Mike Locksley
Maryland Head Coach
Opening Statement
“I’m proud of the way they continue to fight through adversity. Throughout the course of the last four or five weeks, we haven't had a lot of things go our way and not one time have they not shown up and done the necessary work. We just have to continue to teach and play smarter. Today, they found a way to get it done through some adversity because it wasn't pretty today. It's not easy to win on the road in the Big Ten. Everybody in this league understands that and this is a tough venue. Credit Matt (Rhule) for having this team ready to play. They're a tough, hard-nosed team that has taken on his personality. Our offense made plays when we needed to make plays. Our quarterback did a tremendous job on that last drive of putting us in position to go win it. I can't give enough credit to our defense. They created a bunch of turnovers. They kept playing with their backs against the wall and when we needed them to get us the ball back, they got us the ball back, so credit to our defense and Coach (Brian) Williams and his staff for having those guys ready to play. Now, because of that, we have an opportunity to shift our attention to a great opportunity back at home next week against Michigan. Our specialists showed up today. Jack Howes, knocking in the winning field goal, hit an earlier field goal and then Brenden Segovia coming in for our injured punter, placing two of them inside the ten. It's exactly what we talked about when we say next man up and we have to give credit to the specialists for executing when we needed them to execute.”
On the back and forth game
“It wasn't pretty. The penalties, 10 to one. Nothing seemed to go our way today but you know what, that's how it's been around here. Nothing has been easy for us. Everything we do, we have to fight through everything. That's why I'm proud of this team because they could have easily gotten down on themselves. They could have easily, when we turned the ball over in their plus territory, it's easy to just kind of get in your own way but I saw our defense continue to come over and let the offense know that ‘we will get you the ball back.’ So it wasn't pretty. But I can tell you right now, that not one time did they flinch on our sideline.”
On the last drive
“We practice the execution of it. We didn't get that done in the first half. We had an opportunity to add points there at the end of the half. We got the penalty to push us out. As I said, to get us the six wins, a third year in a row to be able to continue to develop our teams – you can't put a price on how valuable that extra time is when you become bowl eligible in terms of continuing to develop your team, so I'm excited about that more than anything.”