Maryland football linebacker Shane Cockerille guessed the news about cornerback Will Likely’s knee injury wouldn’t be positive. Throughout last week, Cockerille and the Terps waited to hear about Likely’s prognosis after he left the team’s game against Minnesota in the second quarter.
After a week of testing and deferred comments, the news of Likely’s season-ending torn right ACL broke Friday. The Terps knew they had to regroup.
With their defensive and special teams ace’s college career cut short, the team’s young secondary banded together to beat Michigan State and ensure Likely’s absence wasn’t in vain.
“Losing Will Likely on this team, I mean, you would think, ‘Just deflate the sails. Everybody head down,'” Durkin said. “Or you can take the response of, ‘Let’s not let this guy down. We love him so much that we’re going to make sure we don’t make it all for naught. We’re going to go play hard for him.'”
“That’s the approach they took.”
Alvin Hill, the lone senior contributor left in the defensive backfield, said the unit grew tighter. Senior safety Denzel Conyers had already torn his ACL during the Terps’ nonconference slate, and the number of players in the secondary room shrunk again.
“He makes up a big part of the team, not just the DBs,” Hill said, “so we have to be a stronger bunch than ever to make up for the absence.”
But before the group had a chance to holding Michigan State quarterback Brian Lewerke to 156 passing yards, it lost another starter.
Less than two minutes into the game, Lewerke rolled out of the pocket, rushed down the sideline and dove out of bounds. He slid into safety Darnell Savage Jr.’s left leg. The sophomore fell, writhing on the ground.
Savage limped off the field with trainers moments later, and he didn’t return to the contest. Durkin didn’t have an update on his injury after the game.
“He’s continuing to be examined,” Durkin said on a conference call Monday, “and [will] be decided as we go through the week.”
In Savage’s place, freshman safety Qwuantrezz Knight stepped in, lining up alongside junior safety Josh Woods, Conyers’ replacement. Meanwhile, sophomore RaVon Davis, a former walk-on, played the majority of the snaps at slot corner in Likely’s place.
Durkin called the reserves’ performances “up and down.” He pointed to the 48-yard touchdown run from Spartans running back LJ Scott midway through the second frame as an example of the secondary over pursuing the rush up the middle before Scott bounced to the outside and streaked down the sideline.
But on similar situations later in the game, the Terps adjusted to avoid the lapse.
“Our coaching staff did a good job of not freaking out on them, just coaching and correcting what needed to be corrected, and they made the corrections,” Durkin said. “There was some routes down the field they did hit us on. A couple they didn’t, but, I mean, again, my whole thing was ‘Play hard. Play fast. You’ll make up for that stuff.'”
The secondary’s more experienced players helped settle the unit, forcing turnovers to halt two Spartans drives.
On coach Mark Dantonio’s squad’s second possession, Hill tracked a deep ball and hauled in an interception. Ten plays and 96 yards later, Maryland’s offense opened an 8-0 lead. Then, on Michigan State’s opening drive of the second half, cornerback JC Jackson forced a fumble in the red zone to deny the Spartans’ bid for the lead.
The two plays helped the Terps limit the Spartans to 17 points after allowing an average of 34.5 in their previous two losses. Still, Likely’s void wasn’t far from their minds.
“Before the game, we were all kind of talking about him because he’s a big part of this team,” wide receiver Levern Jacobs said. “He was just in our prayers.”
