Maryland HC Mike Locksley Speaks on the Terrapins’ Upcoming Visit to Indiana

Written by: Nate Comp (@NathanComp1)

Mike Locksley met with Maryland media representatives on Tuesday to discuss all things Terrapin football. In an entertaining twenty-minute meeting he himself described as a “laid back, barber shop kind of press conference”, Locksley was very open with his feelings on both his team and how he expects Indiana to gameplan the Saturday matchup. Below are the excerpts of what he had to say regarding Indiana, specifically.

Q: Opening Statement.

“Curt Cignetti has done a tremendous job with that team. If you look at the way he’s coached and the way he came up from Elon, goes to JMU and continued the great tradition that JMU had, and then he gets this opportunity at Indiana. I know his family, as a college player his dad was a legendary coach at the other Indiana University, the one in Pennsylvania, playing at Towson we played them every year. He comes from a football family, and I can just tell you, they’re well coached. He came from the same tree, he’s been under Coach Saban, so when you watch this team the thing that jumps out to me is they’re not going to give us this game. They’re going to make us beat them. 

And for us, that has been the challenge. We’re a team that makes some mistakes, but we also have shown the propensity to score points if things are going well. They’ve also shown the ability to be explosive. So, this game is going to come down to them figuring out who to take away from us, and our complementary players on offense are going to have to step up and play big for us this game. If you think they’re not going to do things to take Tai Felton out of the game, I know the family [Cignetti] comes from as a coach, they’re not going to let our best players win. And that’s the chess match where we’ve got to continue to find a way to keep Tai involved, but I think some of these complementary players that maybe haven’t had as big of roles… these are the types of games. You think about two years ago when we went there, a guy named Billy Edwards who is our starting quarterback now, came in and brought us from behind to win. These games have always been tough against Indiana and I can tell you that Coach Cignetti, his staff [will do the same].

I think they’ve got five starters on defense that started at JMU, they’ve got three on offense that are playing well, they’ve got a former MAC Player of the Year in their quarterback… really, really talented roster. This isn’t an Indiana team that have a bunch of people that don’t know each other. If you look at how they’ve been able to play the first few games that they’ve played, you can tell that the challenge for us will be not Indiana, but us. Will we do the things to execute that we have to?”

Q: On tight end Zach Horton…

“Their tight end is the guy that makes them go. If you look at him on the stat sheet, maybe he doesn’t have a bunch of stats, but he is the glue for them on offense. And this guy is really talented in the run game and that’s where sometimes we get enamored with catches and production. But as a coach, when you look at things and I think of them on offense, that tight end is the heart and soul of it and his style of play is what you like when you respect the opponent.”

Q: On Maryland’s offensive line success…

*Chuckles*

I thought you were talking about Indiana’s offensive line… Our offensive line is a work in progress still.

(He explained further about his offensive line, but just a funny start to a quote)

Q: What does Kurtis Rourke do to a defense that you have to plan for?

“He’s a little bit of the Colandrea kid (Virginia quarterback) and also that moxie I talked about with Villanova’s quarterback a week ago, and then the big arm of [Aiden Chiles] from Michigan State… he’s kind of a mixture. And that’s why, the way this season has been set up, our first games have prepared us for this first road trip in the Big Ten. I’m looking forward to seeing how we respond.”

Q: On facing Indiana (past, present, and future)…

“I was there for the first ever Big Ten win we had in 2014 and that was a dogfight. Every game against them has been a dogfight. They’re a well-coached team. Indiana has all of our attention.”