Rapid Reaction: Mike Locksley couldn't have asked for a better debut as Maryland pummels Howard
Final Score: Maryland 79 Howard 0
Brief Recap: Remember when Josh Gattis challenged Mike Locksley, saying it was him who ran the Alabama offense? Yeah, pretty sure Locksley was the one running that show. Maryland poured it on Howard in the season opener, scoring early and often in a 79-0 victory to open the year 1-0. Nine different Terrapins had a touchdown to their name and the defense didn’t allow a single point. Welcome to College Park, Mr. Locksley.
Key Moment: You can just pick any of the 11 touchdowns you want, honestly. This was just an all-around dominant performance from start to finish. The Terrapins just couldn’t be stopped.
Key Stat: How about this, Maryland had 306 passing yards and 317 rushing yards. That’s pretty good balance, and shows the Terps can move the football in a number of ways. That’s good in a conference where being one-dimensional is a serious issue. Six players accounted for at least 50 yards in receiving or rushing, as well.
Key Player: Josh Jackson gets the credit here for stepping in immediately and making a difference for the Terrapins. He threw four touchdown passes and had 245 passing yards while completing 15-of-24 attempts. He didn’t even need to use his legs in the win.
What it Means: With the talent Maryland has offensively, this is a team capable of scoring a lot of points. A lot. In case you already forgot, they dropped 79 Saturday. Doing that against Howard doesn’t really prove much, other than Locksley knows how to drop up some good plays against inferior opponents. We should get a much better idea of how good this team really is next week against Syracuse.