Following Friday night’s deflating loss and ahead of Maryland football’s homecoming game vs. USC, Maryland athletic director Damon Evans didn’t mince words about the state of the program on his weekly radio appearance on 105.7.
“We need to win a football game, and we got to get take care of business,” Evans said as he closed out the show.
Maryland football is still searching for its first Big Ten win of the season after falling to 3-3 vs. Northwestern on Friday night, including 2-2 at home so far this season. With head coach Mike Locksley taking over play-calling duties following the bye week, Maryland’s ten points marked its fewest since falling at Penn State, 30-0, back in Nov. of 2022. Ahead of its most anticipated matchup of the season, Evans noted the need for a turnaround.
“What we have to do – and I'm going to say to our fans out there, their disappointment, their frustration, it's warranted. They deserve to feel that way, because we owe them more, and we want to give them more, and we want to give them a better performance. So I'm not going to make any excuses as to why we are where we are, because what transpired last week, that's not acceptable. We've got to be better prepared moving forward. I don't point fingers anywhere. I think that's all of us who are involved with this program, and so our job is to get this thing fixed. This is not a fun time right now when you're sitting at 3-3 and we have higher expectations. Would I say that we're meeting the standard that I have? No, we're not meeting the standard that I have. And so I don't want fans to sit back and think that I'm taking this lightly, because, believe me, I'm not. I'm racking my brain each and every day. I'm trying to work with Locks on it each and every day. And we do have to have some very, very difficult and hard conversations when you have these types of things that happen within your program. I don't want to continue to say it's early in the season. It's a lot of football left to play. What I am going to say we need to get fixed what continues to plague us and ails us and those are a lot of things. I don't need to mention those right now because I think the fans are tired of hearing that, but I'm here to say that we're working at it and we're going to continue to work at it and we got to start doing things that make people feel proud of this program. Now, with that being said, I don't want people to forget, I don't like to dwell on the past, but I don't want people to forget that we have been building this thing. The prior three years have been very good years for us, relatively speaking, three straight bowl wins. And this year, I think when you start doing things at that type of level, then the expectations ramp up, and rightfully so. But I don't want us to jump off the bandwagon. I don't want us to give up, but there is a sense of urgency that we should have right now, and believe me, I have that sense of urgency.”
Evans also noted the need to “cut down on some of the chatter a little bit and have action” after the type of loss suffered coming out of the bye week.
“You’ve got to have action backing up words and unfortunately, that hasn't worked. I think that Locks, his feelings about his team, that's a good way – you should feel good about your team but you also have to realize when your team is not in a good place. You have to take a look at yourself in the mirror and reevaluate what we need to do to get better and then it's just resetting. We have to hit the reset button right now, you guys. We're 3-. We've got USC come in here, which is going to be a significant challenge. Make no mistake about it, but we need to put together a gameplan and do some things that make us look like we want to look. And we haven't looked like the team that we've all expected and that is something that needs to get fixed and that needs to get fixed quickly.”
More from Evans:
On Maryland basketball media day
“Like with any upcoming season, I'm excited about the opportunity that we have before us. I think you just mentioned that we have retooled the roster. The thing that's interesting about college basketball and a lot of sports nowadays, you just don't know what the other team's rosters look like because they've done the same thing. You don't have all the same players coming back for teams. So we really got to focus on what we do best and be prepared and start off on November 4 against Manhattan and come out and learn and grow over this time, so that when we do jump in the conference, we're ready to go. But I'm excited. We've got some really good new players. We've got some good freshmen coming in and some good returners. So I think Kevin Willard has done a good job of putting together a roster that will give us a great opportunity to have success this year.”
On whether this is the most balanced the Big Ten has been
“I do believe things are wide open. I think we're going to start finding out about teams earlier in the season as we get a chance to watch them play and scout him a little bit. But from where I sit, and make no mistake about it, I want to be one of those teams that's in the preseason top-25. Maryland basketball is significant, our rich history and tradition. I want to be that monster in the Big Ten. And I believe we will be. We've got some work to do ahead of us, but there's a lot of parity in college sports right now. I think we're seeing that across the board in football, and we're going to see it even more so in basketball as this season starts out. But with that being said, my expectations for basketball are high, and I know our fans expectations are high as well.”
On the Hall of Fame inductions on Saturday
“It is homecoming this weekend. A lot of activities going on and I want to encourage our fans to come out. This is when we need you. We need you through the tough times. It's easy to be on board when things are going great, but these young men still need your support and our support and we've got to believe in them and we've got to come cheer them on. But as far as homecoming, we're going to induct a Hall of Fame class, the 2024 Hall of Fame class. People like Lonnie Baxter, who will join this class? And Patty Corson Robbins and Patrick Mullins and Alyssa Thomas. I'm just excited about this Friday night for these individuals, and then we get to recognize Thea LaFond and Alyssa Thomas, both who won Gold medals in this year's Olympics. They will serve as our homecoming grand marshals. So the activities that are coming up, the support that's out there, we want to make sure that this campus is live vibrant, have some fun. But man, we need to win a football game and we got to get take care of business.”
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