Scruggs, Washington rally around Locksley, each other as Maryland visits Illinois

Amid a tumultuous month and a half, Maryland players insist the culture inside their locker room has not changed as they rally around each other and coach Mike Locksley.

“We all love Coach Locks, so the whatever the chants are, whatever the media’s saying, it don’t bother us. It don’t affect us,” defensive back Lavain Scruggs said. “We’re worried about winning every game the rest of the season.”

To Scruggs, the season has had incremental movements of progress even if the final scores during a five-game losing streak over the past six weeks haven’t indicated such.

“I feel like we’re making strides all season,” he said. “It first starts with stopping the run, and I think once we stop the run, the secondary will handle the passing game very well.”

Scruggs and Locksley this week both pointed to injuries that haven’t always appeared on pre-game availability reports but have caused disruption, specifically on the defensive side of the ball.

“Not as just a secondary, but as a whole team, we gotta get back healthy, and we all got to do our jobs and stick to the details,” Scruggs said.

Issues are notable on Maryland’s defensive front, which allowed the Big Ten’s first 200-yard rusher in a game all season — Rutgers running back Antwan Raymond — in a 35-20 loss last week. 

Freshman edge rusher Zahir Mathis has been dealing with a toe injury dating to the Oct. 18 game at UCLA, which he missed. Listed as questionable against Indiana on Nov. 1, Mathis, a Shaun Alexander Freshman of the Year Award semifinalist, was on an exercise bicycle on the sidelines most of the game and played sparingly before resuming his starting spot last week.

Starting linebackers Daniel Wingate — who’s “playing on one leg” Locksley said after the Rutgers game — and Dillan Fontus, who hasn’t started the last two games, have been banged up. So too has Mathis’ defensive end mate and fellow dynamic freshman Sidney Stewart.

“The guys want to win. The guys are hungry. We still gotta get a lot of guys healthy, as y’all know. So the locker room is still amazing, man,” Scruggs said, ahead of Maryland’s (4-5, 1-5) final true road game of the season at Illinois Saturday (3:30 p.m., FS1).

At the conference’s annual media days in July, Locksley candidly admitted he lost his locker room last season due to players upset about playing time discrepancies related to name, image and likeness payouts. With nearly two-thirds of his roster new to Maryland either as freshmen or transfers, there’s been less appearance or acknowledgment of any fissures.

“The vibes have not changed at all,” said Scruggs, who had an interception and a season-high 10 tackles against Rutgers. “We’re still the same team because since camp and since all these guys came in, we built this brotherhood. And this brotherhood is very, very strong.”

After offensive lineman Isaiah Wright and defensive back Jalen Huskey defended their coach ahead of the Rutgers game, Locksley this week called himself a “big boy” and didn’t need his players to publicly do that. Wingate and quarterback Malik Washington, however, both cited playing or finishing the season with pride.

“In a sense, I think we’re playing for everybody in the building, really,” Washington said. “Nobody likes to feel this type of way. You know, after losing five straight, you’re playing for the senior guys that this is their last chance, their last opportunity some of them, playing football in total and some in a Maryland uniform. So I think each week, we’ve always been playing for each other.”

First-year athletic director Jim Smith backed Locksley barely a month ago, telling Baltimore’s WJZ-FM Oct. 23 that he had “confidence” in the seventh-year coach. Smith shifted his sentiments when asked Tuesday about Locksley by Taylor Lyons of The Baltimore Sun, saying, “We can’t make a decision right now. That’d be silly,” and adding that a determination will be made “at the end of the year where we are.”

“Whatever’s going on outside, media, we’re not really worried about that,” Scruggs said. “We’re worried about doing our job playing against Illinois this weekend. So whatever’s going on, we’re not worried about it.”