Breaking down Terps' head coach Mike Locksley's presser before game against Illinois

It's time for Maryland football to turn the page on the disappointing loss against Rutgers. Now, they are turning their sights to Illinois, looking to end a five-game skid that has left them trying to salvage their season and gain bowl eligibility.

Locksley discussed how they are playing a top-five Big Ten team in scoring and scoring defense, which will be a tremendous challenge on the road, but one his team is excited and ready for.

Locksley continued praising his team, which has continued to show up and put in the work and effort despite the challenging second half of the season.

"They're coming in and putting in the work. There's nothing changing in that building, in the attitude, or in the way they've approached it. I can tell you that this team is trending in the right direction."

Maryland began the season 4-0 and had led entering the fourth quarter in three of its five losses. Those three games were against Washington, Nebraska, and UCLA in a row. The loss against Washington was the toughest of them all, leading 20-3, before allowing Washington to score 21 points straight in the fourth.

It's hard to think about that for Maryland fans because their football team could easily be 7-2 at worst, potentially coming in this game to play upsets this week and make a big statement against the No. 18-ranked Michigan Wolverines,

When asked about how important it is to get his group to be bowl eligible?

"I mean, it's to take advantage of the next opportunity. Obviously, the things that we can control is the ability to extend our season, which is something that you would want. Priority number one is to get back on the right track this week, and priority number two is how to build on it.

Have there been any player engagement issues?

Locksley described it simply, it has not, despite what others might think. He talked about how 64 Terps on this team weren't here a year ago, and they've built a culture, expectation, and foundation that won't let that happen again.

What has he seen from a player development standpoint?

"I've seen the growth in that when we [the coaches] emphasize something, they get it. "

"Before last week's game, I talked about how we needed to get the run game going, and we needed who to run the ball? Malik. Malik ran the ball, and the normal run game got going ."

Coach Locksley described it as a plugging holes type of thing that the coaches have had to teach the inexperienced players to do, and get to a point where they are doing it on their own. But he has liked how they've attacked it through the ups and downs this season.

Does he feel that he is coaching for his job in the past few weeks?

A plain, blunt answer from the coach: "No."

When asked whether he feels he deserves to be the head coach, Locksley responded, "Yes."

These were a couple of key points Locksley discussed, diving deep into the overall state of the football program and how they are managing it. Locksley dove into the approach for this week's game, things they could specifically fix, and questions about the seniors, which you can watch in the video linked above at the beginning of the article,

More from Maryland On SI

Stay up to date with the Terrapins by bookmarking Maryland On SI.