After the bye week, Maryland football returns to SECU Stadium where they will host the Northwestern Wildcats as head coach Mike Locksley looks to take down the Wildcats at home for the second time in as many tries. Locksley talked about what sticks out about Northwestern, limiting the penalties, more praise for QB Billy Edwards Jr. and more:
Opening statement
“Pretty productive bye week. [We] got some guys healthy, had an opportunity to work on just us in practice as well as the reps that we need – the practice reps, the development of our team and our younger players, as well as able to evaluate our program as to where we are. But here's what I found out more than anything with this break because, during the season, it's like you're in the forest and you don't see the trees and when you have this bye, it really gives you a chance, for the first [time] I got a chance to watch college football, and boy, what a landscape the game has become. All the things that I got really excited about with how this landscape has changed with portal and NIL – it's brought parity to college football. And when you look across the country, which I had a chance this weekend to just almost become a fan, after doing the things we need to do to get our stuff corrected, but just to really be able to organically look and see some of the games and some of the results. It just the theme of college football is ‘expect the unexpected’. It's been a wild season in terms of showing what it looks like or what it can look like. I took that mentality as I approach the bye week and it starts with that our past doesn't dictate what happens moving forward. We've had some seasons around here where we've been a little further ahead at this point, and then we call what I call the middle eight of our season, which is the middle part we've struggled. And so what I've told our team is that our past doesn't dictate our future and what we've got to do is grab every opportunity that we have available to us.”
On Northwestern
“And the next one is against a team, Northwestern, and that I – when you watch them on tape, very similar team. You look at how they played Indiana, that parity that I saw across the country is alive and well when Northwestern comes in because they're a good team. They've got some good players, dynamic pass rusher [Anto Saka] on defense. On the offensive side of the ball, you know they're going to try to create the ability to run the football, the misdirection, and they basically make you beat yourself.”
On QB Billy Edwards
“When you talk about grabbing every opportunity, there's no player that exemplifies that more to me than what Billy Edwards Jr. has done for us. Billy has grabbed the opportunity. And it's funny, because when you study and see and for the first time, like I said, having a chance to just see where college football is, I'm really excited because of you look at what Billy's been able to do in just a short opportunity. He's somebody that exemplifies grabbing and taking advantage of the opportunity presented. And he's not just probably one of the best quarterbacks in our league right now, but also one of the best quarterbacks in the country. And now what I'm excited to do as we've started and our prep is to see how all the different adjustments and all the different tweaks that we needed to make as we take a look at the first five games, how the creativity that we've come up with and all those things the past week and a half that we've had to prepare, how they play out.
And so Friday night, we're back at home a night game, great opportunity for our team, and great opportunity for this DMV community, Terpsville community, to get back in here. We need you here. We need to create that environment. As the season starts to come to an end, the recruiting and the portal window, all those things open up and we need to make sure we're putting our best foots forward, I know, as a program, but then also as a community and supporting our program and we need that extra juice. I think it's a Black Out game, and I know our players are excited about being back home with another opportunity, after having to sit in the last game or the last opportunity sit in it for a couple of weeks, we're excited to get back.”
Game captains vs. Northwestern
“Game captains for this week be Billy Edwards Jr., Ike Bunyan and Kellan Wyatt will serve as our game captains going into Northwestern.”
On injury status of Tai Felton, Kaden Prather, Dante Trader Jr. heading into Northwestern
“Two of the three have practice. We have two days left preparation this week where we'll see how one, the one that hasn't practiced, how he manages it. It's hard to say he's out yet. Leaving out this morning, after having our staff meeting today, we'll know a lot more today after the one guy gets checked out but two of the three will be back in ready to go. And I don't normally get into injuries and stuff just like that, but two of the three are good to.”
On who the two of the three are
“That’s what I was trying to get at. I mean, I really don't know if the third can't go until I go back over there. It just happened at a bad time for me to be able to comment because normally I say all three are good to go. My bet – I am thinking that all three will be good to go. We did a procedure on one of the three where it's just how it takes after having the procedure done. So two of the three good to go.”
On what is working defensively and areas of growth
“I always told you guys our winning formula is win the big play battle. And as I told my partner in the front here, we like to get 12 or more, is our goal on offense and then defensively, to limit the big plays. And the two losses we've had, we've won the turnover battle, we've lost the penalty battle in one of the two, and then the big one that just jumps out is we've lost what I call the middle eight as well as the big play battle in the two losses we've had. And so I hate getting into the police report of it but those are things we can control. The middle eight are the last drive on offense and defense in the first half, and the first drive of the second half. And that's where, when I talk about not being complementary, like there's a time where two of the three games, we've scored a touchdown right before the half and then we've given up a late score, which our defense had played great – the Indiana game, to give up the late score before the half and now we're behind in the middle eight. And so to me, the area on defense is we've got to obviously control the middle eight better, and that's more complementary offense and defense, because we both play a role in that. But the area for us on defense is the two games we've lost, I think we were 2-1 big plays. I think they had 14 and we had seven in our last game. When people are generating 14 explosives, that is a huge, huge thing for us. We won the turnover battle in all of our games except one. So those areas are areas of improvement, but we still have things that we can control and to me, the big plays on defense comes from missed tackles or missed assignments, and that, to me, is about communicating if we need to limit some things. When you have some young corners, some of the big plays have come on young corners, continue to teach the technique and develop them there.”
On Northwestern heading to Maryland at 2-3 (0-2)
“You watch college football, teams take lumps. There's a few teams that took lumps this week that in certain parts of the country, people aren't happy, and that's why when I talk about the opportunity we have as a community, as a program, as a university, the positivity of kind of where we're going and how the opportunity of what the new landscape gives us, it's the sky's the limit, the best is ahead. And that's to me, I know we want it now, and I promise you right now I opened my mouth, talking about winning championships. That's the habits we're trying to create to win them. And to me, though, it's we got great opportunity the way college football is nowadays for a program like ours that has done more with less.”
On the defensive back rotation under co-DC Brian Williams
“I don't think it's a continuous shuffle. I think it's a continuous development. And if you've noticed in our program, kids pop up out of nowhere because of how we practice. And so one of the areas, when you put four guys in the NFL like we've done it from our secondary the last few years, this is a natural kind of growth. And what I think you've seen is the way we've recruited that room, really talented but what we've got to do is continue to gain the experience of playing – playing the ball, playing with confidence as a young player, when you get thrown out into the deep end of the pool like we've had to do. And so the philosophy is we're going to keep developing guys and as they get better in practice, as we see it, they'll get opportunities in games to go try to compete to see if they can create value for us on defense.”
On addressing the penalties during the bye week
“If somebody here has some great ideas, let me know. I mean, again, I always go back and check my quotes on this is, go back to raising kids, man. What makes I told them 100 times the magic number? Do it 101 [times]. A lot of people make a lot of again, penalties – I hate them. I mean, I die with everyone because it's funny how some things are viewed. When you view penalties by a Maryland coach team by me and some of the things we've seen on TV that have happened. To me, this is the generation we deal with. We have to continue to change, find ways to show them how it hurts. Like for me, I can tell you, I think there's a lot been made. I take situations that happen in games very seriously, and we look at situational football and we present it to our players. And one of the things that has popped up is the whole gun thing, and the shooting the guns and raising the shirts. Well, I spent Monday talking to my team about when you have a penalty in one of the games this week, you're here for brandishing a weapon. Well, I had a son killed with a weapon. That's not something that I take – like it's not funny. And so I had to share with my team that I get it. You look all across the country, NFL, people are doing those actions and sometimes people interpret things a certain way, depending on who you are. For me, I just told my team how the importance of us understanding like that's not who I want us to represent. And so I go through all that to say penalties are going to be part of the game. I hate it. Our fans hate it. We're going to stop using the word undisciplined, because I promise you, coach Locks is a disciplined guy and he runs a disciplined program, and the players in our program are held accountable for things when they don't do right. But I'm also in the business of teaching young people that when you make poor decisions, boom, something's going to happen. We teach and we move on to the next one. Now, if it becomes a habit, then I change people out. And that's I mean, that's how it works.”
On whether the Big Ten has surpassed the SEC after this weekend
“I ain't getting into that one, bro. You can figure that out on your own. I know this – I coach in a league that I think offers the best of both worlds to student-athletes. I mean, a lot is made about the landscape, but the sweet sauce inside of the Jones Hill House is we care about the kids in our program, and we are looking to develop them not just as football players, but as people. When you come to comparing, I tell our guys, we’re running our race here at Maryland. We're running our race in the Big Ten. I don't concern kind of what I've been in that league, and so I think we are in one of the best leagues, if not the best league. But as far as comparing and surpassing and all that, I'll let y'all count all of my penalties up and figure that out and then you write about what you think. But I can't, I ain't gonna write your article for you on that one.”
On whether QB Billy Edwards balances personal vs. team success
“He's a team guy. Billy is the ultimate team guy. These traits and characteristics were displayed before he became a starter, before he became Billy the Kid. He was a guy that cared enough about his team and his teammates that, as he embraced his role as the backup to one of the all-time great quarterbacks to play here at Maryland, and he did it in a through kind of that servant leadership. He kind of served as Lia’s backup. But here's what he is now. He is a – and we need to make sure we write about him – that he is a bona fide star at quarterback, and his future is really bright. And I say that not to put pressure on Billy, because I spent a lot of time with Billy. We were here, I think, till 12:30, 1 o'clock [AM] last night and he has the mind of a coach and the skill of a player. He has the leadership qualities that you want. We've got a really good system that I think with every game, you continue to see him get better and better. And I mean, it's part of his development in our program. The offensive staff, with Josh leading it and the [offensive] line guys, [Brian Braswell] and [Damian Wroblewski] and Brian [Ferentz], and then Latrell [Scott] and Kevin Sumlin, those guys have all done a really good job of supporting the offensive system and fitting it to what Billy, as I said, it's time to…I didn't hear his name spoken about this weekend as I watched a lot of TV and a lot of games. And he's one of the highest rated quarterbacks in the country, and I don't know why, I know we had this narrative, because he's a backup. Well, he's our starter, and he's playing pretty at a pretty high level.”
On how Locksley approaches the bye week after a loss
“We don't have a week off. So we got right back to work and digesting it. I hate going into a bye this way to think this. I don't know even know the stat on it, but I just know I felt pretty crappy after games before the bye. And two weeks of sitting in it, I've been doing I've talked about therapy. We talk about sitting in it, just kind of it gives you a chance. And one of the toughest things is improving is almost tougher than winning. Because when you're winning, you have the result that motivates you, but when you're improving, you got to look deep down inside. And as you guys kind of starting to learn about me, I'm pretty a deep thinker, reflective guy that goes levels and layers deep and do a lot of work for you guys, but I try to tell our team, let's do the football part on the front end to where we get a start on our upcoming opponent. We also always look to say, kind of Terrapin improvement plan – what things do we need to improve upon? To me, the big plays on offense, we hadn't generated them in the games that we lost. And then on defense, we gave them up. Why and how? Defense was a lot of missed tackles and a couple of those games that we lost, as well as missed alignments. And so we can get that fixed. On offense, it's one block away, catch instead of a tip. So those things are all correctable, but then you got to get away from it. And to me, I was able to go to one of my favorite restaurants, is GrillMarx in College Park, where Jackie and that group take great care of me over there and I do my radio show there. I hung out and watched it, kind of like tailgating like a fan. And I'm just you hear all the – y'all some smart people. The media when y'all do games, y'all got good insight. So I got a lot of information, but it just blew my mind away. The parody that has come to college football is a lot like the big league, the NFL, in that [the] 9-7 Tampa Bay Buccaneers makes a playoff run. And that's where I keep saying it's just one game for all of us. And I understand that means, like, hey, it is what it is. But let's think big picture. Let's think positive. We got the transfer portal coming open here soon and we need our Terpsville supporters to be real positive because the church gates are opening up here soon. And we need to have positivity about the program, about the kids, about the direction. And we all have a part, including you guys. We got a lot of good things that we've done in the first five games. Let's point those out.”
On what was emphasized in penalties during practice
“Again, most of our self improvement, comes from individually getting better at the fundamentals. One of the things I've tried to do is look at, do I have the right players doing the right things on all three phases? Whether it's returners, who are the guys that give us a chance where every [the] return game becomes a weapon and doesn't hurt us, like who? What guys do we need to emphasize getting the ball a little bit more now that we've seen five games of a body of work on offense. On defense, who's productive and efficient at doing certain things? And then making sure that our game plans reflect the things we do well while also developing the ability to hit the curve ball, or the things we don't do well.”
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