Locksley, Terrapins try to not dwell on negatives in undefeated start

Maryland has a chance to move to 5-0 for the first time since 2001 with a home win over Indiana. In this week’s Terps Top Three notebook, coach Mike Locksley is choosing to accentuate the positive going into Saturday’s meeting with the Hoosiers (3:30 p.m., Big Ten Network).

The power of positivity: Most critiques of the Terrapins to this point are nitpicking, likely borne from looking down the schedule at the three top 10 teams to come and knowing that the slightest mistakes against Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan will be exploited.

Locksley, who was looser in speaking with reporters this week than usual, acknowledged that his mind will race to the things his team needs to correct even after a win. 

“I don’t want to give up no yards, and that’s why when I leave the field, and y’all put these microphones in front of me before I can even digest it,” Locksley said, smiling.

While lightly intimating that the questions he faces each week tend to make him dwell on his team’s deficits, Locksley’s leaning into keeping things positive and committing the Terrapins to a very Mike Tomlin-esque maxim of playing “to the standard and not to the scoreboard.”

That mindset has followed Locksley from the sidelines to the pews.

“I went to church Sunday, and part of the message was about mindset and what’s going on in your brain and how when you think positive things more than you think negative things you move to and become what you focus on,” Locksley said.

“I’m gonna be positive,” he said. “I’m not gonna let y’all get me down this rabbit hole of being a negative coach, and I feel like I’m starting down there.”

Expected to chart: Locksley won’t get too far ahead of himself, but we will here — a win over Indiana will likely secure a spot for Maryland in the AP Top 25 next week.

The Terrapins received 10 votes in the Week 5 poll per a tabulation of voters by RedditCFB, good enough for 20 points but leaving them 44 points behind No. 25 Fresno State. If 5-0 comes, they’d join No. 2 Michigan, No. 6 Penn State (with wins) and No. 4 Ohio State (bye) as the only undefeated programs in the Big Ten, which should be enough for them to break into the ranking.

Cracking the list will mark the first time the Terrapins have done so since 2019. That year, they appeared at No. 21 after a 2-0 start in Locksley’s first season before losing nine of their final 10 games to finish 3-9.

Time keeps on slipping: A new wrinkle in college football this year has some coaches checking their watch more often.

Previously, the game clock would stop when an offense would get a first down to allow sideline crews to reset the down markers. Now, that is only the case inside the final 2 minutes of each half.

“I can tell you there’s been a couple of games this year where you look up in the first quarter, and the other teams had the ball 10 minutes, and you’ve had it 4 minutes,” Locksley said.

The rationale behind the move was to shorten game times, à la the pitch clock implemented in baseball. The total elapsed time of games hasn’t significantly changed, though, but some coaches have complained about having fewer plays this year than last.

Maryland seems to be an early exception to the rule. Through the Terrapins’ first four games, they’ve totaled 277 plays on offense, according to SportSource Analytics. At a 12-game pace, Maryland would total 831 — only five plays fewer than their 2022 regular season total. On a per-game basis, the Terrapins are actually averaging five more offensive plays through the first four games this year (69.25) than they did a season ago (64.25).