Mike Locksley shares key to stopping Ohio State offense

There are few, if any, teams in college football that can hang across the board defensively with Ohio State’s nucleus of offensive talent and Maryland head coach Mike Locksley knows this. As the Terrapins have the unwelcome task of trying to slow down the Buckeyes offense, Locksley is keyed in on one way to hamper Ohio State.

Get quarterback CJ Stroud to the ground. It’s not too complicated a plan, but one that’s difficult to execute — Ohio State is tied for third in the country in sacks allowed, giving up seven in 10 games.

“I think the biggest thing when you watch Ohio State, because of the way they spread out, diverse with the talent they have on offense, it starts with trying to affect the quarterback. Which, you know, the games that they’ve lost over the years here that I’ve had a chance to evaluate, they’ve been able to get the quarterback on the ground and effectively create problems for him,” Locksley said. “Because he’s the guy that makes that thing go and he’s a special player.”

Ohio State gave up 17 sacks on the season in 2021, a year it went 11-2 and won the Rose Bowl. And those two losses might’ve been what Locksley watched, as Oregon went in to the Horseshoe and sacked Stroud twice en route to a win in September before Michigan tallied four sacks on Stroud in Ann Arbor.

In the other 11 games, the Buckeyes gave up 11 sacks.

Now, Maryland doesn’t have pass rushers like Michigan did or the elite linebackers that Oregon did (and does), so it’ll be up to scheme and perhaps a player rising to the occasion to help the Terrapins get home on Stroud.

“We’re going to have to do some things where we can try to affect this quarterback because when they’ve struggled, it’s because people have gotten to the quarterback and affected him. So we’ve got to do some things on defense to try and affect the quarterback,” Locksley said.