Locksley believes he has ‘prescription’ for Maryland to overcome post-bye woes

Maryland is off to another 4-0 start for its third in the last five seasons.

Some critics will point to the Terrapins’ September success as just a mirage, however, as they have typically caught a proverbial cold in Big Ten play when the calendar turns to fall.

This season, Maryland is trying to immunize itself against the pitfalls of autumn with a visit to the football pharmacy.

“We spent time trying to target one area to get better for each of our players and each coach. We call it ‘writing a prescription,’” Terrapins coach Mike Locksley said Tuesday. “[We] wrote a prescription to our players to say, here’s one thing after the first four games, that if you improve at this skill, it will help our team.” 

The medical terminology isn’t merely a metaphor.

“We were given actual prescriptions,” defensive end Dillan Fontus said. “It was a little card with a prescription for exactly what you need to work on and get better on and how you can improve and elevate your game.”

Buoyed by a road conference win at Wisconsin on Sept. 20, Locksley is hopeful the scripts will bury another negative perception that has followed his program: lackluster performances after bye weeks.

“I grew up in an era where the bye week is used kind of like a prize fighter, and in between rounds, he sits on a stool,” Locksley said. “His eyes are looking across at his opponent. He’s getting instruction from his coaches. He’s getting recovery from his coaches. He’s getting a little rest. But we did things a little bit differently.”

His Maryland teams are 0-9 following an open week, with the Terrapins now having two each season since the Big Ten’s expansion to 18 schools in 2024.

“I have a tendency during bye weeks to be really, really physical, because that’s what I grew up in under the Nick Saban approach,” Locksley said. “You just can’t afford to do that … so we wanted to find what are some of the small detailed things of the fundamentals of the game that we needed to improve upon for each player, and then gear it toward that.”

The first temperature taking of that approach is Saturday afternoon in Maryland’s Big Ten home opener against Washington (3-1, 0-1 Big Ten), which comes off a tight, 24-6 loss at home against No. 1 Ohio State.

“They’re explosive on offense … averaging over 450 yards of offense,” Locksley said. “You know, the final score of that Ohio State game, to me, isn’t indicative of how closely the game was played.”

On defense, Maryland (4-0, 1-0) hasn’t shown many areas that need medicine, allowing its fewest points (43) through four games since 2013 while leading the nation in sacks per game (4.0) and ranking second in interceptions (8) under long time NFL assistant and first-year defensive coordinator Ted Monachino.

“The actual defense, the concept and the scheme of it, has definitely been able to let these guys’ talent shine,” Fontus said, “and give them the ability to go out and make plays.”

Maryland will face its biggest test to date against the Huskies (3-1, 0-1 Big Ten), who have put up gaudy numbers, albeit against mostly non-conference foes. Quarterback Demond Williams Jr. completes 75.6% of his passes, is just shy of 1,000 yards passing, and ranks fourth nationally in yards per attempt, while running back Jonah Coleman has nearly 500 yards and leads the nation with 9 rushing touchdowns this season.

“This guy is a smaller, compact running back. He can make plays,” Fontus said. “So in order to combat that, we just gotta win the line of scrimmage and be violent at the point of attack.”