Mike Locksley: '[Michigan] continues to show tremendous resiliency'
Michigan players were subject to aggressive NCAA interviews on top of school and preparation for Maryland this week, but they still pulled out to a big lead before holding on for a 31-24 win in College Park. Some coaches, including a few whose teams have been plastered by U-M this year, have taken shots at the Wolverines over “signgate” — Maryland’s Mike Locksley wasn’t one of them, showing class in defeat.
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Locksley was sincere in his postgame congratulations to interim coach Sherrone Moore and gave the Wolverines their props in his postgame press conference.
“As always, give credit to our opponent. Michigan did a really good job having their team prepared for a game like this, with all the things they’ve got going on up their neck of the woods,” Locksley said. “Their team continues to show tremendous resiliency. But I’m also proud of the way our team fought. I’m not up here to celebrate a moral victory at all. But you know what — to have a breakthrough win, our team played the script to a tee, except to finish.
“Down 20 and we still had chance to win … our team continued to fight. We knew we would have to take their best and we withstood the onslaught early. And, early in the first half, and going in at the halftime, we knew that coming out and scoring early and getting a three-and-out to get us back in the game [would help], and we’re able to do it.”
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Michigan, though, responded after the Terrapins cut a 23-3 deficit to 23-17. Graduate nickel Mike Sainristil came up with the momentum changing play, a pick near midfield that set up a score.
“When you play a champion like Michigan, you’ve got to understand — they won’t give it to you,” Locksley continued. “And our guys need to continue to understand that we’re going to have to go take it, whether it’s against them and the crowd — they had a great crowd show up here for us.
“But you know what? There are no moral victories. But this is definitely one of those games that I feel as a program that we’ll be able to build off. … This team showed up today and fought the champion to the end, or to the fourth quarter, and came up short. And we’ll be able to build off this, and as a program, I know we will.”
