Mike Locksley on Maryland's 2024 class, impact players, premium on OL

Maryland announced its 21-man class on Wednesday including the flip of cornerback Braydon Lee, late addition of Good Counsel cornerback Judah Jenkins and the expected signing of offensive guard Logan Bennett. It wasn’t all good news as cornerback Larry Tarver, who committed to Maryland back in June, flipped to Nebraska while linebacker Jeremiah Marcelin pulled a surprise—and stuck with his pledge to Pitt. Still, Maryland’s class may not be done as they continue to battle for five-star offensive lineman Jordan Seaton, as IBG has reported all week heading into the closing hours of day one of the early signing window. Maryland will welcome nine early enrollees to campus with Logan Bennett, Ryan Howerton, Lloyd Irvin III, Brandon Jacob, Keyari James, Lee, Anthony Reddick, Mekhai White and DeJuan Williams set to move to campus. Head coach Mike Locksley met with the media and reviewed his signing day class. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1FWwo-9aUg&feature=youtu.be On the offensive line haul in Maryland’s 2024 cycle “I think if you look at the way we've tried to construct our team, it's definitely supply and demand. You look at the last two years, we graduated basically or lost four starters a year ago. This year, the potential of losing four more starters or guys, four guys that play significant time. And so line was a major priority. The goal is to have at least 17 on scholarship if at all possible. Depth has been an issue so what we've tried to do now is feel that that depth issue with the high school kids that you see. When we signed eight high school offensive linemen and then we've used the transfer portal to be able to plug and play some guys that will allow these guys the necessary time to develop until we can get them up to speed. And most of these linemen, as you can see, show have great length. The size potential to be what we're looking for. And if you want to win in the Big Ten, you've got to have your line and line set. And we were able to address the line a year ago. And this year there's been a premium and put a point of emphasis on creating the depth and developing the offensive line to be able to compete and win.” On CB Braydon Lee’s flip to Maryland “When you're able to keep a talented player like Brayden home, it's always helpful. His recruiting process was a very normal process to what we see here. Everybody in the country comes to the DMV and I think it's a testament to the type of high school football players we have in this area and to the high school coaches and the way they develop their players. And obviously Brayden was a guy that was recruited by everybody. When you have the length that he has, as well as the short area quickness, the long speed to be able to play out on that island. And in this league, we've been able the last few years, have a few corners drafted, and I think we'll have two of them drafted this year. And so Brayden’s one of those guys that we thought has the ability to come in and help us early. The way his process went, he committed to South Carolina, I guess earlier in the process. And what we always do is we call and we congratulate them on their commitments but we also find out if they would like for us to continue to recruit or if they're pretty rock solid. And from the time he committed, he always. Said, hey, you know, I'm willing to keep some options open and we were respectful of his decision, but we continue to show him why Maryland could help him reach the goals that he has for himself. And today he made the decision that he trusted the process that we put in place for him.” On Maryland-South Carolina rivalry “It was hard to have a rival when we don't play football. Obviously, they recruit up here like everybody else and you know, in a perfect world, I'd love to, as I always say, put a wall around the DMV and keep all these teams out. But when you've got talented players within your backyard, and as we found, there enough good players right here at home and we'll always start here first. But again, Brayden saw the value in staying home and, and being able to help us continue the build and the process that we've started here. Any time you're able to get a guy like him and obviously with the SEC ties and the Big Ten and us constantly competing. I mean, it was a good win for us, but I wouldn't say that there's a rivalry just yet until somebody schedules a game and you know, I'd be all for that.” On whether the class has day one impact players “The guys that come in with the size, I mean, you look in guys like Terez Davis and Ryan Howerton and those guys, have the physical size to be able to do it whereas some of the guys we signed are, are guys that we plan on growing over the next couple of years when you're in the 280-pound mold coming to the Big Ten, the goal is to get them over to 300 and develop size and strength and mass because this is a big man's league and we're one of the few teams that has skill or continues to recruit the skill necessary for this league. But it all starts and ends with developing upfront on the line and line. And we saw us take major steps on the line this year through recruiting and through the portal and we focused and put a premium on offensive line this year.” On whether there’s a signee is capable of outperforming his recruiting rating “I haven't studied it enough to know who's down or who's up because when I put on the tape, we don't know how many stars they have. We don't necessarily follow it like that. But there are a ton of guys that, as I said before, most of these guys that we signed, we have had them in camp. We've had our hands on them in terms of being able to evaluate the skill and the characteristics we're looking for. And so if they pass our evaluation and we have them here in camp and we feel as though they're good enough to help us take the next step as a program, we sign them. And so I would venture to say that a lot of these guys that we signed, I don't know how much notoriety they have or how well they're liked by. the people outside our program. But I can tell you we didn't sign one guy that we didn't like or one guy that we didn't think would have the ability to help us either now or down the road here soon.” On which players are most likely to play the earliest "Skill guys always, as you look and see the skill guys that in our system, running backs, receivers, DBs, those guys, the further away from the ball they play typically, they're able to get on the field a little quicker because they don't have to deal with the physicality. And obviously with graduating two corners again, I would say it's gonna be competition there at the cornerback position. Upfront on the line and you look at some of the guys that we've signed outside linebackers, we lost some linebackers this year as well. And I think the further away from the ball that the players are that we've recruited, the better chance they have getting on the field, though there's always one or two guys upfront that had shown the ability. This year, guys like Dillan Fontus and Lavon Johnson contributed greatly on the line. And I think you'll see some of the younger linemen that come in with the necessary size. As the season goes along, we try to develop them. We try to play them enough to where if we need them, I can see some of those guys filling out our two-deep.” On how hard it is to keep longtime commits in the fold “It’s a job that requires a lot of time. When you worry about the guys that, once they commit, now you have the target on your back. Everybody has different approaches to recruiting, but most people when they know who to attack, they try to find any weakness and every weakness they can to create angst in the decision. And then you also have to recruit your current team because these guys are being talked to and they're being poached and portaled. And so you know, the work of maintaining your current roster as much as you can, while also babysitting guys that are committed, that continue to be recruited like we do other people. So, I mean, not crying over the amount of work that it takes, but I can tell you it takes a lot of manpower, a lot of hours to continue to recruit the guys once they are on board because now all the targets are pointing at you.” On whether any one assistant stuck out on the recruiting trail “The way recruiting works nowadays, I mean it used to be a deal where it was one guy recruited his area and traveled all over. But there's been so many, it takes a village in recruiting now because you're just dealing with the amount of people. And I would say that for the most part, each member of our staff and the goal is, I tell every coach should be able to go get one great player that most people don't think we can get. And if the ten full times and myself were able to go land one great one that we typically we would have to work hard to get, that's more than typically one-third of your class in the old days when you signed 25. And I can tell you that each coach in our program has contributed to the signing of this class. And, you know, it'd be tough to point out one guy that that does it. The recruiting office with Merci and those guys and Brian Griffin and Marcus Thomas. I mean, they do a ton of the work. There's a lot of places to spread the wealth around in terms of helping in putting this class together.” On nine early enrollees “This is the trend. I mean, just like portaling guys, going in the portal and losing a percentage of the roster every year becomes a trend, graduating early, I think the players see the value of being able to get in and get a spring ball under their belt, which then allows them to have the opportunity to compete to play early. But I also think there's an academic component which allows you to come in without the pressure of the academic side and playing a season. And so some of these guys are able and we've seen when they come in early, they get off to a fast start and good start academically where you see guys graduating with their degrees, undergraduate degrees in three and a half years and then able to work on a master's. We're huge on taking full advantage of all these opportunities that graduating early allows you to. And to leave here with two degrees is a big, big deal in the course of a four-year, five-year window. And so I just think that's the nature of the beast with the guys wanting to get in earlier to allow them to compete, but also I think the academic component is really attractive to some of the players.” On the late addition of CB Judah Jenkins “Judah is one of those guys, man, that he is just a football player and I've had a chance to see him develop, being local and seeing his development from ninth grade on. People have a lot of respect for Andy Stefanelli and that that Good Counsel staff. They do a tremendous job developing players, but I know he also trains here locally and he was a guy that wanted to be a Terp. I know when he committed to Indiana, we were kind of slow early on them, but when you watch the senior year and to see him continue to develop and get better, I mean, it's hard to turn down good football players. And he's one of those guys that has a skill set to be a corner, a star, a nickel, a slot nickel corner for us. I love his competitiveness. And just when you talk to Andy and the staff over there, I mean he was kind of the glue of that team. And so to have an opportunity and the way recruiting works now, it's not a science to it, but we've known about him. We knew a lot about him. We had an opportunity. It's a lot like the NFL Draft where you got best available on the board and he was definitely one of the best available and a guy that we felt really strongly about. So I'm really glad that this materialized for us because we got ourselves a really good football player on the defense side of the ball.” On the commits who were around position meetings & practice through the fall “I've sold the location of Maryland for years and years and years, and that's another example of what the location affords us to do because to have local players that maybe aren't able to graduate early because of their school or playing other sports in which we are all for, to have the ability to drive over, and if you're not participating in spring ball. We're a Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday team so we always have meetings in between for spring practice, gives these players an opportunity to maybe get a jump start even though they can't practice, but to sit in the meetings, to hear the installs, to stand back behind on practice and watch and see the drill work and the installation that goes on the field is, you can't put a value for that allowing some of these younger players that are in the area that can't graduate early, it still gives them a chance to develop within our system without necessarily practicing, which then allows when they show up here in June, it's not really the first time they've gone through one of our installs for offense, defense or special teams. And we've seen over the years a ton of players take advantage of that. And it's benefited them being able to get on the field early.” Related Links

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