Maryland AD Jim Smith on football program, Locksley's criticism, year two of Buzz Williams, fall + winter sports

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Maryland AD Jim Smith joined 105.7 for his weekly interview on Thursday, diving into the state of the football program, year two of Buzz Williams and other developments surrounding the fall and winter sports:

On the state of the football program

“No one was happy, obviously, with the result from this past weekend. And we've quickly turned the attention to Nebraska and really getting everybody's minds right to go on the road and play in a really tough place in Lincoln and do the things that we were doing early in the year and in that second half of that Virginia Tech game. We know there's talent, we know we can coach, we got to put it all together and go on the road and get a victory. That's the message internally, and that's what we're going to go do.”

On the constant criticism surrounding Locksley

“Hey Bob, are you Terpsfan1234, online? I get it all the time. We all do. It's part of the job. You know it when you get into it. It doesn't matter what sport and it doesn't matter how you're doing. Someone's always got a passionate thought on what they think we can do better. They're going to share it and we have to accept that that's part of the role in this position. And to use it in the right way, and then to just go out there and compete as best we possibly can. It's part of it. It's going to be part of it. You're going to get it internally and externally, and you just have to learn how to deal with it.”

On his midweek convo with Locksley

“No, I mean, like I think Coach said it earlier in the week. We had our normal Monday meeting. I went over and visited with everybody Sunday in the building. It's about getting people to put that game behind us and go out and do what we're capable of doing. And we wouldn't be in this – we believe in the roster that we have and we got to go out and perform in Nebraska.”

On the homecoming game

“That's homecoming so there's always a lot of homecoming celebrations. We're looking forward to having all our alumni come back. Another big student section that will be out there and creating the energy for us to win and compete. And that's what we need. We know everybody's not happy with our last two games, and we just got to go play well on the road and come home and play well in front of our home audience.”

On volleyball

“Volleyball is having a moment, Bob. So you may want to check it out. College volleyball, especially and now with two professional volleyball leagues for the women to play in after they're done in college, it's only going to continue to raise the profile for volleyball. And Nebraska is kind of the standard bearer for volleyball, for collegiate volleyball right now. And they're coming to town and we want to see how we're going to measure up against the best in the country. And we're going to likely break our attendance record here at the Xfinity Center. We moved it there because we want to continue to showcase volleyball at a really high level. And you're going to see it Saturday when we break the record with likely more than 13,000 in the building, and we're really excited to be able to have that happening here on campus.”

On women’s basketball, Brenda Frese

“We're going to celebrate the men's 25th, and we're going to celebrate Brenda's 25th season here at Maryland. She is an exceptional coach, an exceptional person with a strong returning class with Oluchi [Okananwa] and Addi [Mack] and Bri [McDaniel], some nice incoming freshmen with Jordyn [Jackson] and Chloe [Sotell]. So we're just really excited about this upcoming season. I know you listened to coach [Brenda] Frese’s press conference and she has high standards and high expectations for herself, so that's going to translate through the program. We're just looking – very excited to get women's basketball going here.”

On year two of the Buzz Williams era

“The portal can be your friend, or it can be your foe, and this year was definitely our friend. But it's adding to Pharrell. You mentioned Pharrell. Andre Mills had a great year. I don't think anybody expected to see Andre play as much as he did, and he played really, really well, and has earned a place on this roster. And then to have Baba [Oladotun] coming locally has drawn a lot of interest. He's a very good freshman. This team is deep. We're gonna we're gonna compete. The Big Ten is deep, so you're gonna see great basketball here at Xfinity. Every single Big Ten game, they're gonna be battles, and it's gonna be must-see basketball here when the men start.”

On celebrating the 25th anniversary of the ‘02 championship team

“That’s our Indiana game that we're going to celebrate all of them on February 13 here at Xfinity. And you know what, Coach Williams has been - I mean he's amazing, has had an amazing career here, and has been really fantastic to me since the day I started here. And you can see why all his players think so highly of him and why he had so much success while he was here. And meeting those guys that's a special group that we're going to celebrate on February 13th. If you haven't already got your tickets, or Bob, in your case, your press pass, you need to see this one. It's going to be really special.”

Other news surrounding Maryland athletics

“Crushing it in field hockey right now. Missy's doing just an incredible job, number two in the nation, 10-0, big win on the road at Princeton. This is a fun team to watch. I know you're not – if you're not a big volleyball guy, then you probably don't spend a lot of time watching field hockey. Our field hockey team is really good, and then Sasho [Cirovski] going to hit the road and go play Indiana, number two in the nation. They're ranked number two in the coaches' poll. We're ranked number two in RPI. Going to be a fantastic matchup on Friday on the Big Ten Network. We've got some really good things going on here in College Park, and we’re really looking forward to getting out to Nebraska and seeing how we're going to bounce back.”

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