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Transcript

Maryland's Coach on the Hot Seat · Husker Buzz

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Shano, let's talk about Mike Loxley, the head coach of Maryland.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: This guy appears destined for the unemployment line. His program
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: has regressed, but then that would imply it actually was
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: good at one point.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: It hasn't been. What is the on-three, Husker on-line view?
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: Well, for Maryland, you know, level of resources and commitment
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: to football. He's 3-0 in bowl games, and he's had
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: some 8-win seasons there, but the last couple years, things
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: have obviously fallen back. They've committed big to Malik Washington.
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: This sophomore quarterback who was a five-star and had moments
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: as a freshman, but they still went four and eight,
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: and the way it looks right now, they're two and two,
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: and they're heading into the teeth of Big Ten schedule.
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: He would be owed, if he was let go, just
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: under $ 10 million, $ 9. 7 million. In terms of buyout numbers,
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: it's not a significant number. But, yeah, I would say
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: unless they turn things around, there will probably be a
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: change at Maryland. There are some people who thought after
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: last week's game they could make the change right now
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: after losing 54-3. But they're sticking through with them at
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: this point, and we'll see what happens.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: This is a program that is surrounded by a lot
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: of good athletes.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Virginia.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Northern Virginia, Virginia, and you can speak to this because
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: you're far closer to the recruiting program than most anybody, Sean.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: But if you get the right guy, this should be
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: a program that can win.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: What is the issue at Maryland?
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the area they refer to as the DMV, D.C., Maryland, Virginia.
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: And Mike Loxley is an excellent recruiter there. In fact,
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: they have players on this roster. I think that's the
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: scary thing. When I was in College Park last year
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: watching warm-ups field level, they are an extremely talented roster.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: They're just not connected. They don't really have all the
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: things going at all times. If you're Nebraska, you don't
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: want Maryland to show up and play a connected game
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: because they have athletes on this roster. He can recruit.
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: That's not the downfall of Mike Loxley. It's just more
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: getting everything to kind of work together as a team
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: and You know, we've seen them, again, he's 3-0 in
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: bowl games there, which for Maryland is excellent. And he
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: won the Music City Bowl before, and he's had some
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: moments there. But it's just not been consistent because the
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: roster just hasn't played consistently over the time. Even though
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: there's some talent there on that roster, and they're backed
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: by Kevin Plank, who owns Under Armour.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and he has long been a very active supporter
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: of the program. I'm sure he has funded a lot
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: of their NIL initiatives. Got to have somebody like that.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: But it just seems to me that the issue is
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: staff and the issue is organization. Because you're right, they
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: have material there, and that's a major problem. When you
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: look at Malik Washington, you touched on him. This is
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: the really talented young quarterback who had moments last year
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: where he looked like a future NFL star. What happened
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: in that game against UCLA? He was just 18 of
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: 38 for 142 yards. Did he break up with his
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: girlfriend or something the night before?
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: What happened? Yeah, it's the one real outlier in his career.
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: He had not had a game that bad in his
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: two years. His completion percentage is still high, even with
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: that game on the numbers. But the pick sixes on
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: back-to-back drives, you don't see a pick six in a
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: year sometimes. He had two on back-to-back drives. Everything went
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: wrong that could have gone wrong for him. And Again,
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: he's an NFL quarterback, and if they were to make
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: a change at Maryland and he went into the portal,
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: he'd be a hot commodity. There'd be a lot of
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: people interested in Malik Washington, in the SEC, the ACC,
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: you name it. He'd get a lot of attention.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: Today, we released the injury report from the Big Ten.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: Is that right?
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we did. First of four straight days of it. So,
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: you know, the big ones are Jamal Rule, obviously, at
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: running back, and Ja'Cory Barney at wide receiver. You know,
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: Brennan Black left that game on the offensive line. Matt
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: Rule hinted that we could see Gunnar Gatula starting on
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: the O-line this week as a guard. And, you know,
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: Tree Babalade is a tackle who replaced Gatula and played
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: more snaps than Gatula in that game last week. So
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: there's a few things there to watch, what they do,
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: because Maryland will come in with very talented pass rushers.
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: I mean, they have a good defensive front of players
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: that will get after you. So Nebraska's O-line needs to
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: be in a position where, you know, they don't allow breakdowns.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: In this game.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: All right, big guy. We'll talk more about this tomorrow.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: That's KFB Husker Info. Strongman Sean Callahan. Remember, it's the
• 4:46
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• 4:49
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• 4:53
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