Jim Smith on Maryland football's coaching search, parting with Mike Locksley, next steps

2 hours ago

5 min read

Everything that athletic director Jim Smith said prior to introducing Maryland football interim head coach Aazaar Abdul-Rahim:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLUfr1f5SAI

Opening Statement

"I just want to start off by publicly thanking Coach [Mike] Locksley for his 18 years here at Maryland. The last eight is our head coach. He's been nothing but a professional through his whole time here at the University of Maryland and I just want to wish him, Kia, and their family all the best. So just want to start with that.

But now it's time to turn our focus towards the future and the future of our program, which starts right now. I'm going to introduce Aazaar [Abdul-Rahim] here in just a few minutes, who you're going to get to know here and I think you're really going to you're really going to like. But I wanted to take this time to address some of the questions that you may have.

So when looking at, let me start off with about the coaching search and what we're looking for in our candidates. And let me start off by saying, the Maryland is an incredibly attractive job. The volume of inbound calls and texts have been enormous. There's not an agency that represents coaches that hasn't already reached out with a possible candidate. So know that this is a very, very, very attractive job. The leader that we're looking for, our next leader we're looking for, who is an exceptional leader, who understands how to build a program and build a program in today's environment. Or have been part of building a program in today's college environment. As you all know, college is very different today than what it was just a few years ago and you need to understand Rev Share, NIL, and the management of those players going forward in order to be successful. Accountability and commitment to academic is still an incredibly important part of this job. It's not secondary; it's an equal to what we need to accomplish at the University of Maryland. Not just win games, be competitive, but produce young men with degrees and that is going to be something that continues to be important here at Maryland. We want someone who can embrace Maryland, connect with our community, understands the DMV, understands the importance of the DMV while building a successful program. Like I mentioned, this job is highly sought after. It is an exciting opportunity for our staff, for the staff that we currently have to make a difference going forward. And we're going to do that. And I'm going to tell everyone here that this is, specifically to our fans, we will get a really good coach. We are committed to compete at the absolute highest level. And we're going to find the resources to be able to do that."

On why Smith moved on from Locksley midway through the bye week

"I'm not going to get into the details and the specifics on the timeline, but I can tell you that Coach Locksley and I spoke often throughout this period of the process to create as smooth a transition as possible. So I was fortunate enough to be [in the middle of] the bye week, so there wasn't the immediate urgency. There aren't also a lot of bye week changes. As you saw this week, there were two coaches let go, and it was immediate. So I had a little bit more time. I wanted to make sure we weren't making -- I was not making an emotional decision and we came to the right conclusion for the program when we announced on Wednesday."

On the timeline to get a new HC in place, expectations for AAR

"So I'll let Aazaar talk a little bit more about kind of what we've discussed about success, but I'll talk about the timeline. I think in today's college athletics, you're going to talk to many different candidates, and that's actually going to dictate the timeline. So we're going to move with urgency, but we won't have an artificial deadline to say, 'hey, we have to have a coach by X.' A lot of that is dictated by the candidates that you're going to talk to and and who might be available. So I think that's really going to be how we're going to approach the search."

Whether Big Ten experience matters in the search

"No, understanding the Big Ten and how to win in the Big Ten is going to be critical. So that doesn't necessarily mean say you have had to coach in the Big Ten, but you definitely are going to have to articulate how we're going to be able to compete and how you understand what the Big Ten represents and how you're going to compete in the Big Ten."

Whether AAR is being considered, candidates pitched to Maryland

"[Aazaar] will definitely be considered. So that's the easy part of that answer. The second part of that will be the the coaching net, what we're gonna look for is all over. So it'll be Power Two, Power Four, [Group of] Six, coaches from all of those, assistant coaches look in the professional ranks. We won't leave any stone unturned. We're also gonna engage a search firm to help us in that, which we haven't announced yet. But we will have a search firm to help us in that process."

On president Darryll Pines, his input in the process

"So I talked to Daryll a lot. So we are in alignment. We're in alignment on the decision and the timing, and we'll continue to be in alignment going forward. I think you're going to you hear that word a lot in college athletics, alignment, and I think between the athletic director and the president, we have good alignment, and hopefully we'll add the coach to that as well."

Reason for confidence in AAR, who Jim Smith leans on for advice

"I'm very confident Aazaar is the right guy, but let me let me save that for my intro, if that's okay. On who I lean on in the search, we all have a network that -- I have a pretty deep professional NFL network. Diana [Sabau] got a really deep collegiate network. So I think between the two of us, we've got a really strong network. And then you add in the search firm along with it, and we feel really confident that we're going to have covered the entire landscape to be able to find us the right coach."

On the conversation with Mike Locksley to part ways

"I hate to say this, but that's a real private conversation. Coach Locksley and I have worked really closely together for 15 years, and I think I'll just leave that between us. Like I said, though, he was an incredible professional throughout the entire process."

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