No Harbaugh for Michigan as ‘Big Noon’ visits Maryland for the first time

The biggest game of Maryland’s season gets the proper television treatment as Fox’s “Big Noon Saturday” comes to College Park for Senior Day against undefeated and No. 2 Michigan, who will be without Jim Harbaugh. Here’s this week’s Terps Top Three notebook for the matchup with the Wolverines:

No Harbaugh: The Big Ten announced Thursday that it has reached an agreement with Michigan and Jim Harbaugh in which the Wolverines coach will accept his three-game suspension from the conference in the wake of the university’s sign-stealing scandal.

In a statement, the conference said the decision “is indicative of the high standards and values the conference and university seek to uphold.”

Harbaugh was suspended a week ago and was set to defend himself in a hearing Friday morning on an injunction and temporary restraining order that would have allowed him to coach Saturday at Maryland. That will not take place, and Harbaugh will miss this game and next week’s season finale against No. 3 Ohio State, Harbaugh, though, is allowed to be with and coach the Wolverines during the week.

“Coach Harbaugh, with the University’s support, decided to accept this sanction to return the focus to our student-athletes and their performance on the field,” Michigan said in a statement. 

Big Noon spotlight: Fox Sports’ flagship college football program, “Big Noon Kickoff”, will originate from Maryland’s campus Saturday morning ahead of the noon start for the Terrapins and Wolverines. 

The show starts at 10 a.m. from LaPlata Beach near the university’s recreation center and will move inside SECU Stadium closer to game time.

Maryland’s first noon home kickoff of the season marks the first time either of the sport’s preeminent pregame shows — “Big Noon” and ESPN’s “College Gameday” — have visited College Park, with Fox and its focus on the Big Ten arriving much sooner than ESPN. Maryland is still one of six Power Five schools that have yet to host Gameday in its three decades on the air, per ESPN.

Fair or foul?: Much of Maryland’s game against Nebraska was a microcosm of problems it’s been unable to shake, specifically in the last month and a half, with bad penalties and turnovers inside opposing territory foremost among them.

The Terrapins overcame those faults to come out with a win, and it led to Mike Locksley offering an animated defense this week of one repetitive criticism of his team.

“All I hear every time we get a penalty is how undisciplined we are and how undisciplined this team is, and I ain’t buying it.”

It’s the most defensive the Maryland coach has been on a topic all season, with Locksley saying that he sends video of penalties he disputes to the Big Ten.

“I’m not gonna get fined, but I’m gonna tell you — and you guys need to hear it —  just because they throw a flag does not mean that it was actually a penalty,” Locksley said. “I mean, in the game, it counts. But you know, I’m not gonna buy — this team is a disciplined team.”

Locksley said he’s also talked with conference officiating director Bill Carollo, himself a former NFL referee, “a couple of times the last couple of weeks.”

“All I know is when I turn in certain plays that were flagged as penalties, I get a message back that that shouldn’t have been called or should have been called this way,” Locksley said.

On the whole, the stats track with his sentiments. Maryland committed nearly 1,000 yards of penalties (924) on 101 flags in 13 games last season. There’s been an appreciable decrease in those numbers this year, with the Terrapins only accumulating 54 penalties for 565 yards through 10 games, an average of 2.4 fewer infractions per game.

Though Locksley didn’t specify, two calls last week stood out, both 15-yard personal foul penalties. In the second quarter, linebacker Fa’Najae Gotay was flagged for pushing away a Nebraska ball carrier after the two got up from a tackle. 

Soon after, with Maryland trying to get points in the final minute of the half, tight end Corey Dyches hauled in a 3-yard, third-down catch to reach the edge of field goal range at the Nebraska 29. Dyches was piled onto by a Huskers player after the catch, and as he got up used his helmet to push a defender away, drawing a flag and taking a field goal or fourth-and-short attempt out of consideration.

“I’m always talking about noncompetitive penalties, those are the ones I have a problem with,” Locksley said, “but I’m not going to have that label of being undisciplined put on these guys, because these players have good discipline.”

Discipline will need to be at a premium against Michigan, who only commits an average of three penalties a game — 30 through ten games — the best mark in the FBS.