For the first time in five seasons, Maryland will prepare for a bowl game as the team remains patient to learn their fate. Head coach Mike Locksley said “it’s good and we expect more” during his appearance on Glenn Clark Radio, but there’s a reason why he’s happy to reach a bowl game this season.
“The 25 kids that we honored that have, not all of them have been here for the duration, but a quite a big amount of them have been here through an awful lot of things happen over their four-year, five-year window that to be able to send them out doing something that they've never accomplished before here is the special part that we will celebrate.”
Locksley did make sure to clarify the expectations for Maryland football following the season, though.
“Yeah, this is definitely the foundation.”
Even with a bowl game looming, the first week after the regular season finale has been a tough pill for fans to swallow as several underclassmen entered the transfer portal. Linebacker Branden Jennings and running back Peny Boone were the two notable additions that played a role in Maryland’s season that elected to play elsewhere, but they were far from the only ones as walk-on running back Rashard Jackson, defensive tackle Almosse Titi, offensive tackle Zach Perkins, wide receiver Deajaun McDougle, and linebacker Terrence Lewis have all announced to play elsewhere. Defensive end Joseph Boletepeli, running back Isaiah Jacobs, linebacker Frankie Burgess, and walk-on offensive tackle Mitchell Gorgas all entered their names during the season.
With hundreds of names entering the transfer portal across college football, Locksley is happy the transfer portal gives players the freedom over coaches, but he understands it’s a common occurrence in today’s game.
“The issue we face isn’t because of the portal, it's the immediate eligibility which now gives kids the ability that if they're in a place that they don't want to be, or if they're in a place where they don't feel they have the opportunity to get where they want to go, I think it's great that they have this opportunity and as a coach, you know, you'd be an idiot if you don't understand that yeah, you have to recruit your roster, but you also need to understand that I mean, every year I'm gonna lose 10% of my roster because of this new rule and that's okay.”
Maryland will host one transfer target this weekend when former Florida International guard Sione Finau makes his way to campus as Locksley admitted “the portal gives and the portal taketh away.”
“If you look at who left our program, we wish every last one of those guys well. We finished 6-6 and I think maybe two of them had anything statistically that helped us get to this point. And I can tell you, they're all great players or we wouldn't have recruited them but for whatever reason, if it wasn't a fit for them or fit for us, they have the opportunity to go find it and make it better and it helps our program because if a kid doesn't want to be here, it allows us to go get put guys that want to be here. So, it's a win-win.”
Maryland has seen players return to the program after entering the transfer portal, like linebacker Kam Blount, and Locksley specified why moves like that happen. “I've seen some kids make emotional decisions and do it, and then have second thoughts and if they're kids that have done things the right way in our program, I'll take that into account.”
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