Here's What Maryland Coach Mike Locklsey Said After Loss to Indiana

Maryland coach Mike Locksley took full responsibility for the Terrapins struggling on offense in the 27-11 loss to No. 12 Indiana on Saturday.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Maryland coach Mike Locksley met with the media via Zoom call on Saturday after the Terrapins lost 27-11 to No. 12-ranked Indiana at Memorial Stadium. 

Here are his comments:

– On Indiana being well prepared:

“I want to give Indiana credit. Tom Allen and his staff had their team prepared to play today. Obviously, we have had a challenging couple of weeks here, but it is my job as the leader to have us prepared. I thought two of the three phases of our team came in and executed as if we were prepared, and the one phase, offensively, didn't. I didn't feel like we were prepared, and I didn't do a good job getting this team ready.'' 

— On missing scoring chances in the first quarter:

"We had some opportunities early. We had opportunities bubbling up to the half, and I thought it came out in the second half. Defensively, the wear and tear of how many total plays they ended up playing because of our inability to move the ball on offense and the turnovers kind of took its toll on us. It kept and created some field advantages, field position advantages. 

— On Maryland's turnovers:

On offense, when you turn it over three times and score points for the other team with the safety and then you have eight penalties and, you know, that's just bad, poor execution all game long. We did not give ourselves a chance on that phase of our team and you know that is on me to get it fixed. We will get it fixed. Looking forward to getting back, getting back into a normal routine for us as a team here, and our preparation this week for our upcoming opponent. We win together, we lose together so this by no means is pointing fingers at any particular phase, but I will tell you I am really disappointed in our execution on the offensive side and you know for me being an offensive guy, it's up to me to get this thing fixed and corrected and figure out what went wrong and then make the appropriate corrections.”

Q: On the play of quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa:

“Obviously when your quarterback is unsettled, it hurts. He uncharacteristically missed some early throws where some guys were open. Accuracy and touch and putting the ball where it needs to be put in order to be caught is typically is not something we had to deal with with him. Before I want to start guessing, I’d like the watch the tape to be able to really figure out what went wrong for Taulia, or for us on offense in general. I just thought we generated some plays in the run game and then we had penalties. We missed some throws early on, had some drops, so a lot of uncharacteristic things that we had not shown in the last few games showed up. Hopefully they are all correctable mistakes and things that we can get corrected. Once we get back into a normal work week here this week, we can get that stuff kind of cleaned up and corrected and continue to move forward to the growth phase of our program.”

Q: On the play of the Maryland secondary:

“I think it goes back to execution. We kind of know who we are. As you get into this time of the year with our team defensively, on offensive in special teams, we kind of know our identity and who we are. One of the things that we have challenged ourselves to do as coaches, is to put our players in the best and advantageous position to do what they can get executed. 

"Obviously on defense, one of the things I think that we have shown the ability to play man coverage. We have skilled guys at the corner position, which allows us to play more aggressive up front which allows us to make the quarterback a little more uncomfortable. I have been pleased with the way we've covered and stayed in front of people. We still have a couple of these passing offenses and we get grabby and kind of panic when the balls in the air, and that's just the experience of being in that position. Eventually you will get comfortable with it. I kind of like where we are on defense. I thought we put our defenses in tough situations today with how we executed on offense and with all the turnovers and the lack of execution on third down, that it became a point of diminishing return from the defense that we had them out on the field way too long.

Q. On dealing with COVID-19 and not playing last couple weeks:

“It was not tough at all because it is our job. It's my job to have us ready to play. I did not do a good job of that. This week, obviously, the way we executed wasn't good. Obviously, I've got to do a better job as a leader of making sure we're prepared when we have these opportunities like we had today. 

"We know COVID-19 is going to be an issue. You knew that all year long. We've tried to develop our team to manage it and to find ways to mitigate it. You know, we finally got it under control and hopefully this week we can get back to a little normalcy within our routine or our preparation. You can get the tape watched here today and get this thing corrected and things fixed, and then move our team forward as we move up, move throughout the scheduling this week.”