NEW ERA PINSTRIPE BOWL: VIRGINIA TECH VS MARYLAND

December 29, 2021

Michael Locksley

Yankee Stadium

Maryland Terrapins

Press Conference

Maryland 54, Virginia Tech 10

MICHAEL LOCKSLEY: Thanks, Dustin. Number one, I can't even put into words just how proud I am of this team. As I told the seniors before the game, we'll forever be indebted for those guys because they really have put this thing on a really solid foundation that I think shows the trajectory of what our program can be. We've come a long way as a program since 2019. It's been a lot of hard work. Hasn't been easy. These guys have bought into what you have to do to have winning football. The culture, the way you have to work, the habits and behaviors you got to create. To send the seniors out with a significant bowl win, a winning season means the world to me, and to me these guys, like I said, I will forever be indebted for the leadership that they've shown.

This season was a huge step for our program, but I still believe, again, that the best is ahead, and what today shows, as you saw young players making plays for us, you saw our quarterback, again, continue to show the consistency, our defense stepped up, but it really leads me to believe that the best is ahead for our program. I'm looking forward to continuing to lead us as we take that next step. With that I'll open it up to questions.

Q. You mentioned a great way to send the seniors out. Darryl Jones in particular had a very strong game and was scoring his first two touchdowns of his career. What has his presence meant to this team, and what has his leadership meant the last few years? What do you have to say about his big performance today?

MICHAEL LOCKSLEY: One, I'm happy he was able to leave here -- every Friday I do bed check and always stop in and see Darryl. We've been waiting a long time for a game like this, and it's only fitting that he would get it in his last game as a Terp and score two touchdowns after not scoring for four years. I think it just shows, again, the resiliency that this senior group has shown. He is kind of a byproduct of a group of guys that maybe have been through a lot, but just have kept their heads down, continued to work. Really happy for Darryl that he was able to finish on such a strong note, and I know he played a major role in getting this thing started, so proud of Darryl. Proud of him, again, like the rest of the seniors that we're sending out of here. Just have shown tremendous leadership through adversity, through tough times. Kind of just have kept their head down, chin up, and today we talked about just keep punching, and he made some plays.

Q. The third quarter, it was a two-score game coming out of intermission. I think you guys out-gamed them 187 yards to 8 in that third quarter. What did you feel from the sidelines? What did you feel start to turn in that third quarter, the play of your team?

MICHAEL LOCKSLEY: I really think it started at the end of the first half. We only had 19 plays on offense, and they had some drives where they used up the clock. I think their goal was to try to shrink the game and limit the opportunities we had, and so right before the half we made the decision even when we were backed up was to try to steal some points since we knew we would get the ball in the second half. It really paid dividends to walk off the field with the field goal and then to get the second half, get the ball, but, again, our team did a great job on offense of just sticking to what we wanted to get done. Our quarterback stayed really consistent with his execution, and the guys up front gave him time to make the throws, and also we were able to run the ball, and I think that played a major part in it. Wore them down a little bit.

Q. It also took a while for you guys to get in gear on both sides of the ball, but you had those two big plays in the first half. The punt return for a touchdown; the 70-yard strike. How huge were those plays? You have talked early and often the season about getting explosive plays. You had one on special teams and one on offense in that first half.

MICHAEL LOCKSLEY: We talked in our pregame deal with meeting with the coaches how during bowl games special teams become really important. It's a way to possibly steal points, and we felt that Tarheeb has been really close, and we just hadn't held guys up enough to get it started. Today we did a really good job, and we talked about going back to the fundamentals. We did that with the special teams, and I think it paid off with the punt return.

Obviously, the winning formula for winning games is pretty simple. It's limit turnovers on offense and generate explosive plays, and then on the defensive side, limit their explosive plays, which I thought we did today, and then also do a really good job of trying to create some turnovers. We scored on defense today. We created a couple of turnovers, and that's where you saw us really take the next step.

Q. My question for you is, we saw a lot of young guys get some action today, like Roman Hemby, C.J. Dippre in the fourth quarter. What did you see of those guys, and what was it like to get those guys some experience in the bowl game today?

MICHAEL LOCKSLEY: I think you saw them way before the fourth quarter. Roman Hemby was back there returning kicks from the start. Antwaine Littleton played in the first half. Devyn King, C.J. Dippre. The way we took advantage of these however many practices prior to the bowl game, we talked about this wasn't necessarily the finish of the '21 season, but actually the start of the '22 season, and I think what you saw today was Roman and Antwaine Littleton and even Colby McDonald, who has played a lot for us, the Devyn Kings of the world, is that we've got some really talented young players. Our coaches did a really good job with the 15 practices -- 14, however many it was -- of really developing these guys, and I think it really paid off. You saw kind of what I talk about when I say our future is bright, that we've got some talented young players, and it was a great way to start off the '22 season.

Q. You've had a lot of success as an assistant coach in your career. Now as a head coach. This was definitely one of your stronger seasons, and so for you in your career, what has this season meant for you, and going into 2022 with this momentum from this bowl game, what does that mean to you as a coach?

MICHAEL LOCKSLEY: The biggest thing for me, it's about those kids in the locker room. As a coach, whether I have success or whether we fail, these kids really did a great job of just keep fighting. It's a lot like what my career has been about as a head coach. Keep my head down, continue to fight, rely on the guys in that locker room. It's really none of our business what people outside the program think about us, but I have a lot of faith, a lot of confidence in myself as a leader. Also, those kids, this is what we recruit them for to Maryland. To develop them not just as great football players, but great men. At the end of the day if I'm doing that, I feel pretty confident about the success that we'll have. Again, it's not about me. It's about them.

Q. Just what did you see out of Taulia today, and what does a performance like this one do for him going into 2022?

MICHAEL LOCKSLEY: I hope it quiets some of the critics and he gets the respect that he deserves as a quarterback. I feel like we've got one of the best quarterbacks in the league, if not the country. As I said before, we wouldn't be in this situation that we're in with the winning season if it wasn't for Taulia. Now, obviously, he is not the finished product, and I think you'll continue to see him get better, as with all aspect of our program. But really proud of him and the way he has responded, the way he has a positive impact on others, his teammates. Very unselfish. Like I said, hopefully as I said, this is the start of the '22 season, and maybe we can get him a little bit of respect in terms of being one of the top quarterbacks in the country, which I really feel and believe he is.

Q. On the defense, they didn't know exactly what they would be facing going into the game today. Just talk about how they adjusted and how they read to Virginia Tech?

MICHAEL LOCKSLEY: Brian Williams did a really good job calling it today and B. Stew did a great job of helping organize it. We tried to keep it simple. It came down to our execution. We did a really good job of controlling the line of scrimmage, which is I think where it started. We did a good job on the back end with our eye control. Gave up a couple of big plays where we were in position to make the play, but didn't make it. To me this is the way we've got to play team defense, and I thought they did a great job running to the ball, playing with energy. We tackled well for the most part, which is usually a concern when you come off such a long layoff, but our defensive staff had them ready to go. They played with great energy, and I really liked the energy and effort that the defense played with. And when we struggled on offense early and had limited plays, they just kept pounding away.

Q. I feel so good for you because this is really a marquee win. The whole nation is watching.

The one thing about the Rutgers game and this game is all of a sudden you're coaching a disciplined team. No pass interference calls. Nobody jumped off sides. Taulia, no groundings. What happened in the past few weeks? Did that extra month really help this team out a lot of practice?

MICHAEL LOCKSLEY: I don't think we were that perfect. I think we did have a couple of unforced noncompetitive penalties, but I think what you see is what happens with a young team. Those penalties disappear with experience, and we've kind of made a decision that we're going to play a bunch of young players because it's not just about just this game and this season. It's about the trajectory of our program as a whole moving forward, and the only way you get better is by playing. It sucks to sit back and see young players make these type of mistakes, but as I have said before, it's part of the maturation process, and I think what you are starting to see is these guys cleaning up some of that stuff. The extra time. Again, our coaches really did a good job of having these guys ready to play, but wasn't perfect, but definitely was a step in the right direction as far as we will be that disciplined team that we talked about at the beginning of the year.

Q. I saw that your defense was very dominant throughout the game. Players like Nick Cross and Ruben were all over the field. How were you able to get the defense to focus or stay focused throughout the game? Especially during that time where you were only up by two scores.

MICHAEL LOCKSLEY: We talked all week about just keep punching. Something good happens, keep punching. Something bad happens, keep punching. Our standard is we don't play to the scoreboard. We just play the next play, and our defense did a really good job of doing that. Even when we didn't have the opportunities on the offensive side, we gave up maybe some yardage on defense, but they kept punching, and they got stops. They got off the field. They held them to field goals, and to me, like I said, Brian Williams and Brian Stewart and that whole defensive staff really did a good job of putting our players in the best position to execute and to play the way we played today, so congrats to our defense and great job to the defensive staff.

Q. Two-part question here for you. You mentioned your seniors. What's the biggest thing you're going to remember about this class, and for you -- I meant to talk about this with some of the Tech guys. Not a lot of the people got to play some bowl games. You guys got to play in Yankee Stadium. What is that experience like for you and your staff to play in Yankee Stadium and being in New York?

MICHAEL LOCKSLEY: To start, what does this senior class mean to me? As I have said, this was all about them. We had a winners-take-all game against Rutgers. The seniors did a tremendous job of leading the charge from us and leading from the front. They've had every opportunity maybe with the way some of the games were played out near the end to fold. They never did it, and they just kept coming to work and kept pulling people along with them. And so to me, as I said, this is the group to me is the one that we'll forever be indebted. They've been through a lot as a group. It's been well talked about. We know about the things that they've had to endure, but what they've just shown is the resiliency, and to me that's the Terp way. It's never going to be easy. They understand what hard is. They kept pulling guys along with them.

As far as playing in iconic Yankee Stadium, the New Era Pinstripe Bowl, I've been to a lot of bowl games, and some big ones, and the way they ran this thing all week long was a first-class bowl event. Our players had a tremendous experience here, and the icing on the cake is playing in Yankee Stadium where so many champions have played in. Again, thanks to the New Era Pinstripe Bowl people for putting one hell of a bowl on for our team. It's something, like I said, that sets the trajectory for with where this program could be.