Maryland football wore sweatsuits on its walk to SECU Stadium for the first time in over eight years on Saturday.
The Terps lost to Illinois 20-17, but based on comments from the team, the game felt like the best it has been in a long time.
Under Abdul-Rahim, the Terps are playing under new rules, and those rules are bringing life to the team.
“Coach is big on how bad do you love football or how much you love football, how bad do you want to win,” Washington said. “And that’s something we’re talking about, so whether it’s being comfortable before the games, things like that, just taking the suits out, putting the sweats on is one less thing you have to worry about.”
Playing free and comfortable has been the emphasis of Abdul-Rahim’s short tenure at the helm of Maryland football.
Scruggs and Washington both had more energy than in previous games, and they both talked about the comfort level under Abdul-Rahim.
“That was one of Azar’s biggest things. … He wanted us to play free. He wanted us to feel good,” defensive back Lavian Scruggs said when asked about the team’s unity and freedom under Abdul-Rahim.
Scruggs said that players would be cursing in the locker room after a game like this, but not today.
“From this game, guys in the locker room came together even stronger … times like this, you see guys separate, and that locker room has gotten stronger,” Scruggs said.
On Tuesday, defensive end Sidney Stewart talked about Abdul-Rahim’s new philosophy, VTE: Violence, technique and effort.
During the game, the process was apparent. The defense did better than normal on third down and allowed fewer passing and rushing yards than its average in Big Ten play. The Terps defense also allowed 20 points compared to the 46 they normally concede in conference play.
“VTE means something to us. Everyone is VTE on third down, and I’ll say like that was the biggest thing right there, man. Everyone just doing their job,” Scruggs said.
Maryland doesn’t play a conference foe with a record under .500 for the rest of the season, but look for the Terps to bring a new level of performance to their remaining games as they fight to keep their bowl game hopes alive.
