one guy and maybe insert or two, but we've got five new guys up front. All four of the two deep guys are new at the corner position. They're weathering some storms, very much like a Tarheeb Still, Deontae Banks, and some of these younger players that have came through our program and built this expectation up for us, and that's what we're going through.
On Jalen Huskey's Lack of Snaps
"Huskey plays safety for us and Glen Miller's a safety. We've moved Huskey there because of Dante Trader. I don't know how many snaps you have Huskey down for but I know for us, Husky is one of our leaders in interceptions. He's actually strengthened the secondary being able to move him. Personnel dictates that on defense, because when they run the ball and play with big people, we try to match personnel to get bigger people in the game. He is a starter so when we think of him, his lack of snaps didn't come from him not making plays, because he obviously has been one of the top guys in terms of interceptions in the country. I would also say that he's also a first-time player in our system, it takes a little time."
On Offensive linemen hearing too many "voices"
"We have full-time coaches that are paid to do full-time jobs. We have assistants that are paid to be assistants. I'll cut that question out short, it's the same recipe that is used at some other places that are winning games, and we kind of know how to organize the voices so they're not hearing a lot of voices."
On if Player Leadership has Changed
"No, I think the best thing about it is I haven't seen a difference. I think the chaos that's going on around our program is more external than internal, and it's just because of how we do things. We don't ride the wave and the emotions a lot. I try to make sure our approach is really consistent, because one of the things I've learned raising kids, and always go back to it, is consistency is the key to raising kids and creating habits, and so we don't jump around. And all this week, we're at an all- time low, no, we evaluate the terrain. We've got a map and we've got terrain. Well, the terrain says these are the decisions we got to make. Now, I kind of grew up watching Vanita Loxley manage the terrain. I've kind of been through some storms, and as a young sapling here, I've seen some storms through Maryland football over the years, whether as a fan, as a kid, scalping tickets, losing money because we didn't get enough people to come in, or whether it's leading the program when I get off the bus and saying, How can I get more people to come? And I love this challenge. I love this job. It's a great situation for me, and our team's excited, so we don't ride the waves."
On how Dante Trader's absence has affected the defense
"He's the quarterback of our defense, but I don't care that Dante wasn't available, because my job is to make sure number six, Brandon Jacobs, who had a chance to go anywhere in the country, is prepared to go in and play when he has to. And, you know, we do that around here. You know, Dante is an integral part of it, because of the wisdom and experience he's gained from his time under the fire. I mean, they've all gone through this, this part of it, and there's no doubt having him back there helps us, makes us better, which is why it allowed us to move a Husky from corner to safety and Glen, to go down to a natural position of the star and strengthen us, contrary to Sam's question, but Dante is a valuable piece of it. His experience you just can't buy. And that's the part when I keep talking about wisdom and the importance of understanding, you know, there's a gift in some of the things that have happened the last couple of weeks that, as I told you after the game, you may not see the impact of them yet, but they're coming. We got a good team, and I still believe it, and they'll be coached up."
On being 0-3 in Big Ten Play
"We just got to measure the terrain. I'm gonna keep going back to it. We know what the map was and where we want to go. But when the map and the terrain aren't matching, you better go with the terrain, or you can end up in somebody's river."
On Jalen Huskey wanting to play at home
"He's one of those guys that I think we've made our living on around here, these guys that somehow we evaluate that turn out to be really talented guys. And he was one of those late-bloomers, because I know he transferred into QO, played two years there. I don't think he lost the game when he was there. And he was kind of one of those guys right on the edge of an offer for us. Went to Bowling Green, developed into an all-conference player, and then, I mean, it was not easy to get him to come home, because he had a lot of opportunities to go elsewhere. I mean, I know sometimes we walk past that, that middle of the garden where it's all that wisdom, and we think about what we don't have and what we would want, but he was a tough get for us to stay home. And I think he saw the value of coming back here, and he continues to see it, because he's benefited our program in a lot of ways, and we've also helped him, and that's what makes this program a little bit different. That's why we get some homeboy discounts on guys to come here, because we got a little different feel that, I think kids understand that they're going to be developed not just to be great players, but good people as well."
Related Links
If I’m reading all of this with unbiased glasses my first response is “uh oh”. Locksley is grasping for bandaids a little bit in all of this.
As for his supposed changes, it’ll be easy to see if there are new offensive plays. It’ll be easy to see if we don’t leave our corners in man the majority of the game. It’ll be easy to see if the team looks more focused and desperate.