COLLEGE PARK — There’s some sort of disconnect. No one can figure out the source.
After Maryland’s 34-31 loss to Nebraska on Saturday, in which the Terps committed eight penalties and squandered another second-half lead, coach Michael Locksley repeated his usual talking point: “We’ll get it fixed,” the seventh-year coach said.
When asked if the repeated nature of these failures is because his messaging to players isn’t getting through, Locksley paused for a moment to search for words and rebuke the assertion. “I don’t even know how to answer that question,” he finally said.
Then Malik Washington and Jalen Huskey had a chance to speak. Huskey, a veteran defensive back, said that Locksley does try to coach players to not commit these game-derailing infractions but seemingly implied that those attempts are falling on deaf ears: “Coach can say it as much as he wants. He says it. It’s about us applying it.”
Washington, the star freshman quarterback who has infused so much promise into this program, said that Maryland will hold a “player meeting” on Monday in an attempt to halt this losing skid and understand what’s causing it.
The Terps are 4-2 overall and 1-2 in the Big Ten. Their first four wins featured bountiful hope that this young team could help Locksley reach a level he never has. The last two losses have been plagued by the same shortcomings that have kept the coach from reaching higher.
Saturday offered another reminder that this promising Washington-led young core is still held back by the same familiar Maryland mistakes, and that the Terps are still far from where they want to be.
“I feel really good about this team,” Locksley said. “Nobody can watch what we did today and feel like it’s the same old Maryland. I don’t see that.”
So what, exactly, is different?
Maryland was flagged eight times for 100 yards in Saturday’s loss. Three calls were for unsportsmanlike conduct that came after the whistle. One came on the very first play of a Nebraska possession. Two plays later, Cam Rice slammed Cornhuskers quarterback Dylan Raiola to the ground as he limped off the field with the play clearly over. Another came on a kickoff to start a drive that ended in a Terps punt.
Elsewhere, two pass interference penalties aided a Nebraska drive for a field goal (in a three-point loss). A delay of game on fourth-and-1 pulled the Terps’ offense off the field in the fourth quarter and forced them to punt instead.
Entering Saturday, Maryland was called for the third most penalties in the Big Ten this season. It was also flagged third most in the conference last season. In five of Locksley’s seven seasons in College Park, the Terps have been among the top three in the Big Ten in penalties.
Nothing’s changing.
“I equate it a lot to being a parent,” Locksley said. “As a parent, all you can do is draw a line in the sand. We’ll continue to coach our guys up the proper way to play. When you get to this age, you’ll learn. They don’t always do exactly what you say when you tell them, but at some point, they’ll learn.”
The middle of Saturday’s game encapsulated what Locksley seems to be pointing to as what differentiates this group from years past. Maryland, after going down 24-14, scored 17 unanswered points, starting with a last-second field goal by Sean O’Haire just before halftime and ending with a 67-yard pick six by Dontay Joyner.
That was Maryland’s last score. The game’s final minutes clashed with Locksley’s conclusion and instead told the story of a young team too inexperienced for the moment — and too handicapped to change the outcome.
The Terps allowed Raiola, who they already intercepted three times, to march down the field in just over two minutes for the go-ahead score with a drive full of busted coverages and explosive plays. Then when it was Washington’s turn to engineer a similar moment, he was flagged for intentional grounding to make it second-and-24 and missed an open target on the final fourth-and-4.
“We just gotta be more disciplined at the end of the day,” Huskey said. “It’s a player thing. We inflict that on ourselves. It’s something that is drilled into us from the beginning of winter workouts.”
One win through three conference games, none of which was Maryland favored in, should not be a total disappointment in a vacuum. It’s the way Maryland lost — blown leads or mountains of mistakes getting too large to overcome — that has almost entirely erased all the promise Washington, freshman defensive end Sidney Stewart and others worked hard to create over the first four wins.
Saturday, a chance to wipe away last week’s collapse against Washington, will instead be an inflection point for Locksley’s team. How far can a talented young core carry a team perpetually held back by the same failures that seem to linger year to year, no matter who’s under center or making tackles? The rest of this season will answer that.
But first, a players meeting to perhaps finally grasp what Locksley has apparently always preached.
“Right now,” Washington said, “nobody’s excited.”
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