Mike Locksley took over playcalling duties in Maryland football’s 37-10 loss to Northwestern, here’s how it went

Photo courtesy of Maryland Athletics

Just a minute into the fourth quarter of Friday night’s matchup, Maryland’s defense forced a punt and set up the offense for a potential game-tying drive. Two plays later, Billy Edwards was strip-sacked and Northwestern recovered the fumble in the endzone.

The Terps offense never recovered and lost 37-10 despite entering the fourth quarter down seven. The loss marks Maryland’s first 0-3 conference start in the Mike Locksley era and its lowest offensive output since 2022.

One of the most notable takeaways was that Locksley took over the offensive play-calling duties.

“One of my strengths is being able to help on offense. It’s a system that I know really well,” Locksley said postgame, “Philosophically, I decided to take over the play calling today. [Offensive coordinator] Josh [Gattis] assisted me upstairs with the eyes.”

Locksley’s playcalling saw Billy Edwards throw 51 passes. Before the fourth quarter, which Northwestern pulled away during, Edwards had thrown 29 times. 

This is an increase compared to Maryland’s first two conference games of 2024 under Gattis. Through three quarters against Indiana and Michigan State, Edwards threw an average of 22.5 passes. Throughout the entirety of those games, Edwards averaged 37.5 passes.

“There’s some different philosophical ways that I call it compared to [Gattis],” Locksley said. “I think you’ll see moving forward the collaboration of how philosophically I want to call it. It’ll benefit us.”

Also troubling is the scoring output. The lone Maryland touchdown on Friday came on a one-yard quarterback sneak. Even that was a struggle — the offense had first and goal at the two and took until fourth down to score.

Edwards averaged three total touchdowns per game in the first two conference games.

“We obviously had the two weeks of the bye week to make that adjustment and get comfortable with it,” Edwards said, “As we get more reps, we’ll get more comfortable but I wouldn’t say there was too much of a difference [between Locksley and Gattis].”

Locksley also hinted postgame that he would continue calling plays with Gattis assisting.

“It didn’t work as well as we would like to see it work today, but it showed glimpses of what it can be,” Locksley said.

The Terps look for their first conference win next Saturday at SECU Stadium against USC — a team allowing just 18.4 points through its first five games.