Maryland football readies for Rutgers knowing the threat of a team with nothing to lose
For the Maryland football team, Saturday’s game at Rutgers presents a prime opportunity to pick up a confidence-boosting win over a team in disarray. But this is a Maryland team — and a Maryland coach — that understands the situation Rutgers has found itself in, less than a week after it became the first Power Five program this season to fire its coach.
The Terrapins know how emotion can influence games, especially if a team channels it into unwavering unity.
“There’s nothing worse than playing a team that doesn’t have much to lose,” Coach Michael Locksley said Tuesday.
Maryland has not won since Sept. 7, when it held a short-lived identity as an offensive juggernaut with 142 points in its first two games. Since then the Terps have scored a total of 17 points in consecutive losses.
Rutgers, meanwhile, is in a downtrodden state that has largely defined the program since it entered the Big Ten. It dismissed Chris Ash on Sunday, a day after it lost to Michigan to fall to 1-3 on the season and 8-32 in three-plus years under Ash. Tight ends coach Nunzio Campanile, who joined Rutgers last year after previously leading a powerhouse high school program in New Jersey, was elevated to interim coach.
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Maryland had an interim coach all of last season but under much different circumstances, after the death of offensive lineman Jordan McNair overwhelmed the players with grief and the program with controversy. Under Matt Canada, the Terps knocked off a ranked Texas team to open the season and later nearly beat Ohio State in overtime. That’s why Maryland’s players are “well aware” of the challenge Rutgers could bring, Locksley said.
“I would imagine, knowing Coach Ash and the type of team he developed, that these guys will rally together to form a bond and play for each other. So we expect them to have all types of effort.”
Locksley has experienced both sides of this situation. His tumultuous tenure as head coach at New Mexico ended when the school fired him midseason. The Lobos finished the 2011 season 1-7 with an interim coach after an 0-4 start under Locksley.
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A few years later, Locksley was an offensive coordinator at Maryland who became the interim coach when the school fired Randy Edsall. Locksley said his focus in that situation was making sure the seniors enjoyed their final games as Terps because “those are the kids that get kind of screwed when you fire coaches in the middle of the year.” Locksley’s group won one game out of the final six but nearly beat Penn State at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore in the first game after Edsall’s firing.
Now Rutgers will begin navigating this scenario with Campanile at the top of the ladder, at least temporarily, because Rutgers also fired offensive coordinator John McNulty. Campanile will have a chance to guide the Scarlet Knights through the majority of the 2019 campaign while also taking on play-calling duties.
“The biggest thing is making sure that we take care of our players, that we give them a chance to be successful, that we keep them together,” Campanile said Monday at a news conference. “Obviously it’s a tough time for them, and our leaders are doing a great job of keeping everybody on task.”
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When asked whether he felt ready to take on the lead job, Campanile said, “I guess we'll find out in the next eight weeks.”
When Maryland faces the Scarlet Knights, Rutgers could look a bit different with its new play-caller, but no team can overhaul its scheme in less than a week. Campanile said the adjustments would come more in the form of “just streamlining what we do.”
But those within Maryland’s program also see the opportunity for a switch in mentality, a willingness to take risks that might not be present on tape from earlier this season.
“You can expect anything,” Locksley said. “When I was the interim coach, one thing I know that I used to say was, ‘Hey, you can do anything you want. We can fake punts.’ So our guys have to be prepared for any and everything because, again, these guys have nothing to lose.”
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Yet this is still the Rutgers team that struggled immensely this season and in previous years. After all, the school felt it had reason to justify firing its coach in September. Rutgers’s only win came against Massachusetts in its season opener. Since, the team failed to score against Michigan and Iowa and posted only 16 points in a loss to Boston College. Rutgers sits at or near the bottom of the conference in most statistical categories.
But even with losing records every year since 2014, the Scarlet Knights have beaten Maryland in two of five tries since both became Big Ten members.
“I’m not doubting anybody,” Maryland defensive back Antoine Brooks Jr. said this week. “Just because they don’t have a coach, doesn’t mean they’re not going to fight.”
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