Mike Locksley and Maryland head into Saturday afternoon’s Big Ten opener with the kind of pressure that only gets louder after a home loss. The Terrapins are back in College Park, Md., trying to steady things after last weekend’s defeat to Virginia Tech, and the challenge doesn’t get any easier with unbeaten UCLA coming to town.
Maryland is 2-1 and 0-0 in conference play, but the mood around the program has already turned tense after closing last season with eight straight Big Ten losses. Locksley is dealing with the growing belief that the Terrapins have slipped, and he didn’t try to dodge that reality.
"I understand why the fans are frustrated. They've earned the right for us to play better than we have," Locksley said.
"It won't get fixed here at the podium. It will be fixed across the street with the work we do."
UCLA, meanwhile, arrives with momentum under first-year coach Bob Chesney, who has already matched last season’s win total by guiding the Bruins to a 3-0 start and a 1-0 mark in the Big Ten. Chesney has brought a new edge to a team that has looked far more balanced early on, especially on the ground.
A big part of that shift has been Wayne Knight, the 5-foot-7, 193-pound running back who followed Chesney from James Madison and has quickly become a problem for defenses. Knight has run for 345 yards and eight touchdowns while averaging 8.8 yards per carry, and he’s sharing the load with Anthony Woods, who has added 228 rushing yards of his own.
"He is patient, waiting for something to open," Chesney said. "I think he hides behind a lot of the offensive linemen and then all of the sudden, when something opens, he's at full speed within two or three steps."
That ground game has given UCLA a much more complete offense than it had a year ago. Last season, the Bruins ranked 85th in the Football Bowl Subdivision in rushing at 139.7 yards per game. This year, they’re up to 286.7 yards per game, good for fifth nationally.
The passing game has climbed too. Nico Iamaleava is producing more through the air as UCLA averages 203.7 passing yards per game, an increase from 180.3 last season.
Maryland will lean on Malik Washington after he threw for 359 yards and three touchdowns without an interception in the 35-26 loss to Virginia Tech. But the Terrapins will also have to deal with UCLA linebacker Sammy Omosigho, who made a major impact in last week’s 52-38 win over Purdue with two sacks and two forced fumbles.
In Other News...
Maryland Opens Big Ten Play With Sudden Pressure On Its Offense
Marylands first Big Ten injury report of the season arrived with a little more weight than usual, because the Terrapins are opening conference play against UCLA while already navigating a shortened offensive and defensive rotation. Tight end Preston Howard, running backs Harry Dalton III and DeJuan Williams, and edge rusher Zahir Mathis are all listed as inactive, which immediately narrows the teams options as it prepares for a league test that should reveal a lot about where the offense stands.
Iverson Howard is expected to handle most of the workload out of the backfield, making him a central figure in a game where Maryland may need efficiency more than anything else. UCLA has its own availability questions, with wide receiver Mikey Matthews among the notable inactive players and several others sitting in the questionable or probable range, but the bigger subplot here is that this is only the first look under the Big Tens new injury-report system, which now requires multiple reports before kickoff. [Read more 🡒]
Maryland Still Has One Troubling Offensive Problem To Solve
Marylands offense has a familiar early-season stress point, and Mike Locksley did not try to brush it aside after the loss to Virginia Tech. The Terps managed only 64 rushing yards, a number that underscored what has been obvious at times through the start of the season: the passing game has had moments of stability, but the ground game has not come close to matching it.
What makes the issue tougher to sort out is that the offensive line has shown better pass protection than run support, leaving Maryland with an imbalance it has yet to fix. Locksley and his players say the work is ongoing, with the staff continuing to search for answers in both execution and scheme, but for now the run game remains the offenses most troubling problem. [Read more 🡒]
Marylands Receiving Overhaul Already Has A Playmaker Fans Can Trust
Marylands passing game has already found a steady new presence in Naeem Abdul-Rahim Gladding, the Old Dominion transfer who has settled in quickly since arriving in College Park. With a revamped receiving group taking shape under new offensive coordinator Clint Trickett, Gladding has emerged as one of the most dependable targets in the room and a player the Terps can lean on as the offense continues to sort itself out.
Through his early work, Gladding has given Maryland something every changing passing attack needs: a receiver who can get open and produce right away. His 17 catches for 239 yards and two touchdowns put him second on the team, and the early returns suggest he is already carving out a central role in a group that needed someone to grab hold of it. [Read more 🡒]