Reality has set in hard for Maryland, with the potential of missing the postseason squarely on the table this week in its final home game against Iowa.
“Look, I mean, it’s been a challenging last few weeks, to say the least,” coach Mike Locksley said Tuesday.
Humbled against a Rutgers team they had won seven of their last 10 against, the Terrapins are taking a long look in the mirror at what needs to be fixed — or even can be — with two games to go.
“It’s definitely a frustrating, frustrating time, because once again, if you asked us before the season that this would be our record and this is where we would be at this point in the season? We would look at you like you were crazy,” said receiver Tai Felton.
In a rub-your-nose-in-it type of moment, Locksley had the entire team gather to watch the entirety of last Saturday’s 31-17 loss together.
“I know we are nowhere near where we want to be as a program. When you look at it, just call it what it is,” Locksley said. “But I still know we are who we want to be when you look at the character of the team.”
Discipline and offensive line protection, which have been behind much of Maryland’s issues all season, weren’t the problem against the Scarlet Knights. Rather, the abandonment of a successful run game after the first drive of the second half and the third-straight week of subpar play from quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. did the Terrapins in.
“I think we had seven drives last week where we moved the ball down the field, but we don’t come up with enough points. That’s not enough production and not enough big plays, which we did have opportunities, because there were some big plays that we left on the field,” Locksley said, “And I think our team, after yesterday’s meeting, all had a chance to see it.”
Next-to-last in the Big Ten ahead of only winless-in-the-league Purdue, Maryland (4-6, 1-6 Big Ten) has lost five of its last six games and is now 5-15 in November since Locksley returned to College Park in 2019.
Enter Iowa (6-4, 4-3), who can always confound on offense and defense under the crafty ways of the longest-tenured coach in the Football Bowl Subdivision, Kirk Ferentz.
“Their formula has always remained unchanged,” Locksley said. “I mean, they’re going to run the football. They’re going to play really good defense and [be] really balanced in everything how they do it. i think they’re sixth in scoring offense, sixth in scoring defense, and this is even with injuries.”
To his point, Iowa will be without quarterback Brendan Sullivan for the rest of the season due to an ankle injury. Cade McNamara, the former Michigan starter in his second season as a Hawkeye, is expected to start after he missed two games with a concussion and as Iowa comes off a bye.
“That ability to line up and know who you are — and they’re very comfortable with their way of winning — is a reflection of Kirk and the job he’s done there over the years,” Locksley said.
The basis of Iowa’s recipe hasn’t changed for the last quarter-century, especially with the Hawkeyes boasting Kaleb Johnson, the Big Ten’s runaway leader in yards rushing and rushing touchdowns.
“He gets the accolades and the notoriety, but the front allows him to eat, you know? And he’ll probably say the same thing if you would ask him,” said safety Dante Trader. “He’s a really special back. Runs hard. Runs behind his pads. Good stature. Confident back. So we got to be ready and have our Ps and Qs.”
• George Gerbo can be reached at ggerbo@washingtontimes.com.
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