Maryland football is set to kick off spring ball with practice number one set for this afternoon. The biggest storylines heading into the spring are centered around the quarterback and offensive line rooms, where Locksley added a second assistant in Damian Wroblewski to bolster the trenches alongside Brian Braswell. Meanwhile, Locksley himself will work with the quarterback room this upcoming season as the Terps are tasked with replacing record-breaking and four-year starter Taulia Tagovailoa under center. Mike Locksley took the podium on Tuesday to preview the 2024 Terps, what to expect in spring ball, staff changes and plenty more:
Opening statement
“We’re excited to get started with this ’24 iteration of what the Terps football family will look like. We’re in what we call our second phase of our program. We just got out of our winter conditioning, affectionately known as Terp Time where our players get bigger, smaller, faster. Coach [Ryan Davis] and his staff have done a tremendous job. Our nutritionist, Lauren, sports science people. Dr. Hall, Dr. Rooks…a lot of the things that go into our, winter conditioning program is where we basically set the foundation for our season. I feel really good about us coming out of that part of our season and now we go into the football phase. Spring ball. It’s here. Looking forward to being back on the field today for the first time. Our schedule has been the same since I’ve been here. We’re a Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, practice team, and do it this way. We start late, which gives us more time in our Terp Time season to get bigger, stronger, faster. We finished a little late, which allows us to really coach and teach in all three phases–offense, defense, special teams. So by having the Tuesday/Thursday schedule, it gives us a day in between each practice to make corrections, to install and to get things cleaned up, but I’m excited about the roster. Where it is today and how we continue to build this thing in terms of both talent and culture.
On ‘Baltimore Day’ with a practice set with Morgan State on April 6
“We’re taking a practice up to Morgan State, what’s also Baltimore Day. That Baltimore region of our state is an area that is really fruitful, has had a bunch of players that have come here and had great success. And so it’s an opportunity for us to take the Maryland football brand up to Baltimore which we haven’t done. We used to play a game every other year. I’d definitely like to get back to that, but we are taking one of our spring practices on Saturday, on April 6th up there and we’re partnering with coach Wilson. And they are gracious hosts up there for what’s known as Baltimore Day. We’re going to continue to work to do things like this to take the Maryland football brand throughout the DMV area.
On the 2024 coaching staff
“We’ve had tremendous continuity on our staff this year. As I’ve said before, we’re a developmental program so I expect to lose coaches. I expect that those players and staff. Because of the work that we’ve been able to do here and the success we’ve been able to have here. So to bring back eight of the ten coaches and all three coordinators allows for us to continue to have that continuity in all three phases. We’ve got a couple of new additions bring coach Aazaar back home to coach our corners and to work with the STAR position, which is our nickel position. Um, and then we also bring in coach [Wroblewski]. Came up from James Madison, I’ve known Wrobo for 15, 20 years. He’s one of those guys in this recruited this region and this area really well and just want to serve as our assistant o-line coach. And so adding two veteran coaches that have ties and experience to this DMV area was really important when we went to fill these positions. And I think we hit home runs with both of those hires. I’ll be taking on a larger role this year. Coach Gattis is going to coordinate from the receiver position and I’m actually going to go back into the quarterback room. I’ll work there with our graduate assistant, Eric Najarian who now [has] become a graduate assistant as we’ve lost Kyle Edwards, who took up coaching full-time position down at the University of Richmond. I’ll be going back in the quarterback room with such a big decision to be made. I’m excited to get back then and have a position group to coach and call my own. My message to the team as we ramp up the ‘24 season is it’s really important–we didn’t meet our expectations last year as a program. Our expectations going into the season. And we had four games that really kind of swayed us being able to meet the expectations and having gone back and studied those things, our program, our players and everybody that’s part of this thing understands that there are some things that we had control of that we didn’t take care of. And that did not allow us to meet the expectations that we have. As we move forward, our goal is to take that next step. And I said it a year ago, with the expansion of the playoffs to 12 this year and I think 14 in the next year. It’s a tremendous opportunity for the University of Maryland and a lot of people look at NIL and all these things and thinks it’s an issue. I see it as a great opportunity for us as a program. And it’s not just, as I’ve said before, it’s not just on me as the head coach or our staff or our players. So now we actually get to allow our supporters, our fans to all have some skin in the game. So I’m excited about this upcoming spring. Excited to get started.”
On the upcoming QB battle
“I’ve seen the work all really hard in the offseason conditioning program. But as we know, that has nothing to do with playing quarterback. And so from a leadership standpoint, those guys have worked their tails off. They play a natural leadership position but this is where I’ll get to start throwing some opinions on what I’ve seen.”
On whether it’s an open competition at QB through the spring
“I can’t make it any clearer for you. So nobody asks me again. I can’t make it any clearer. That’s why I’m going into the room. I have no idea who my starting quarterback is. All right. No idea who my starting quarterback is. I’m looking forward to figuring it out and you will be able to ask me that the Tuesday before UConn, you’ll get it answered.”
On how Wroblewski and Braswell team up along the OL
“I’ve had two [offensive] line coaches before in my career. I had two of my coaches at New Mexico, had centers, guards tackles, tight ends. That is a position group, if you do research on it, man it is a lot of moving parts with the offensive line. And there’s no doubt in our mind that we look at what and where we need to take the next step as a program to get to that next step or to take the next step, it’s upfront. In the Big Ten, you win in the trenches. And I saw us make significant gains in the trenches on the defensive side of the ball a year ago. The way our defensive front played. And we’ve recruited really hard and really well to develop. We have some really young guys. I think we signed 10 high school offensive line because we’re going to continue to recruit high schools to develop our culture from freshmen to seniors, hopefully. We know with the changing landscape that’s not always the case, but adding Wrobo to the mix allows us to develop that position faster. I can’t wait and Brian’s has done a tremendous job. We’ve had four NFL guys the last couple of years with I think DJ [Glaze] and Gotti [Ayedze] both having chances to get drafted and seeing Spencer [Anderson] make the Steelers, see Jaelyn [Duncan] down with the Titans. So for us to take the next step, I thought it was important to invest in and it allowed me to go back into the quarterback room.”
On the feeling of not having Taulia Tagovailoa around the program
“It’s been weird only because we had such a close relationship. As I said, we’ve watched every practice for four years he was here together from 10 o’clock at night to sometimes one in the morning. And he and I have grown up together. He as a quarterback, me as a head coach and it was a good four-year run, but you know what, all good things come to an end. We’re excited with the guys that we have in that room for. We’re recruited some really good guys. We’ve got a great opportunity to develop that room and see if we can continue to build on a foundation that Lia has had a part in laying.”
On if he looks at the new QBs to replicate what Taulia did
“You just look at his playmaking ability. His ability to extend plays. This guy left here as the all-time leading passer in this league. I know it’s really disturbing at times you hear the hate sometimes that maybe he received. But he did his part for what we brought him here to do, which is to lay of tremendous foundation for us to grow a, build this program into a championship type program. So really thankful for that.”
On evaluating the complete QB room
“Understand that if I just talk about three of them, I have three parents emailing me saying, well, I guess I’m not in the mix. So I’d rather go through them all, do it the right way, because this truly–I am excited about it, which is why I’m going to the room.”
On where the OL stands heading into the spring
“That’s the question. I mean it’s a lot of new faces now. I think that what we have shown over the last couple of years is our ability to evaluate. A year ago, we brought in a guy in from North Carolina Central, Corey Bullock was an all-conference player there and he started every game in the Big Ten and competed at really high level. I think he’s a guy that you’ll see playing on Sundays. We brought in Gotti Ayedze in who was a Division Two guy down at Frostburg State, started four years and he’s invited to the combine. We’re losing some really talented guys, but we also bringing back a few talented guys, and that’s where our investment in bringing a second o-line in is to really help the growth because you bring in a guy like [Aliou] Bah from Georgia. He understands our system because obviously Georgia is from the same football tree or the football family. But we do it a little bit differently here. We’ve got some talent, we’re just young. We gotta grow them up fast and nobody wants to hear that and it’s my job to do it. And so we’ve made some decisions to kind of help and how that position group goes, I think will dictate quite a bit about our season.”
On what Locksley is looking to clean up in the spring
“I think it’s no secret that we didn’t run the ball as well as we probably needed to run the ball to win games in the Big Ten. We relied heavily on our quarterback and the skill that we have…you studied what the last couple of champions in this league has been able to do Michigan. They lined up and they run the ball. Does that mean that Maryland is going to become ground Terps? No, but I’m always big on, if you can’t hit the curve ball, you got to work to figure out how to hit the curve ball. For us, the next step is being able to run the ball to control the tempo of the game. Maybe the finish some games out. Maybe to start a little quicker. We faced weather issues in the Big Ten late in the season. I can remember playing in Wisconsin a couple of years ago where the wind was blowing sideways, 80 miles per hour. You’ve got to line up and be able to move people off the line of scrimmage. And that’ll be my point of emphasis for us to take the next step, it’s in the trenches and offensively. We’ve got to grow our guys.”
On what a successful spring looks like for the QB room
“I think one staying healthy. Two, I want to see great competition. Competition has been the key to us having success we’ve had here because we had great competition at a lot of positions over the years. What I’ve seen, the secret sauce is the more competitive each position or each room is, usually you see the best. I saw that in our running back room a year ago. We had three guys that were like starters, that all competed and we got better there. We didn’t have great depth along the [offensive] line and so when you look at the quarterback position, I think one, to be the starting quarterback here starts by protecting the football. And. That’s going to play pretty heavily in the metrics as we start looking at, hey, who’s protecting the ball event best in scrimmages, live situations. You’ll see quarterbacks live in the spring because it’s one thing to stand back there and a yellow Jersey protected because of the color of your jersey. It’s another thing knowing that now you’re live meat and I can be hit. And I want to see how guys react and respond under live bullets. Protecting the football. Every drive in and a kick, whether it’s a field goal or a punt or an extra point, those are the things that dictate the quarterback.”
On Eric Najarian helping out in the QB room
“Eric’s a GA. He’s a graduate assistant so he’ll have a lot of other duties, but he also is very familiar with the system. He grew up in the system from the time I got here in 2019, he was part of it. I’ve seen tremendous growth. He’s going to be a big-time coach and we had the same out of Kyle Edwards a year ago. Kyle was with me at Bama, knew the system. I kind of have a recipe that I like. Eric being in that room with me gives me a chance to coach and groom him as he grows as a coach. But also it gives me a bird’s eye view as to that room and how they prepare, how much film they’re watching and what are the things they’re doing to prepare for practices and how they go out and execute. So I’m excited about Eric being with me in the room. And again, we lost a great piece of our staff with Kyle leaving and going to Richmond, but you know what, I’m happy for Kyle and his family that he gets a chance to be a full-time coach. I wouldn’t be surprised if you see him back here one day.”
On Perry Fisher
“Perry’s one of those guys that has kind of grown up fast. He was a quarterback at high school that were recruited to be a receiver and then he requested to go over to the defensive side and redshirted, didn’t play very much as a freshman as he transitioned to a new position per se. But what I saw as those practices that we had leading up to a bowl game, I say this every year with how we develop our team, I saw the light go on for Perry. He’s a guy that has length and size. He can run. He can play corner. He could play the star position for us and I think he can play safety so very versatile guy. And what I’m hoping to see is the maturity because of the time he spent in our program translates to consistency from him. And that’s the big thing for us. Perry’s a good player and has a chance to help us, but we need to see it consistently in every day, every part of his life.”
On the growth of Terp Time and offseason workouts
“You know, the brotherhood is forged and developed going through tough stuff together. I didn’t invent this, this Terp Time program has a history where it started back at Michigan State. And I know coach Saban, having worked there as an assistant and he took it to Bama. I mean the programs that utilize that system or that recipe, you look at the success they have. So for me, the brotherhood that’s developed going through tough stuff together. How our strength and conditioning staff develops them and a lot of times we put a lot on the physical, but it’s the mental component. And that to me is the part of the game where I think we’ve been able to maybe gain a slight edge is from how we approach every team in our league and it’s because of the work we do during Terp Time with our strength and conditioning program. And the way it’s set up, it’s the foundation for any success that we’ve had.”
On the photo of Locksley flexing with the team inside Jones-Hill House
“It allows a lot of negative comments about me. I don’t read comments. Alana, my assistant is back here. She’s like batting away, fat boy, put your shirt on, man boobs. The story behind that is I was walking after our 6:00 AM workout walking through the weight room and they were taking the picture that they take at the end of Terp Time. And a player said coach you afraid to take your shirt off? And I’ve never been a guy that isn’t confident. So took my shirt off, walked in, took the picture. I am who I am.”
On the upcoming spring transfer portal
“If you’re just starting to figure that out now, you’re late. We study our roster. We’ve built a personnel office that’s led by Merci Falaise, our general manager. We’ve continued to build that side of our football building. It’s the landscape we’re in. Assistant coaches get a lot of credit for recruiting and signing players, but a lot of this work is being done behind the scenes, evaluating. We recruit three classes at a time–the upcoming seniors that are juniors now, the sophomores, as well as the freshmen that have potential. And so we’re prepared for the cloud. We’re going to lose I used to say 20 to 30% of our roster, but the way the landscape is shown me is I’ve got a new team every year. We’re going to recruit the foundation of our team from high school. I just got finished on our staff. Every meeting we have with our team is a recruiting meeting because you’re recruiting every player in our program every single day. We have free agency every day, because until they put some guardrails around the portal, being able to leave when you want, come when you want. We’ve just got to be prepared and I can tell you right now, it’s created a lot more work for my personnel office because we have to have a huge board. I always used to say Maryland was an 8-to-1 offer to commit ratio school. I’ve been at schools where it’s 2-to-1 like Alabama, where every time I offer two kids, I get one commit. So you get ten guys, you gotta recruit 80. To get 20, you gotta recruit 160. Those are large numbers and Merci and his staff have done a tremendous job, coach [Brian] Griffin who’s our chief of staff of making sure we have enough names and we understand our fans need to understand that I’ve learned to understand that we’re going to lose players to the portal. Some we want to lose some we don’t. I always say the portal giveth and it taketh but I think if you looked at how we’ve been able to replace guys that leave, we usually improve ourselves as much as we can. Not that every player that left doesn’t go have success, but I think we always do a pretty good job of having people to come in and wear this Terp uniform and represent us.”
On what to expect with the CB room
“One, I’m looking for them to cover the man that they’re responsible for covering and executing the techniques. Coach Aazaar has been really demanding of that group. He’s got a young group that kind of like when you’re raising young kids, you’ve got to hold them to the line in every part of their life. And we’ve got a talented group and it’s a lot of fast, long, athletic. So that room is the one that has a lot of competition in that room. I’m excited for it. We got the right guy coaching it. I’m excited to see that group of any group. That’s the one that a year ago, I talked about the young running back room. Well, this young corner room has potential.”
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