What they’re saying: Maryland coaches, players comment on Michigan football
Michigan will head to College Park to take on the Maryland Terrapins this Saturday.
Michigan is looking to win their second straight game without head coach Jim Harbaugh as Sherrone Moore fills in. The Wolverines beat Penn State last week and will have to deal with Ohio State a week from Saturday. Unlike last week, however, Moore will have had a full week to prepare for head coaching duties.
As always, the Terps were open about their thoughts on Michigan’s program and the ongoing scandal dominating college football news nationally.
See what Maryland players and head coach Mike Locksley are saying about their upcoming matchup with the Michigan Wolverines.
Mike Locksley, head coach
On Michigan’s depth: “The last two days, [I] had an opportunity to watch all three phases and they’re one of those teams that it isn’t one player, that kind of, the marquee guy. They’ve got a bunch of really good players that seem to play well together and that’s what jumps out on the tape. I got a lot of respect for them.”
On Michigan’s defense: “Kris Jenkins Jr. is a star in the making and he’s one of the those guys in our league that when you put the tape on, he flashes. They’ve got a good corner, the Johnson kid. Really talented players, two talented linebackers. But you look across the board and this team plays really well together. Like it’s not one shining star that kind of sets them apart. I mean, they are a well-oiled machine, especially on the defensive side of the ball. They play really sound. They don’t make a lot of mistakes meaning you are going to have to execute at a really high level.”
On changing signals: “Once we heard that two, three weeks ago, we made a lot of the necessary adjustments because if one has them, as you read and hear, anybody can have them and so we’ve taken necessary precautions to just make sure that again, what we can control. On offense, defense, we’ve definitely mixed up our communications and how we’re able to do it and so we don’t feel like that will have any effect on our game.”
On Michigan’s offense: “They’ve got a Heisman Trophy candidate at quarterback, really talented skill. They’ve got reigning two time Joe Moore [offensive] line, offensive line two straight years so really talented. And so to have the ability to do both really well, that’s kind of what we’ve worked towards to try to get our offense to be like, but we got to be prepared for the run. We got to be able to stop the pass. We don’t know how they’re going to attack us but we’ll find out Saturday at noon and we got to be prepared to make the necessary adjustments and do the things we can to kind of make them one dimensional.”
On mindset facing Michigan: “Every game is its own entity. Now at the end of the year, you can kind of go back and talk about the season as a whole but for us, this is a one-game season against a really talented team. We know that they’re talented, but I can tell you we’re talented too. We don’t always play smart and that’s my job to get us to play better and to play smarter, to be more efficient and execute at a higher level.”
Tarheeb Still, DB
On the team’s reaction to Michigan’s controversy: “You see stuff online, but you don’t really want to pay too much attention to it. But this week, they’re our next game, so really just focused on things that are going to help us win the game and not so much the outside noise, outside stuff they’ve got going on in their program.”
On Michigan’s offense: “They know what their strengths are. They do a lot of good things well. But really, for us, it’s going to come down to doing out job, doing our assignment, executing, and feeding off the energy we’re going to have in the stands.”
Tai Felton, WR
On Michigan’s defense: “One thing about those guys, they don’t make many mistakes. That’s one thing coach has kinda preached on.” … “We had to realize out MOE (margin of error) has to be lower than it’s been.”
On the sign stealing allegations: “We try to pay little no attention to that at all.”
On what a win over Michigan would mean: “It definitely would be a program-changing win, for sure. It would be the breakthrough I feel like we needed. That’s something coach Locksley talked about. It would be the breakthrough this program has needed.”
Taulia Tagovailoa, QB
On Michigan’s defense: “They’re a really good defense. If you look at it, they don’t really have any individual stats that jump out to you, and it’s really just because they play unselfish football. Like coach said, they work good together. The D-line helps the DBs cover the skills. They all just work together, and I think it’s a testament to their coaching.”
