Maryland football’s 2022 campaign has become a matter of pride

(Photo Courtesy of Maryland Athletics.)

Pride became the newest focal indicate for Maryland football head coach Michael Locksley post-obit the loss to Minnesota. Added to the list of countless platitudes and buzzwords that have collectively captured the essence of Locksley's football plan is the new term that the head coach believes the team has recently been defective.

"As I told our team, y'all know, on Mon we're gonna coach whoever shows up, that has the mindset that they have enough pride to become this thing fixed," Locksley said. "Because right about at present, pride comes into play."

In all things competitive, pride is an integral function of success. Without pride, teams dissolve into collections of individuals who are able but unwilling. A group of athletes who fail to consistently foster a mentality of responsibility and abiding growth. Locksley understands a solid sense of pride is the divergence between gradual comeback and habitual ineptitude. So do some of his players.

"I retrieve guys just take to have pride," receiver Rakim Jarrett said following the game at Minnesota. "… be more than drastic to win than be okay with losing."

On the defense, linebacker Ruben Hyppolite Two shared the aforementioned sentiment.

"We got to accept pride in doing our jobs and executing," Hyppolite said. "We just gotta be more than physical than our opponents. Nosotros but gotta want information technology more."

Even in the face of a .500 record and a potential iv game losing streak, Lockley believes this team is "ahead of schedule" when it comes to development and growth. He even likened this year'southward squad to its 2001 predecessor, the highly ranked Terp squad that Locksley helped coach that finished the season as ACC champs and with an Orange Bowl appearance, it too happens to be the honoree of Saturday's homecoming game.

"One thing that stood out to me when that coaching search took place, for a guy that I call a great mentor, coach Ralph Friedgen," said Locksley, who was a running backs coach. "One of the beginning things he said, and it's kind of go a mantra of mine, that coach Friedgen said to the squad was, 'I'm not going to teach you how to win, I'1000 going to teach yous how non to lose — how not to beat yourself.'"

Similar the 2001 roster prior to the start of the season and Friedgen'southward eventual decade-long tenure, Locksley, along with the rest of the coaching staff, has been teaching a team and then familiar with defeat, how not to lose and how to exist prideful in its pursuit of success.

Against Indiana, the Terps' next opponent, not losing is a matter of taking pride and responsibility in correcting the errors that made Minnesota's victory possible; from the penalties to the Terps' struggles at the defensive line and the needless missed tackles at every level of the defense.

With the numerous quarterback questions the Hoosiers face up and the losing streak they're also wading through, it'due south likely Indiana volition look to exploit Maryland'south flaws to capture its first win since early September — making an improved run defence for the Terps particularly of import.

"And we say this often that, yous know, 'in baseball game if you can't striking the curveball, guess what you gonna see? The curveball.'" Locksley said. "I would expect that with [Indiana's] quarterbacks existence banged up, they're gonna line up and say, 'Well let'south look and meet what Minnesota did.' So we ameliorate get the things that we haven't been able to correct corrected this calendar week and await them to come up in and try to run the ball down our throat."

In front end of its 2001 counterparts at home, Maryland football game has to exert some pride. Non only because the window of opportunity for a bowl game berth is closing speedily, simply because pride makes winners or, at the very to the lowest degree, teams that don't beat themselves.

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Source: http://wmucsports.net/maryland-football-2021-campaign-pride-mike-locksley-terps/

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