Jim Smith on Maryland football's coaching search, desirable traits, resources

18 hours ago

5 min read

Athletic director Jim Smith joined 105.7 on Thursday to talk more about Maryland football’s coaching search, what he’s looking for, resources available and more:

State of the football program

“I just want to thank Coach Locksley, Kia and the Locksley family for their 18 years and two stints here at the University of Maryland. We've got a lot of great coaches here. He loved and loves Maryland and that was a really tough day on Wednesday, having that conversation because he's done quite a bit for this program over his time here. And there's a solid foundation to build upon and we're moving forward. That’s been the message that we've been delivering, is that we're moving forward. Aazaar [Abdul-Rahim] has really stepped up and stepped into the role and I'm really excited to see how the team responds this week when we play Illinois.”

Why the search firm

“Always good to have a search firm in the process to do a lot of the legwork that you just don't have time to do. The amount of interest in this position is significant. We still are running a program here, so having the help in doing a lot of the legwork and background to get us ready to have all these conversations is really, really helpful. [TurnkeyZRG managing partner] Chad Chatlos at this firm has done this at a lot of big programs. He's definitely a leader in this space. He did a number of these searches last year and has also done some NFL work as well. So I think we're in good company in having them part of the team as we do this evaluation.”

On the appeal of the job

“Let me start with your first point on the DMV. I think Aazaar actually has said this, exactly to your point, there is so much good talent in the DMV. Everybody comes here, and you have to be really smart in how you're going to recruit in the DMV. And I think Coach Locksley did an excellent job here and I think our next coach will do an excellent job here. But it'll also have to broaden our approach to recruiting talent from other places than just the DMV. The DMV will always be important, but we also have to understand that the fertile ground means we're always going to have a lot of people in our backyard. Now, part of it is hey, making this a destination and I think that's what we tried to do in this past offseason [in] retaining our top talent and making this a destination to stay at home. And I think we started down that path in many of our sports and we'll continue to work really hard to do that going forward where we can compete with everybody else who's coming into the market. And I do think we were under-resourced in the past, and I am going to tell the new coach that we're going to have resources to compete – maybe that we didn't have in the past. I think that this is a Big Ten job. Look, at the end of the day, there's two power conferences in this country. This is a Big Ten job, and it's a Big Ten job in a big market that loves football. And if we get it going in the right direction, then we're going to have sustained success. I think Coach Locksley said we can win here, but it hasn't been, it's really hard to sustain. He's right. Our job is to figure out how to make this sustainable success for a long period of time. And part of that is the resources piece, and I think that's really, since the day I've gotten here, that's been the part that I've been focused on, is getting us the resources so we can compete in the Big Ten. And that's part of the sales pitch to come here. We’ve got a fertile recruiting ground, a great opportunity, more resources, really good facilities, like really good facilities, in order for our team to practice and compete. And when you put all those things together, I think we can be successful.”

What Jim Smith is looking for in next head coach

“Yeah, I think we are looking for a program builder and/or someone who's been part of building a program. I think you have to understand today's NIL world and how it works, and how it works to not just allocate resources, to use the portal, to recruit high school, to put your roster together. It's a complex challenge and someone who's done that at a place and built a program and had a sustained winning record at a program, I think is a really important component. I think the other piece is you got to understand what the Big Ten is all about. How hard it is to compete in the Big Ten week in and week out, and have a strategy to compete in the Big Ten. You also have to have a pipeline to really good assistants. I think when we look at candidates, the head coach is only one piece of it. The assistant coaches are really important to [the] success of programs and you can look at programs around the country now that have spent a lot of money and maybe aren't having the success that they had. And you have to look top to bottom. It isn't always just the head coach. It's all things considered. So you really want to understand that assistant coach piece and support staff that they are interested in having and how that's going to work in the Big Ten.”

On the resources to put together a full staff

“That's a great question, Vinny, and that's what we're working on right now to make sure that when we go out to the market and we're talking to coaches that we have all our numbers aligned and ready to go and so that they can see what we have and how we're going to be able to compete in the Big Ten.”

Basketball season approaching + non-rev update

“It's happening now. This is the crossover season. We've got a lot going on. It'll be a fun day at SECU on Halloween for football. We got men's basketball taking it off on Monday against Bucknell. Don't forget, hey, I can't wait to see both you guys tonight at midnight for the Midnight Mile that we have. We'll see over at Ludwig Fields at the track over there for the Midnight Mile. Then really looking forward to seeing Brenda's team play South Carolina and Paris. We've got our field hockey team number two in the country playing Iowa here tomorrow afternoon. Men's soccer's on the road at Washington, and then finishes up next Wednesday at home. Just a lot going on here. And then, hey, a shoutout to our women's golf team who won the Invitational in South Carolina this past weekend. So it's really good here in College Park. We got a lot of good stuff, and hope to see all our fans out here sometime this week.”

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