UCLA's Tim Skipper Breaks Down Maryland Scouting Report

In preparation for what Tim Skipper hopes to be another big week, the Bruins' interim head coach eloquently broke down his Maryland scouting report on his weekly appearance on the Bruin Insider Show.

• "First off, coach [Mike] Locksley, he does a great job, man," Skipper said. "He does a really good job. He'll have his guys motivated and ready to go. I know they'll come out here juiced up. As far as them, there's a lot of things that stick out.

• "Athletes. They have serious athletes on the team. I don't care if it's offense, defense, special teams; they have some real athletes. They use a lot of guys. They're using young guys. They have a lot of young freshmen, sophomore-type guys out there playing and playing hard. So, we're going to have to match their athleticism. That's the major thing that stuck out to me."

Skipper On Maryland's Offense

As he does every week, Skipper started with his in-depth breakdown of the opposing offense.

• "Offensively starts with the quarterback," Skipper added. "They have a good one. He's a freshman and he's playing really well. You wouldn't know that he's a freshman watching the tape. He handles a lot of situations. Some people try to beat him up. He makes them pay. People sitting in the zones, he makes them pay. Man-to-man, he recognizes and takes shots. He does a really good job. And after saying all that, he can also run. So, he's a good player. He's going to challenge us in a lot of ways.

• "They're doing a lot of stuff formationally. They're trying to mess with you. Like, they'll take their offensive tackles and flex them out as wideouts, and then they'll shift them back, or they'll keep them out there. We have a lot of stuff that we have to get ready for. They're going to do the modern offense stuff, but they also go under center and give us the two-back stuff. So, we're going to get a lot of different stuff from those guys.

• "Their pass game is real quick getting the ball out, so there's not a lot of sacks. So, they're going to still run the ball. We're going to have to stop the run. We have a major challenge ahead of us. The receivers are really, really good. Their O-line's huge and big, so are the tight ends. We're going got have a challenge as far as being able to contain those guys."

Skipper On Maryland's Defense

• "Defense. I started out with athletes," Skipper said. "There's some serious athletes over there. They apply a lot of pressure to quarterbacks. They are big-time in getting sacks. They don't blitz a lot, so they're just getting there with four guys, and they're doing it at a high level. I think they're 24 sacks on the year already. I think it's first in the Big Ten, so they're doing a really, really good job of just beating tackles and guards and knowing where your slide protection is and adjusting off of it.

• "And they can run. I mean, they can really run. The linebackers are very physical. The DBs step up to the plate and tackle, too. There's not a lot of broken tackles that are happening out there, so we have a major, major challenge. They're not going to get too cute. Third down, everybody has a variation of cuteness, but on the base downs, they're going to line up and they're going to go and they're going to see if you're better than them.

• "And they are well-coached. It's a sound defense, it's a sound offense, and we're going to have to bring it. That's how I see it."