He and his team know they haven’t measured up to their or anyone else’s standard. He’s aware the calls for his job have reached the boiling point locally and nationally.
All Maryland coach Mike Locksley can do is put his head down and try to stay focused on the next task at hand — a date at 4-0 Nebraska Saturday.
“I understand the frustration our fans have. They care and expect to win, just like we do across the street, Locksley said Tuesday. “I know our team is disappointed in the way they played the last couple of games, but just like I expect — just like I’ve modeled for them — we know that the only way to get it fixed is to play better, and you do that by practicing the right way.”
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Locksley has been adamant that preparation has not been the issue for his Terrapins (2-2, 0-1 Big Ten). Yet, the last two weeks’ results have indicated otherwise: Virginia Tech had its way with UMD’s defense early and often Sept. 19 before UCLA demoralized Maryland 54-3 last week, the Terrapins’ worst loss since Locksley’s first season in 2019.
“The eight years I’ve been here, what do you do when you face tough losses? You get up, and we talked about that Sunday. Our team came in. We were able to maybe get some things out that we had to get out as a team,” Locksley said. “I think once we left the meeting room and we went out and practiced to get the corrections in that we needed to get corrected, we’ve all showed up with the right kind of mindset.”
His players have tried to heed his call, but center Michael Hershey admitted it can be hard to get away from, even on campus.
“Coach Locks stressed last week to basically go underwater and ignore all that noise. And for me, it’s just staying off of social media Even in class, at times you’ll hear hear hear people talking about the game, and you just gotta ignore it and move on to the next play and the next game,” Hershey said.
Fans and observers awaited a potential announcement from UMD athletic director Jim Smith about Locksley’s job over the weekend. Instead, the College Park administration was quiet, with the coach’s normal weekly meeting with Smith on Monday taking place as planned with nothing extraordinary on the agenda.
“It was a typical weekly meeting where we discuss the program, where it is each and every week. It was a standard meeting. Personnel matters, like we always talk about,” Locksley said. “There were no need for [assurances about his job]. Our Monday meeting went just as usual.”
The calendar moves from September to October this week, heralding the toughest part of the schedule and typically a troublesome time for the Terrapins. Maryland is 7-16 under Locksley in October, with only one win in the month in the last three seasons combined.
“Me personally, I don’t think we’re going on a losing streak. We just, like we said, we’re built different,” said receiver Kaleb Webb. “We’ve already been through the storm, so it’s nothing new we can’t handle. We have more experienced guys that know this is a long season.”
Maryland hasn’t won a Big Ten game in more than a year, a streak that oddsmakers believe will continue Saturday at Nebraska (4 p.m., FS1), The Cornhuskers are a two-touchdown favorite and boast the conference’s best defense, allowing only 233.5 yards per game.
“They do a lot of various things. nothing crazy that we haven’t seen,” Hershey said. “They do a lot of field pressure, boundary pressures, strikes, smash. They bring a little bit of sass and then some zero blitz at times. But, like I said, nothing we haven’t seen and we’re not prepared for.”
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