Mike Locksley "at peace" following dismissal as Maryland football's head coach

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Just over 24 hours after his dismissal materialized, Mike Locksley told Heather Dinich of ESPN he’s not mad, but “at peace” with the decision – for a simple reason.

“I know it's better than what it was when I got here. A player died right before I got here and this place was burnt to the ground. Stabilized it, went to three bowls, NIL kicks in, and wasn't prepared for it."

He’s right. Locksley inherited a program that was in need of a complete rebuild both inside and out, a process that led to a two-win first season before the wins materialized post-COVID. Yet with Maryland sitting at 2-5 and winless in conference play in year eight, Locksley admitted that he knew a dismissal was imminent, “just didn’t know when.”

Three days after the program announced that Ted Monachino was fired as defensive coordinator as Maryland’s defense ranked among the worst in the country in scoring and total defense, Maryland announced Locksley’s tenure midway through year eight had come to an end. In the midst of a five-game losing streak that’s part of a 12-game Big Ten losing streak, Maryland’s homecoming loss to Rutgers pushed Locksley to 10-21 (2-20) since defeating Auburn in the Music City Bowl to close the 2023 season.

The first of two four-win seasons marked the end of a three-year run featuring bowl wins, a feat that has never been accomplished in program history. Locksley was also the first coach since Ralph Friedgen to win three straight bowl appearances, though Friedgen never did it in consecutive seasons. Locksley’s consecutive eight win seasons marked the program’s most since Friedgen finished his final season 9-4 (5-3).

"It's actually not hard to win at Maryland; it's hard to win consistently at Maryland,” Locksley told ESPN.

Locksley said that he met with athletic director Jim Smith on Sunday and cleaned out his office on Wednesday evening. The news also broke prior to the team meeting, which occurred shortly before noon ET on Oct. 21.

"I said, 'Jim, I understand, and if you have to do what you need to do, I care more about Maryland and these kids than my ego,'" Locksley said. "But what I won't do is resign. But we can talk and figure out how to let the pressure off of everybody because I care more about Maryland."

Locksley also pointed to former assistants like Scottie Montgomery, Jon Hoke and Dan Enos as departing coaches he could have worked to retain through the years when reflecting what could have been done differently.

"The hardest thing I dealt with here was not recruiting players -- it's being able to get the right coaches and assistants with me," he said. " ... For whatever reason, I struggled to keep the really good coaches I had because we win, we were having success, and people come hire them. I was not able to keep consistency with the staff. And then NIL hit."

As for next steps, Locksley admitted he’s looking at either a coordinator job in college at a school “you can win a championship” or moving to the NFL, admitting he does not expect to receive another head coaching opportunity. Whether he makes a transition into TV commentary is also on the table as ESPN pointed to the Big Ten Network as a possibility, “to get some practice in and see how much he enjoys it,” per Dinich.

"But I'm done with the heavy laboring of building and taking a job that's going to wear me out. I can't do it anymore,” Locksley, 56, said.

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