Mike Locksley after 2025 regular season finale loss: "we did not meet expectations"

Ahmed Ghafir
6 days ago
4 min read

Everything that head coach Mike Locksley said following Maryland football’s season-ending loss at Michigan State, cementing a 4-8 (1-8) finish:

Opening statement

“I'll start number one by giving credit to Michigan State. Hard fought game, did the necessary things to find a way to win. And then I want to start off by thanking my seniors. This year wasn't good enough. Let's start with that. Did not meet expectation that any of us set inside of Jones-Hill House. Not good enough, not coached good enough, not played well enough. And that starts with me. And it's my job to quality control this season and make any and every necessary change for us to get this program back to where we all needed to be. This has been a tough two-year stretch and as I told those guys in the locker room, the seniors, this one never felt like last year. I know for our fans, it doesn't feel any better for them. I can tell you inside of Jones-Hill House, the group of seniors did a tremendous job of keeping this thing together through a really tough eight-week stretch that has all of us not in a good space. But guess what? We'll start back up now. The clocks hit zero. Our [2026] season starts today. Obviously, we've got a lot of things to get corrected, a lot of things to get evaluated. We've got recruiting coming up, which need to maintain that momentum there. We've got to retain this roster, which I expect us to be able to do. I'm confident that we'll get this program bounced back the way we all want it to be. Again, it starts with me looking at every aspect of it, including what can I do. And I always start with that.”

Whether Maryland exceeded expectations

“I guess you didn't hear me just say - we did not meet expectation. The first thing on my mind, didn’t coach well enough, didn't play well enough, and now it's my job to figure it out, quality control, why we didn't meet expectation. And that starts now, including with what I can do better, what I need to do better as the leader of this program. I promise you, I will leave no stone unturned to get it figured out.”

Whether there was progress in 2025

“Obviously, there was no progress in terms of wins and losses but if you peel back the layers of the program, we played a lot cleaner, we created turnovers, got some young players valuable experience that will lay a foundation that I think we'll be able to build upon. But the end results are we didn't win enough games. So no, we did not meet the expectation.”

Why Maryland isn’t in position now

“There's a new landscape of college football, Michael, and three years ago, it wasn't that. It was just starting. We've all now have a pretty good idea of how college football is. It starts with being able to retain the guys in your program as much as you can, while also being able to bring in new guys. But the big one for me is we got to coach the guys we have to play to their ability. And it starts with me as the coach to get those guys to play to their abilities.”

How Maryland gets into position

“That's through recruiting. We have a plan in place to try to build our depth. It starts today. Most of it for building depth starts with retaining the current roster. Because a year ago, we lost quite a few players. Two years ago, we kept a bunch of players. The retention of this new list - not saying that we'll keep them all. We need to keep the right ones. We need to keep the ones that want to be part of what's about to happen, the transformation of Maryland football.”

On the 21-point third quarter

“Well, first of all, it wasn't a clean game at all, but here's what I've learned about this thing - they don't quit. One of our killer words is relentless. And this thing for four quarters, I mean, return to kick. So what? They got a big play. So what? These guys continue to fight. So to have that foundation gives me the hope that if we keep the right guys and we bring the right guys in and we do a better job of coaching, leading, giving them the ability to play to their abilities, we'll see this program transform.”

On the upcoming recruiting class

“It starts with looking for retaining. We've got some talented young players that took their lumps this year, and so now the learning process of what they went through this year, there's always the expectation they'll be back. Like I said, I've seen this before. I’m a glutton for taking these hard situations. But guess what? This team is built for hard. And this year, as I said, we did not meet expectations. We did not coach very well. We did not play very well. But one thing we did was stay together and I think you'll be able to build on that part of it.”

On Locksley’s message to the fans

“Michael, you always ask me these questions. That's not for me. My job is to find a way to win games. My job isn't to answer how the fans need to feel. I have to do a better job. That's on me. So I don't really, I'm not gonna say I don't care how they feel, but I do know I have to do a better job as a leader, and I can't worry or spend too much time worrying about my message to the fans. It's about the message to our supporters, the message to the players in that locker room, the message to the players that are going to come help us transform this football program.”

Why Locksley is confident in his plan

“I've done it before.”

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