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Maryland football, happy to appear in its third straight bowl, wonders what could’ve been

edward lee, baltimore sun
·6 min read

Maryland football coach Mike Locksley recently came clean and admitted that he can be a bit clingy.

That helps explain why Locksley frequently expresses his gratitude for players such as redshirt senior quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa, graduate student wide receiver Jeshaun Jones, senior cornerback Tarheeb Still and senior safety Beau Brade for staying with the program as long as they did.

“They’ve left their mark here, and guys that are leaving here for whatever reasons they choose, they’ve left a mark that has allowed us to get the program where it is,” he said on Dec. 19. “So I don’t know how you can be upset. I’ve dealt with attachment issues my whole life a little bit. It used to bother me when people would leave. Now everyone’s got to do what’s best for them. That’s the part as a boomer that I’ve got to get over.”

When the Terps (7-5) meet Auburn (6-6) in Saturday’s TransPerfect Music City Bowl at 2 p.m. in Nashville, Tennessee, their path will mark the culmination of a measured process that launched after the 2018 season when Locksley was hired to helm the program.

Saturday’s appearance will be the school’s third straight, which had last been achieved between 2001 and 2003 when those squads ended those campaigns with trips to the Orange Bowl, Peach Bowl and Gator Bowl. A victory over the Tigers would give Maryland its third consecutive win in a bowl since winning three straight appearances in 2002, 2003 and 2006.

As momentous as that feat would be, a question emerges: could the Terps have accomplished more? After all, this was a team brimming with talent at several key offensive skill positions and depth on defense (even if there were some legitimate questions about the stability of the offensive line).

The roster was so promising that Locksley announced on July 27 during Big Ten media days that he believed Maryland was equipped to contend for a Big Ten Conference title.

So what happened? After opening the season with five straight wins, the Terps hung with perennial powerhouse and then-No. 4 Ohio State through the early stages of the third quarter before getting outscored, 20-0, in the final 27 minutes on Oct. 7.

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They then produced disappointing efforts in back-to-back losses to Illinois on Oct. 14 and Northwestern 14 days later. A setback to No. 11 Penn State on Nov. 4 didn’t qualify as shocking, but the four-game losing streak set up a must-win scenario at Nebraska on Nov. 11 that Maryland barely held on for a 13-10 decision.

“Last year, we felt like we let some games escape from us, especially the big guys like Michigan and Ohio State. This year, we had a lot more games escape from us — the same teams and then we had probably teams not as good that we should’ve beat,” said Brade, a Clarksville resident and River Hill graduate. “So we feel like we are a very talented team and we didn’t tap our full potential when it comes to the record in our games. But that’s in the past. There’s nothing we can do about it now. All we can do is look into the future and try to instill what we know in the guys who will still be here in the future.”

Few people might have expected the Terps to earn a spot in one of the New Year’s Six, but it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that they could have replaced Wisconsin as the Big Ten representative against LSU in the ReliaQuest Bowl on New Year’s Day. Perhaps a win against either Illinois or Northwestern would have been enough.

“This season, we let a couple games slip away from us that we felt like we were really prepared for coming in,” redshirt junior left tackle Delmar Glaze said. “But somewhere along the line, things didn’t go our way. Maybe we missed a little detail here, which is always really important. We always feel like the season could have gone a little differently. We’re grateful that we got three bowl games and that we get to play in the Music City Bowl this year. But we always feel like there’s a little bit more we could have done.”

The inability to back up Locksley’s declaration about making waves in the Big Ten might be the most grating aspect for some players.

“It’s definitely frustrating, but at the end of the day, you’ve just got to keep swinging and keep believing because one day, that breakthrough is going to happen,” junior wide receiver Tai Felton said. “So I just feel like if we keep working and keep pushing as hard as we can and keep watching film and keep fixing our mistakes, we can make it happen.”

Junior defensive end Donnell Brown went even further.

“I feel like we were the best team in the Big Ten, but for us, we just didn’t show it on a day-to-day basis, and that four-game losing streak was a microcosm of that,” he said. “Against Ohio State, we played lights-out in the first half, and then in the second half, we kind of let off the ball and got undisciplined. So I think if you look at it from that way, it’s just us beating ourselves, and I think for us to get over the hump, we’ve just got to get over ourselves. I think we can because we’ve done it before.”

And now Maryland will play Saturday without Tagovailoa, the school’s career leader in passing yards, touchdown passes and 300-yard passing games, and Still, the team’s leader in interceptions this fall — both of whom opted out of the game. The Terps will also be without sophomore linebacker Jaishawn Barham, redshirt junior tight end Corey Dyches and redshirt sophomore running back Antwain Littleton II — all of whom entered the transfer portal.

Senior linebacker Ruben Hyppolite II understands Saturday’s game represents the final hurrah for the current group of players. But he said that won’t diminish his memories of what the team has achieved.

“There’s always that thought that we could have done this or we could have done that, but it’s gone now,” he said. “It’s in the past. It’s all about moving forward, forward progression. We have this opportunity against Auburn at a great bowl in Nashville. It’s a great opportunity. Obviously, we didn’t do what we wanted to do this year, this season. But it’s still a great opportunity, and we’re going to take full advantage of it.”

Music City Bowl

Maryland vs. Auburn

Saturday, 2 p.m.

At Nashville, Tennessee

TV: ABC

Radio: 105.7 FM

Line: Auburn by 7