Maryland coach Michael Locksley on facing Michigan: 'We have nothing to lose'

Michigan Wolverines football (3-0) is 2-0 against Maryland (3-0) with Michael Locksley as the latter program’s head coach. This Saturday’s Big Ten opener will mark Locksley’s first trip to The Big House since he was the offensive coordinator on a Terps team that beat former Michigan head coach Brady Hoke and Co., 23-16.

A lot has changed between now and then. Maryland went through some dark days but finally got back to a bowl game last season, and Michigan is back to playing championship football, winning the Big Ten in 2021.

“We now shift our attention to conference play, and we open with the reigning conference champion on the road,” Locksley said Tuesday. “It’s an unbelievable opportunity for us as a program. I talked to our team about going up to Michigan, going up to Ann Arbor. We have nothing to lose. We’re going to face the reigning champ, and we’ll get a really, really good team.”

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Michigan has been impressive through three games, but against weak competition, with ESPN ranking its schedule 131st nationally so far. The Wolverines have outscored their first three opponents — Colorado State (51-7), Hawai’i (56-10) and UConn (59-0) — by a combined score of 166-17. Locksley realizes his team, which hasn’t been tested much either, outside of a 34-27 win over SMU last weekend, has a daunting task ahead of it.

“They’re well coached,” Locksley said of Michigan. “They’re one of the least-penalized teams — the opposite of us — they play a physical brand of football, they’ve got playmakers across the board on the offensive side of the ball.

“Defensively, they lost a bunch of guys, but when you watch them in the first three games, they play very physical. They’ve got an exotic third-down package, which tells us we’ve got to be very good on first and second downs in terms of keeping that blitz package off the field.

“They’ve got a lot of new players coming in that really are playing hard, and I think they’ve taken on the personality of their coaches there.”

Locksley knows his team has a tremendous challenge in front of it, but he doesn’t want to change how it prepares this week.

“I asked [the players] about grandma’s macaroni and cheese. I said, ‘When she makes it on Christmas, is it any better than when she makes it on a normal Sunday dinner?’ And they all said, no,” Locksley said. “Her macaroni and cheese is great. It’s slamming. It’s unbelievable.

“Who we play doesn’t change. It’s the consistency of how we prepare to play, which is what makes grandma’s macaroni and cheese good on Christmas Day or a regular Sunday after church.

“I’ve tried to get us out of this mentality of riding a wave of emotions. Of, we prepare differently for Charlotte than we do Ohio State, or we prepare differently for Michigan than we do SMU, because that’s not the case as a football coach. We don’t go in and say, hey, it’s Michigan week, let’s all of a sudden ramp up our intensity. That’s not how you go about building a winning program.

“That’s something I learned along the way from some good experience down at Alabama — you learn to prepare consistently, the right way, and the product on Saturday tends to be really consistent.”

Maryland coach Michael Locksley on J.J. McCarthy, Michigan playmakers

Michigan’s offense has been dynamic with sophomore quarterback J.J. McCarthy behind center. He’s shown his ability to connect on deep balls but also take what the defense is willing to give up underneath. His presence is helpful in the run game, with opponents having to account for him in read-option situations.

“Their philosophy is, they want to run the football,” Locksley said. “They have explosive playmakers on the perimeter. J.J. is an explosive playmaker with his feet and his arm, and they’ll feature the quarterback run because of that ability.

“They play to his strengths, but he also has shown the propensity that when you commit to stop him as a runner, he can take the shots that came off of the play-actions down the field, where they have talented receivers. The Bell kid [graduate receiver Ronnie Bell], No. 14 [junior Roman Wilson], fast, fast player. [Junior wideout A.J.] Henning. They’ve got a bunch of talented perimeter players.

“When you put them on tape on offense, J.J. is dynamic with his feet, but also has the ability to throw the ball. But they do want to run the football. They had their way with us a year ago, and I think you’ll see a lot of some of the same. I just hope that we play a little differently.”

Michigan’s quarterback has completed 30 of his 34 pass attempts for 473 yards and 3 touchdowns with no interceptions. He’s rushed 7 times for 73 yards and a score.

Michigan and Maryland kick off at noon ET on FOX.