Mike Locksley on Maryland football's 2026 season, lessons learned, Dontay Joyner's departure & impact

Ahmed Ghafir
1 day ago
14 min read

Maryland football officially kicks off fall camp this afternoon as head coach Mike Locksley breaks down everything ahead of year eight.

Opening Statement

“Great to be back as we head into practice number one later today. The message has been simple. I think you guys have heard the message - not here to do a lot of talking. The message for us is our work needs to be louder than our words. We won't be doing a lot of talking, but I will say that I really love the makeup of this team. I've been on this campus for 18 seasons, starting this year. This is one of the more talented teams that I've been a part of while being here at Maryland.

It's a team that stuck together through a really tough 4-8 season. We were able to return 71% of our production from last year's squad. We have a group of guys that know the system, know how we do things, which makes it a little easier for us this year. We have a building full of both players and coaches that have been willing to put in the work the last six months, last seven months, to get us back to where we all want us to be. We obviously played a ton of young guys a year ago. As I've said before, those losses that we had a year ago have now become lessons for a really talented young team. And because of that, the wisdom and experience that we gain going through it, I think will benefit us.

I'm excited to get back on the field later today, training camp is a month where it's nothing but football 24/7. And after yesterday's team meeting, we're all excited to really get this thing kicked off.”

On Dontay Joyner’s status

“Dontay Joyner is not with our program. He and I both met. He just finished his summer school class, I think, a couple of days ago. We both met and both decided mutually that he needs a fresh start. I mean, he's been through quite a bit here, and this summer really was not a good thing for him, not a good thing for us. I hate to see him have to go through what he went through, and so based on our conversations, we both have decided that - mutually decided - that he should find another place. He has two years of eligibility left. We're helping him find a place to go play. He's a guy that deserves another chance. We just felt like because of what he went through here in the state of Maryland, he probably needs a fresh shot.”

On the impact of Joyner’s departure

“Huge loss for us, man. Dontay Joyner is a big-time football player. You don't just replace some of the production that he had here, but much like any other injury transfers, I don't really worry about those things. We have to recruit players. We've got some young corners like Darrell Carey and [Zahir] Cobb, kid that came from St. Albans that we feel have the ability to - we brought in a transfer from Boston College there that Aazaar knew very well recruited. So, is it a loss? Yes, it's a loss. But what we got to do here in the next three, four weeks is find out how we can better ourselves with expediting the growth of some of our new corners that are part of our program.”

On year two for Malik Washington

“I think from a macro level, I think the big thing with Malik is, a year ago, he was a young quarterback that had veteran players around him and was trying to figure out how to implement himself into an established team and some older players. I think he did the right thing by allowing the older players to lead, but what I've seen since he's returned, in January is that this is his team. He's taken a more vocal role in leadership where a year ago he maybe punted it off to let some of the older players that have been through some things here lead. There's no doubt he's been part of every aspect of this change that we have. And I say from a macro, I think it's becoming his team. It has become his team. In a micro, I think putting him back into a system that fits his skillset. A year ago, because we knew we were throwing him in there inexperienced, we probably were a little more conservative than I have been. But I can tell you that the way he was taught, the things that he learned a year ago, will benefit him now that he's in a system that fits his skillset, including his ability to use his feet to make plays.”

On where he grew as a coach from 2025 to 2026

“I learned a lot about myself. I've had two 4-8 seasons after three straight years of going to bowls and winning them, and knowing that I had a young team. I mean, I wasn't surprised that I had a bunch of freshmen, high school freshmen, I think 16 of them spattered all across our two-deep and playing integral roles in a really tough league. I had to learn how to coach with a sense of urgency because of the landscape, the fact that we're paying players a lot of money now to play and to be productive. But I also had to have the patience to allow them to grow, to allow them to learn. And so for me, that was the double-edged sword as a coach. And I've been a part of a lot of programs. Obviously, I think I'm in year 36 or whatever it is as a coach. And I can tell you last year was really trying because when you look at the games we lost, when you don't finish games, which I think, as I said before, we lost three games within the last drives of the game. You have to look at yourself as the leader. What do I need to do to teach us how to finish? Some of the things I've learned when you study it, we had to allow those guys to go through them and that's where they become lessons.”

On Malik’s success and whether that’s contingent on Mike Locksley’s future

“You know what? My future has nothing to do with Malik's leap. My job is to coach Malik, to coach these players, to execute in critical situations. We've done that. We will continue to do that. For Malik, I think the big thing for him is we put him in a system that allows him to do things that we recruited him to do. He's learned the game, taught a pro-style system again just last year where he had to learn how to set protections. All the run game was on him. When you play with a little tempo, when you play in mixed personnel grouping, spread formations, things look a little clear and that's what he was recruited to play in. He had great success in high school in that system and I expect them to have great success this year playing in the system.”

On the confidence in the OL

One, it’s time. I mean, time on task. When you play high school linemen - Ryan Howerton, Amory Hills, first-year players that came from maybe lower programs like Rahtrel Perry, you throw them into the Big Ten. This is a big man's league. This is a trench league. This is a league that controlling the line of scrimmage is where your margin is. And so, this is year two for some of these guys, year three from some of these guys. If you looked at the run we had when we went to three straight bowls, we had guys like Jaylen Duncan, Spencer Anderson, a bunch of guys – Gottlieb Ayedze. These guys all are playing on NFL rosters, but they all were developed. And so the [offensive] line is the one area, and the [defensive] line, the trench areas, are the areas that usually take longer. Skill guys can come in and do what Stefon [Diggs] did as a true freshman or DJ Moore. But up front, you have to learn how to play in this league. You have to get bigger and stronger, and we've done that. Our strength coach Ryan Davis and his staff have done a tremendous job of expediting the development of our young linemen. If you come watch practice today, you'll see the size differential. You'll see the depth is there now, and that's what happens when you build your team through high school recruiting as opposed to going out in free agency, which is what I call the portal.”

On Clint Trickett upgrading the run game

“The run game is where we need to make our hay, whether it's on offense or defense, running the ball or stopping the run. I know you guys use ChatGPT and throw it in there and say, "What do I need to do to be better?” And two things to jump out: special teams and run the ball and stop the run in this league. Everyone knows we have tremendous skill. A year ago, our skill didn't play with a lot of production. We maybe didn't put them in the best possible positions, myself included. With this year, the run game to me is helped when you use Malik in the run game. I've been a part of leading the Big Ten in rushing out of my system at Illinois here at Maryland. We've had guys like C.J. Brown and Perry Hills and some guys that have operated. Malik's ability with his feet will be the thing that really helps our run game as much as anything.”

Whether this is still Maryland’s offense under Clint Trickett

“It’s always going to be Maryland's offense.

So Pep brought his influence in. Last year's offense didn't look like what Coach Locksley's offense traditionally looks - quarterbacks under center. Quarterbacks got multiple condensed formations. This year, you'll see us be multi where we'll open up formations, which then clears the box, which then allows speed to be a little more effective. The best thing about what we did in Pep’s offense was we taught Malik how to play quarterback in the Big Ten. And to me now that he has that understanding, operating out of a spread where the picture becomes a little more consistent, things become a little clearer because of the formations and the personnel groupings, that's where we'll see the difference. But this will always be Maryland's offense. I will always have my hands involved with how it's shaped. But it'll have Clint's personality as opposed to Pep’s. Two different personalities.”

On stability at QB

“Yeah, again, that's exactly what I think the difference is for this year, is that we have a returning star. 71% of guys that have played [an] integral part in last year's system. The pessimists will say 71% of a 4-8 team, but when you look deeper into this, this is a team that we're a drive away from being seven wins as opposed to four. Malik's progression and his development will continue. The fact that he's in a more suitable system that fits exactly what he wants. A year ago, I didn't want to put him in his position because we had to teach him the intricacies of playing quarterback. He missed all of training camp, not one practice. And we threw him out there the first game of the year. We planned on being a little more conservative, taking pressure off of him, hoping to be able to run the ball better. Didn't happen. That's on me. Made the adjustments, made the decisions to go in a different direction with what we do this year. We're really happy with the way that he was developed a year ago.”

On the culture with the returning production

“That's always been who I am. I'm big on the total development. Anybody that knows me as a coach, there's a reason why we often say this isn't a four-year relationship, but a 40-year relationship. And you look and see guys like Kyle Schmitt coming to coach, Randy Starks, guys that I sat on their couches [and] recruited them 20-something years ago. And to me, that's what I've always been as a coach. That's been my sweet sauce per se. Most people that know me know I worry about pressure about the job, pressure about winning. Those are all things that we know come with the job. The biggest pressure for me is you know everybody's been talking about this landscape and all the money that these kids are getting, but what nobody's talking about is when this money stops, when these kids were making good money for three, four years now all of a sudden are taking pay cuts to go back into the real world, and that's what Mike Locksley’s concerned about. How do I prepare them for when they're not making that money? Because all the talk right now is about how much we pay them, when we pay them, how can we pay them? Well, I have to deal with moving guys who played in the league and end up broke and filing for bankruptcy, and because of my relationships, so I have to prepare them for more than just winning ball games.”

On examples of the returning production

“I saw it more throughout the season. When you have back-to-back 4-8 seasons, and you guys write stories or report on stories, we've had two different 4-8 seasons, and yeah, at the end of the day, it's 4-8, man. I'm not diminishing that I am a 4-8 coach the last two years, but the 4-8 last year was a lot different than the 4-8 I saw the year before, and because of that, it was the leadership I saw in this group. There was not one game last year that I didn't feel we were competing, where we quit, where we weren't laying it all on the line. It was because of the connection that I think that that group has. And that connection is what enabled us to keep 71% of the production, and maybe in ways that a year before we couldn't. We lost some talented players over $100,000 to go somewhere else, or $200,000, and you know, Coach Locks says, ‘Look, they have to do what's best for them. We have to do what's best for us.’ We made the decision to recruit high school players. We knew that after going to three straight bowls and graduating a lot of guys to the NFL, that there was a rebuild, and it kind of happened right at the time that NIL really kicked in, because we didn't necessarily have a plan for that at that time. We decided let’s recruit high school players. We'll live with what happens. We'll grow like we did with that team that won three straight bowl games, and that's kind of the trajectory I feel like we're on.”

On prioritizing HS recruiting over portal compared to the vision

“I’d say it's a little behind where I wanted to be a year ago. As I said, we had opportunities to win more games than we did. And when that happens, that's when you have to take a close, dark look at yourself and say, what things can I do better? How can I get these corrected? How can I learn from these losses? And every year I do that. I'm the first person to stand in front of you and own all my shit. I'm the first person to do it, and I think what you'll see now is a team of players that understand they also have an accountability to doing and being productive when the time comes.”

On the depth, quality of the Big Ten

“The league is better by far. I've been in this league whether it's here at Maryland when we joined it. I was part of that group. I spent time at Illinois in this league. I've coached in the SEC whether it's Florida, Alabama, so I've had the luxury of seeing both. And there's no doubt with what we've done on the field in all our sports in the Big Ten and the leadership that we've gotten from Commissioner [Tony] Petitti, we can stand here and say, based on the results, that we are the best conference in football and the best conference in all sports. When you look at three straight championships with women's basketball, men's basketball, and then football with Indiana. What a great run Indiana had.”

On the confidence in the defensive lessons from last year materializes into wins

“The depth that we've created, the experience that we've gained, the lessons that we've learned, the understanding of what we do. When we play as many freshmen as we did a year ago, they were learning on the job. Now that we've had a little more time to look at what we did a year ago, to teach the lessons that come from it, when you look at the defense, I mean, just look at the outside linebacker room alone. You got guys like Sidney [Stewart] and Zahir [Mathis], both on some previous all freshman All-American list throughout last season, and then you have a D.D. Holmes, and you have a Nahsir Taylor, and then you add a Zion Elee. We didn't have depth like that last year. And when you look at what we've been able to do with the interior guys that we brought in with the Parker boys coming in and bringing in some of those players, the depth has given us an opportunity. A year ago, those young players, Zahir and Sid both missed an extraordinary amount of time with high ankle sprains, lower leg extremities. And we didn't necessarily have the same talent to put in behind them. Well, now we feel like we've created some depth, especially in the front seven. We've got some returning guys coming back in the back defensive backfield, and so for me, that's the confidence I have and the leadership we get from guys like Daniel Wingate.”

On citing Proverbs 14:23 during the offseason

“You know what? It wasn't, but it's funny that you say that because as I've gotten older, Proverbs is a book of wisdom, and you don't get wisdom without going through things. And so, for me, I've developed a really strong faith and relationship. Obviously, Pastor Keith Battle of Zion Church right up the street here, has become kind of a really foundational piece for our program. We don't just teach football. We don't just teach academics. We try to give them some support and resources and faith. And our relationship with Zion Church has been tremendous. Because of it, I've learned a lot. I mean, I'll be first to tell you, I wasn't a guy that sits up here and spits Bible verses. And I think I shared a year ago. I almost stopped Malik from doing it because as we started losing games, I wanted to maybe curtail his discussions at the end of it. But you know what? Who am I to take away his ability to speak his faith? I feel great about what he has done and what he continues to do. It's the type of leadership that I want to see from our quarterback. I'm aligned with him. Proverbs 14:23 was a message I heard right after the last game against Michigan State, and it talked about all profit comes from hard work and more talk you become poor. And so I decided, you know what? I don't want us to be poor, man. I don't want to continue losing. We're gonna stop talking and let's put the emphasis on our work.”

Whether Malik Washington’s number pass attempts stunted his development

“Not at all because if you look at the type of passing game we had, RPOs, screens, you could look and say a bunch of passes, but let's see how many of them have thrown down the field. Our system is a system that allows us to attack multiple levels of the defense. A year ago, we decided not to put a bunch of pressure on. Because we threw the ball a lot doesn't mean that he was throwing the ball [in] a lot of pressure because you can cut the field in half with boots and nakeds. You can throw screens, which affects the pressure. He didn't get sacked very much. It wasn't because we protected or did it once, but we called it in a way to protect Malik. He learned the game a year ago. He learned the game from one of the best quarterback coaches in the country in Pep Hamilton. But now he'll be put into the system that we recruited him for since he was in the eighth grade. We put some pieces around him. Our receiver room, we feel like we've upgraded. And now it's up to him to go take the game plans, get them executed, and I know he will.”

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