COLLEGE PARK — On Thursday, families across the country will come together for their Thanksgiving meals, as will members of the Maryland football team.
Wide receiver D.J. Moore, a freshman, said his mother plans to visit from Philadelphia. Defensive tackle Quinton Jefferson is in charge of making macaroni and cheese for his family's dinner.
During his weekly news conference Tuesday, interim coach Mike Locksley was asked what he was thankful for despite a season that hasn't gone as planned for the 2-9 Terps.
Locksley chuckled, then talked about his feelings about the Terps' failure and the effort he has seen while interim coach.
"As we often times say to our guys, football is the closest thing to the real world. That's where everything doesn't always go as planned and what you've got to be able to do is overcome adversity or manage success.
"Great life lessons will be taken from this season. I know me as a coach, there's always things that I'm learning from the opportunity. You can learn a lot through failure because it gives you experiences that the next time you're faced with them, you should be prepared.
"Our players, I'm very thankful, they had every opportunity to just lay down, quit, not show up and play with the energy and pride we try to instill in them. To a man, I've never questioned, since I took over the Penn State week, our effort, the way we prepared. Obviously, we haven't executed at the way we need to execute to win ballgames. But that will come at some point.
"These guys have continued to fight for us, and that's what I'm thankful for because these guys, again, it isn't easy. When you go through what we go through under the microscope, a lot of people in life have the opportunity to have their failures be private.
"Unfortunately in the sports business, it's magnified and these are 18- to 22-year-old kids that are maturing. I think they've handled it tremendously. I'm very proud of these guys."
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