Maryland played one of the silliest college football games you’ll ever see at Nebraska. The teams combined for eight turnovers while Nebraska used three different quarterbacks, all to no avail in a 13-10 Maryland win.
Jack Howes’ walk-off 24-yard field goal simultaneously clinched a third straight bowl trip and broke a four-game Maryland losing streak, sending Terrapins sprinting in celebration across the Memorial Stadium turf last Saturday.
All of that elation now has to be put in the rearview mirror as a different silliness comes to College Park this week: the craziness surrounding No. 2 Michigan’s sign-stealing scandal.
“Obviously, they’re going through some of their own issues,” Maryland coach Mike Locksley said Tuesday in one of the understatements of the college football season. “What’s going on up in Ann Arbor has nothing to do with us.”
Wolverines coach Jim Harbaugh will learn if he’ll be traveling with his team for Saturday’s noon kickoff in College Park on Friday morning. That’s when a judge is set to rule on a temporary restraining order that would allow him to continue coaching in Michigan’s final two regular season games.
Michigan filed for the order after Harbaugh was suspended by the Big Ten last Friday for three games because of the scandal, reportedly originating with now-former staffer Connor Stalions, that has engulfed his program.
A surreal scene then developed in which Harbaugh waited next to the Michigan team plane to see if he would be allowed to travel to the Wolverines’ game at then-No. 9 Penn State. He was not, and the Wolverines, led by assistant Sherrone Moore, won 24-15, with Moore breaking down in tears in an on-field interview after the game.
Locksley conceded his players may be aware of the scandal but reinforced that Maryland’s concerns are internal.
“I mean, 18- to 22-year-olds are going to do what they do … they live in the information world,” Locksley said. “But as we’ve learned around here, none of that has anything to do with us. And it’s not any of our business what’s going on up at Michigan. We need to really focus on the things that we can control and the things that we have to do.
With respect to Locksley, there are tangential connections from the scandal to his program. Former Michigan and current Maryland offensive coordinator Josh Gattis was named in one report last month surrounding Stalions’ operation, which reportedly involved purchasing tickets near the sidelines to more than 30 football games at 12 different Big Ten schools besides Michigan over the last three years.
The NCAA prohibits in-person, off-campus scouting of future opponents, and they along with the Big Ten continue to investigate the Wolverines. Locksley said Maryland has made changes to its play-calling to try and disrupt what Michigan may already know.
“Once we heard that two, three weeks ago, we made a lot of the necessary adjustments. Because if one has them, as you read and hear, anybody can have them,” Locksley said. “So we’ve taken necessary precautions to just make sure that — again what we can control. On offense, defense, we’ve definitely mixed up our communications and how we’re able to do it. And so we don’t feel like that will have any effect on our game.”
“I think we do have to change a couple of our signals,” Maryland quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa said. “Usually when I do checks on the field, I’ve got to signal to receivers the play, so obviously, things like that is on film.”
Tagovailoa helped Maryland (6-4, 3-4 Big Ten) finally improve one part of its languishing offense at Nebraska, though it took 30 minutes to do so. After charting 0 yards rushing in the first half, the Terrapins burst through for 101 in the second, with Tagovailoa accounting for 27. It’s only the second time all season the Cornhuskers’ third-rated run defense had allowed an opponent to cross the century mark.
“We kept trying to run the ball,” Locksley said. “We kept pounding it, and by the second half, with some of the tempo things we did, we felt like maybe we got to where we wore them down enough. And then we were able to get the ball downhill and make the necessary plays in critical situations which we hadn’t done in the last few weeks.”
That will be demonstrably harder against Michigan (10-0, 7-0), which made Penn State look inept a week after the Nittany Lions hung 51 on the Terrapins. The Wolverines’ scoring defense is the nation’s best, holding opponents to barely a touchdown — 7.5 points per game.
“It’s not one shining star that kind of sets them apart,” Locksley said. “I mean, they are a well-oiled machine, especially on the defensive side of the ball. They play really sound. They don’t make a lot of mistakes.”
Already playing with a “Michigan vs. Everybody” attitude in their minds and on their warm-up shirts, the Wolverines need only one more win to become the first NCAA program to reach 1,000. Maryland is 0-33 against ranked Big Ten teams since joining the conference in 2014.
The contrast is stark. Locksley emphasized Maryland has the skill and talent to win, but added that it will take “a damn near perfect game” to shock the world.
“Our players don’t have to play above their ability to win this game,” Locksley said. “We just have to play to our ability, and I feel confident that we’ll get our guys prepared to do that.”
• George Gerbo can be reached at ggerbo@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.