Terrapins rally around freshman McLaurin after his father’s hit-and-run death

Running back Josiah McLaurin scored Maryland’s penultimate touchdown in a 50-7 beatdown of Connecticut last week. The 24-yard screen pass he took down the sideline may not have altered the final result, but it meant the world to the freshman and his teammates.

“That’s why you saw all the players on the team so excited,” Maryland coach Mike Locksley said. “They all knew what he went through that week.”

McLaurin’s father, Robert, and cousin, Kirk, were killed in an automobile accident Aug. 24 in New York City. The two were celebrating Kirk’s bachelor party, according to the New York Post, when their vehicle was hit head-on by a pickup truck going in the wrong direction down a one-way street.

McLaurin was about to check into his dorm the week before his first college game, Locksley said, when he received the news ahead of a practice.

“It was tough on us,” quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. said, “but I think we all loved him up … just being there as whatever we could do for him in the week leading up to the game to support him.”

Locksley recruited McLaurin from Clinton, North Carolina, a town of fewer than 9,000 in the southeastern part of the state. He said McLaurin had been homesick most of the summer, but opted to stay with his teammates for the week leading up to the game, and that the play he scored one was purposely designed for him. 

“We all kind of rallied around him,” Locksley said. “He didn’t want to go home, he wanted to stay here with us, which meant the world to us, because that means that he’s adopted us pretty quickly.”

McLaurin received the game ball from safety Dante Trader Jr. in an emotion-filled moment after the game in the Maryland locker room.

“It was a tough situation, but God works in mysterious ways,” Edwards said. “It worked out well for his first game, but we’ll continue to love up on him, be on him, however he may need.”

Injury notes: Backup quarterback MJ Morris did not practice this week after leaving Saturday’s game in the third quarter with an injury on a play that was flagged for targeting. Locksley didn’t provide a specific update on the N.C. State transfer, but the hit was one of a litany of penalties and resulting ejections across the first full weekend of college football. 

A lot of it, to me, is timing. I don’t know if these were intentional, but if you look across the country, there were a ton of these things, and they’re hard to police,” Locksley said. “But as you get guys ejected from the game, which happened in quite a few of them, I think that you’ll see them get better at it as we get into the season.”

Starting tight end Preston Howard also exited the UConn game with an injury. Locksley said he had been “nicked up” most of camp and expects him to be back against Saturday against Michigan State (3:30 p.m., BTN).

“He got nicked up in the game,” Locksley said, “hyperextended the lower extremity area, and [we] made the decision to pull him and give him a chance to rest.”

Brother’s keeper: The relationships in a position room often and sometimes need to extend off the field, especially in college football. That was especially true with Edwards and his predecessor, Taulia Tagovailoa.

“It’s a little known secret, man, Billy was like ‘Lia’s brother’s keeper,” Locksley said. “If I needed ‘Lia to get somewhere on time, Billy, as his backup, was the guy, and they had a really strong relationship.”

The demands on a starting quarterback’s time, let alone one at a major power conference school, aren’t just game related. Press conferences, appearances and signings with donors, and name, image and likeness deals are all part of the role.

Edwards is starting to understand that now.

“You know, having lived in Taulia’s shoes the last like seven, eight days, I can’t blame him,” Edwards said. “It gets hard with all the time commitments.’

Tagovailoa, now with the Canadian Football League’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats, kept tabs on how camp was going, Edwards said, texting him multiple times during the summer. He said the most prolific passer in Maryland history taught him how to handle both success and adversity.

“He helped me out in more ways than what I was able to give to him,” Edwards said. “We had a good relationship. We took care of each other.”