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Michael Locksley shares challenges of facing Michigan offense with JJ McCarthy at QB
By Michael Daly
Published:
Michael Locksley discussed the upcoming challenge of going up against Michigan quarterback JJ McCarthy.
McCarthy will run Michigan’s offense going forward and Locksley will have to plan on McCarthy’s style of play in Michigan’s offense. After 2 weeks of finalizing a starter, Michigan decided upon McCarthy as the team’s starting quarterback for the rest of the season.
Michigan’s offense will have a different focus with McCarthy running it. Locksley spoke about what he is expecting to see from Michigan’s offense (Via On3):
“Their philosophy is, they want to run the football,” Locksley said. “They have explosive playmakers on the perimeter. J.J. is an explosive playmaker with his feet and his arm, and they’ll feature the quarterback run because of that ability.”
In Michigan’s last game, McCarthy was successful throwing the ball against Connecticut, but the running game was the focal point of the offense. Michigan running back Blake Corum rushed for 71 yards and 5 touchdowns. For this week’s game, Locksley is ready to prepare for the running game and McCarthy’s passing ability:
“They play to his strengths but he also has shown the propensity that when you commit to stop him as a runner, he can take the shots that came off of the play-actions down the field, where they have talented receivers. The Bell kid (Ronnie Bell), No. 14 (Roman Wilson), fast, fast player. (A.J.) Henning. They’ve got a bunch of talented perimeter players.”
Maryland will take on Michigan in Ann Arbor on Saturday at 12 p.m. ET.