After 51-point loss, Maryland’s Locksley says meeting with athletic director was routine

NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...

COLLEGE PARK — Michael Locksley met with Maryland athletic director Jim Smith on Monday, two days after the Terps lost by 51 points.

According to Locksley, there was nothing unusual about the conversation.

“It was a typical weekly meeting where we discussed the program, where it is each and every week,” Locksley said Tuesday. “It was a standard meeting. Personnel matters, like we always talk about.”

Asked whether Smith had offered any assurances about his future after Maryland’s 54-3 loss to UCLA, Locksley said he did not need any.

“There were no need for assurances,” he said. “Our Monday meeting went just as usual.”

Not much else about Maryland’s week has.

The loss dropped the Terps to 2-2 and cranked up the scrutiny surrounding Locksley in his eighth season. Maryland committed five turnovers, including four interceptions by quarterback Malik Washington, and converted just 1 of 15 third downs.

Locksley has already made changes. He said Maryland condensed parts of its offense this week, taking some pre-snap responsibilities off Washington’s plate after the sophomore’s roughest outing of his college career yet.

The larger challenge has been harder to diagram: dealing with everything that comes after a loss like that.

Locksley’s solution is simple. Tune it out.

“I’m 56 years old. I know how to insulate myself,” he said. “I know how to put my phone down. I know how to not read or indulge with things that aren’t going to help prepare the team for the next opponent, which is Nebraska.”

That is easier for a coach to say than for college players whose phones rarely leave their hands.

“They are bombarded by a lot of the things that go on outside of the building because of their daily lifestyles, because of how much they are on social media,” he said. “Only thing that matters is what we do, the guys in the building, what we think.”

His players have gotten the message.

Wide receiver Kaleb Webb said he has mostly stayed off social media since Saturday, as criticism has mounted following consecutive losses to Virginia Tech and UCLA.

“It’s a lot of social media outlets that kind of try to just bait you into feeling a certain type of way about things,” Webb said. “I’m not really paying attention to that.”

Center Michael Hershey offered a more aquatic description.

Related Articles

• ‘An inexcusable result’: ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt on Maryland football’s 54-3 loss
• READER POLL: Should Maryland football make a coaching change?
• What it would cost Maryland to fire football coach Michael Locksley now
• After blowout loss, Maryland football’s next steps are clear | ANALYSIS
• Maryland football destroyed by UCLA, 54-3, in 9th straight Big Ten loss

Locksley told the Terps last week to “go underwater” and shut out the noise. Hershey has tried, though completely escaping discussion of a 51-point loss on a college campus is difficult.

“Even in class, at times you’ll hear people talking about the game,” Hershey said. “You just gotta ignore it.”

Maryland is also asking its veterans to make sure the noise does not become something worse inside the locker room.

Locksley said Webb spoke to teammates about accountability immediately after Saturday’s loss, before the coach returned from his postgame media session. The Terps’ leadership council then met in the following days to discuss what the team’s veterans could do better.

Webb’s message: do not turn two bad Saturdays into a lost season.

“We’re only four games into the season,” he said. “We have eight Big Ten games left, so it’s a long season. We still have time to turn it around.”

Webb later defined Maryland’s “standard” as accountability in every part of the program — class, recovery, film study and, especially now, correcting mistakes before they become habits.

Hershey applied that standard directly to an offensive line that has struggled to generate a consistent running game. He said Maryland has not played to its standard up front and needs cleaner fundamentals to take some pressure off Washington and the passing game.

For the Terps, the response has been part correction, part damage control. Now comes Nebraska.

“When you face tough times, you get up,” Locksley said. “I think I’ve modeled that for the last eight years. I think it’s part of the DNA of our team, and I expect us to get up.”

Have a news tip? Contact Michael Howes at mhowes@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/Mikephowes.

More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos