Mike Locksley says Michigan football sets the standard for the Big Ten

Michigan football starts Big Ten play this Saturday when it hosts Maryland. Both teams will walk onto the field undefeated at 3-0 on the season.

The Wolverines are 8-1 against the Terps and the maize and blue have won the last five contests against Maryland. Last year, Michigan won the meeting, 59-18 in a dominating fashion.

Maryland coach Mike Locksley says that his team has nothing to lose going to Ann Arbor on Saturday. He called Michigan a really good team and anytime that you go on the road against a reigning conference champion, it’s never going to be an easy task — but an opportunity.

“We now shift our attention to conference play, and we open with the reigning conference champion on the road,” said Locksley. “An unbelievable opportunity for us as a program. I talked to our team yesterday a little bit about going up to Michigan, going up to Ann Arbor. We have nothing to lose. We’re going to face the reigning champ, and we’ll get a really, really good team.”

The Terps are one of the most penalized teams in the nation. Maryland has 31 penalties against it in the three games the Terps have played. Both Charlotte and Houston lead the country with 32. Mike Locksley talked about how well-coached the Wolverines are and how physical they are. He gave credit to Jesse Minter, the defensive coordinator while saying that the Wolverines run an exotic third-down package that is hard to go up against.

“They’re well coached,” said Locksley. “They’re one of the least-penalized teams — opposite of us. One of the least-penalized teams. They play a physical brand of football. They’ve got playmakers across the board on the offensive side of the ball. Defensively, they lost a bunch of guys, but when you watch them in the first three games, they play very physical. They’ve got an exotic third-down package which tells us we’ve got to be very good on first and second downs in terms of keeping that blitz package off the field. And…