Terps blowout Bison in Locksley debut
COLLEGE PARK, Md. — In the debut of head coach Mike Locksley, Maryland made a near record-setting first impression Aug. 31 against Howard, handing the Bison a 79-0 loss while scoring the second-most single-game points (the Terps scored 80 in 1927) in program history.
“It was a great form of victory today,” Locksley said after the game. “We talked about as a program how you only have one chance to make a first impression and our guys I thought collectively — offensively, defensively, and special teams — contributed. The best thing that comes out of a game like this for us is that we had an opportunity to develop our team as a whole by being able to play some really young players. We feel really good about our ones and what they can do, but it’s going to be a long season so to have the opportunity to play a lot of players helps you develop your team. So we were able to get that accomplished.”
After a shaky opening drive that ended with a Maryland punt, the Terps offense took no time to get going and never slowed down, scoring on its second drive by way of a 26-yard pass from Josh Jackson to Dontay Demus on a play that lasted just seven seconds.
The Terps would go on to score touchdowns on six of their next eight drives in the first half, while also scoring on a 40-yard punt return by DJ Turner, to take a 56-0 lead into halftime. Maryland’s offense didn’t just score consistently in the first half, it scored quickly, taking just over three minutes of game time to score its first four touchdowns of the day.
“We wanted to start fast,” Locksley said. “And I thought we were able to do that in all three phases, but there are still some things we have to get corrected.”
Maryland’s 28 points scored in the first quarter were the most by a Terps team in the first quarter of a game since Oct. 5, 2002 against West Virginia. The 56 points at halftime were the most any Big Ten team has scored in the first half since Penn State scored the same amount against Illinois in 2005.
Jackson only played the first half because of the large lead — even being spelled by backup Tyrrell Pigrome for a few drives before halftime — but finished with impressive numbers, completing 15 of his 24 pass attempts for 245 yards and four touchdowns.
“The touchdowns are cool and everything, but I’m just glad we could come out and get a victory in our first game, and the way we did it with 79 points is pretty awesome, and that’s awesome for coach Locksley and our team, so it felt good to get back out there,” Jackson said.
The top receiving target for the day was Terps’ starting Z wideout, Dontay Demus, who was too much for the Bison to handle and finished with three receptions for 100 yards and two touchdowns.
“Dontay is a big, long fast guy who builds speed and can be a matchup problem because of his size,” Locksley said. “I thought the quarterbacks did a good job of putting the ball up and giving him the opportunity to make plays.”
In total, Maryland’s offense posted 623 total yards with a balanced attack that yielded 317 yards on the ground and 306 through the air.
“We talk about being balanced on offense and being able to do both really well because if someone’s going to try and take the run away from us because we have good running backs and they’ve made the decision to stop the run then we’re able to effectively throw the football,” Locksley said.
Ten different Terps caught passes on Saturday, signalling wide receiver as one of the deepest positions Maryland’s roster has to offer. Behind Demus’ stellar performance, Terps sophomores Brian Cobbs and Darryl Jones each hauled in two receptions for 58 and 57 yards, respectively.
“We needed some guys to step up, and I thought today some guys like Dontay Demus showed up, Brian Cobbs showed up, DJ Turner showed up,” Locksley said. “And they did things today that we’ve seen throughout camp and it was good to see because hopefully we’ll gain some confidence from it and I think we’re going to need all of those guys to be playmakers for us to be the diverse offense we want to be.”
Jake Funk and Tayon Fleet-Davis led the Maryland rushing attack with 79 yards each. Funk found the end zone on a 24-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. Despite limited action because of the large lead, Terps starting tailback Anthony McFarland took two of his six carries to paydirt while finishing with 18 rushing yards total.
On defense, Maryland was just as dominant, holding the Bison to just 15 yards in the first half on 11 drives — 10 punts, one turnover on downs. In total, Howard was only able to muster up 68 yards total in the game and the Bison were only able to run one play on Maryland’s side of the 50, which turned into a fumble that was recovered by the Terps.
“I thought we executed really well,” Locksley said. “Going into the game, our philosophy on the defensive side of the ball is we want to be aggressive, we want to attack. We did a good job with our defensive ends and outside linebackers of keeping [Howard quarterback Caylin Newton] in the pocket. We wanted him to have to win the game in the pocket, and coach Hoke and his staff did a great job of putting together a plan and our guys did a great job of executing it. Anytime you get a shutout it’s kudos to the defense because those are hard to come by. So I was pleased with the effort.”
Each of Maryland’s grad-transfer linebackers, Keandre Jones and Shaq Smith, recorded at least one sack in their Terps debut — Smith with one and Jones with 1.5. But their overall presence and leadership seemed to spark Maryland’s defense.
“Both of those guys are high-motor, high-effort guys and they’ve improved our defense just with their presence and the habits and behaviors that they have,” Locksley said. “These guys show up to work — Tuesdays and Wednesdays are our big practice days — and they show up ready to go 100 miles per hour. They do things the right way off the field, they take care of their bodies, and their impact has been very meaningful to our team because others have taken notice to how they do business.”
The Terps now start to prepare to host No. 22-ranked Syracuse Sept. 7, in what should be a truer test of their talent. Despite the second-most lopsided victory in program history, Locksley still cited some sloppy penalties and missed tackles that he still sees his team needs to work on.
Winning his debut as a head coach in College Park has to feel good, but Locksley isn’t letting himself or his players harp on it too long as a tougher opponent awaits next weekend.
“We’ll celebrate this for 24 hours and then it’s on to our next opponent,” Locksley said.