Maryland football opens the 2024 season against UConn one month from today, and ahead of the first practice of fall camp, head coach Mike Locksley previews his team, talks about the quarterback competition, development of the lines and plenty more. Opening statement “I’ll start by thanking as always, man, thanking you guys for the job you do covering us. I know we had the cookout the other day and we had a chance to again, express just how important you guys are. When you look at the week leading up to camp, one of the things I try to do is I try to meet with everybody in our program. We had an all-staff meeting where Jose, our cleaning guy, to Chef Michael, the guy that cooks for our guys, we met and what I told them is that, number one, I want to thank them for the job they've done in helping us build the foundation that we've built for Maryland football. But the second thing is to challenge them to take this next step that we always talk about will be the hardest step to take and everybody has to do a little bit more and everything you do matters. Whether it's the cleaning guy and how they prepare our building for recruits when they come in. Whether it's Chef Michael and finding ways to get our kids to want to eat the right way and do things. So everything matters. And that includes our fans." On the Maryland fanbase “Our fans have been a major, major part of this build. And I can tell you that when I met with the whole team and talking to our fans, what you do matters. It matters for us as we take this next step and we all have a role to play." On Francis Tiafoe “I want to wish Francis Tiafoe. I heard he called me out at his press conference so I'm gonna call him out. Let's go win it, Francis. And if you can get a good time, I may try to sneak out there, but we got some work to do here." On the start of fall camp “It's the start of year six for me here as the head coach and I'm proud of what we've accomplished on the field the last three years. Three straight bowl wins, I'm even more proud though that this thing has been built as a player driven culture. The players in the locker room, those guys have led the charge and they've done it the right way. I think our players understand that everything we get around here that you either gotta earn or take and they've embraced that. You heard me talk at the Big Ten Media Day, and one of the things I talked about were three pillars and how we've been able to do it. We've done it by expanding the room, having new voices, different ways of doing things, seeing things. Whether it's bringing in coaches that have been head coaches, whether it's adding new teams to the league, whether it's how we're set up here at this university. Anytime you expand the room, you give yourself an opportunity to learn new ways to do things and here at Maryland, that's what we do." On the program’s local outreach “The next thing has been a service to the community. I talked about the 700 hours of community service our players have done and that's really, really important to me. I know it's important to my bosses, Damon and Colleen, who I work with on a daily basis, that if we're going to challenge and ask our fans to come support us game in and game out, win, lose or draw, then we've got also invest back into the community. I can tell you that each and every player that's been a part of our program understands giving back." On the development of the player-driven culture “As I told our team the other day, I mean, we work for them. Somehow I think sometimes we get it backwards that they come to work for me, but actually if they ever walked in Damon's office and say, we're not playing for Locks, we ain't going to show up he's going to have a decision to make. And it's hard to say we're not going to play the game. So we all work for these guys, and I can tell you that each and every one of those guys understands what we're trying to get accomplished this year and taking the next step. As I said in Indy, I want us to dream big. You guys can make fun of me, you can talk trash if things don't go well, but I can tell you I've built my career, and we've built this team in understanding that, you know what, setbacks, failures, adversity is part of the deal. That shouldn't limit you how you dream and the desire for me is to win a national championship. And it starts by competing for Big Ten championships. And we have the resources here to do it, we have the players here to do it. We just need to create the environment and the culture outside of just Jones-Hill House where everybody has that dream and understands that it's not going to happen just because we talk about – it's going to happen because of the work we do. And you know what, when we fail along the way, we learn the lesson from that failure and we bounce back and we show the resilience that we do. So I want my players to dream big. I want them to think about championships. That's where we are now. I couldn't say that five years ago, but I can tell you now I'm really excited. Our mindset in 2024 is to shake up status quo. I've heard Damon say it over and over to our staff. What an opportunity it is for us. I mean, some people look at it. We're bringing, we finished fifth the last two years. We're bringing in four new teams that are well-resourced. Some of them are blue blood programs, but you know what? We're here to break up status quo. And that's what the University of Maryland has done if you look at the history of this university. We've always been trailblazers. We've always figured it out and we'll continue to do that. On the 2024 team “We'll be a little bit different team than we've been around here. We lost Taulia Tagovailoa and I've talked about the impact he has had in our program. I can also tell you that the impact he's left is how you prepare to win. In the quarterback room it’s a challenge as we try to figure out who the quarterback will be that leads us out against UConn, but what Lia and what he's done for his legacy of not just being all time leading passer in the Big Ten. And then when you think of that, let that sink in a little bit. The all-time leading pass in the history of the Big Ten. And that's hard to do. I mean, this league's been around a long time, we've had some great quarterbacks come through it. But what he also was able to do is leave a legacy on what the preparation and what the standard is for the room. And we'll be forever grateful. I'm putting my defensive hat on. I spent the first eight, nine years of my career as a defensive assistant and this year will be a defensive-led team. We've got seven returning starters. You all know the job that Brian Williams has done with the defensive staff and the cohesion there and Lance Thompson and James Thomas and Zac Spavital and all those guys – coach Aazaar – all those guys have really done a great job of aligning themselves so that our defense is aligned the right way. And we got leaders on defense. We've returned seven starters. And then obviously, like I said, the opportunity with defense, we played a bunch of players over the last two, three years that maybe have failed in some critical situations where they didn't make the plays. Well, these guys now have that tool in the toolbox so that when we face that this year, I think you'll see a different result. On offense, I've moved back into the quarterback room, really important decision, but it also gives me a chance to have a front seat view on what these guys know. You know, for the last four years, when Lia was here, we met every night at 10 o'clock. Anytime we had football, during the spring or during the fall, 10 o'clock at night until the work was done. And now I'll have a chance to be in that room on an everyday basis and see the development while also working with Josh to figure out which guy gives us the best chance to win. Developing the playmakers in our system as we've lost a lot of guys that have made some plays. I think we've got some of the best skill in the Big Ten. When you look at our receivers, not a lot of the household names that people have come to know when we have one or two marquee guys but I think by the end of this season, you'll see why there's so much excitement about our football program, because there'll be some really, uh, talented players and on the offensive sides, guys like Kaden Prather and Tai Felton, uh, Shaleak “Punch” Knotts, who you guys haven't heard a lot about, but I can tell you probably one of the more talented guys. Colby McDonald has had a couple of big seasons here for us along with obviously Roman Hemby. A guy I'm excited about Nolan Ray, really young player that has shown us he has the propensity to hit the big one. And then our tight end room with Preston Howard and Dylan Wade gives us some flexibility because of the skillset they bring. The line is one of the areas where we've really used the portal to plug and play. And I think as you guys have watched some of the guys that we've brought in from the portal the last couple of years, some of them coming up from smaller programs and all developed and make it to NFL camps. We've lost four linemen to the draft the last few years. That's been an area where we've brought in some guys that help us grow. I mean, we signed ten high school linemen and when you see these guys, the length, the size, when we come out of the tunnel, we look like a Big Ten team but it takes about three years for high school linemen to develop. And what I've tried to do is expedite their growth by how I've hired the staff with coach coming in, gives us two full time coaches. All right. The rule pass where the analysts can coach. Now you throw Brian Ferentz into the mix in developing some of the younger players on our offensive line. And so we've really invested in that group with how we've added the resources with our coaching staff, but also we've done a great job of the evaluation process and I really feel good about how we do that. On the QB competition And then we got the quarterback situation. I can't say enough about how hard all those guys have worked this summer. We'll let the battle play out throughout camp. I can tell you the guy that will play for us will be the guy that gives us the best chance to win. It's not a popularity deal. If it takes two, it takes two. If we've got one, we'll figure it out. But I feel good about the guys in the room and how they've prepared to compete.” On the pride Locksley has as a DMV native “I'm really proud about being from here. I think it shows whenever I have an opportunity to talk about what this place means to me. And I can tell you that everything that we do each and every day is working towards figuring out how to win a Big Ten championship. I mean, how great would it be for the University of Maryland to be able to do that and to break up status quo. And I can tell you that with the talent we have in the DMV area, with us becoming a national conference, a national brand from coast to coast, it opens up the doors for us to just share how great an area of the country this is. We're excited to start this thing up today. It's like Christmas in August and excited to get going.” On the adjustments made with the QB battle undetermined “Having been through it, I mean, that's the one great thing about the experiences I've had over the last 15 years. We’ve had quarterback battles at Bama when I was there. We've had quarterback battles when I was here as an offensive coordinator. We've got a system in place for how we figure it out. A lot of metrics going to it. But the biggest one that I can tell you I lean on heavily is what we call our drive chart where I chart live drives with every quarterback when we do whether we do a two-minute period or live team period and I basically chart how to drive ends. And as I've said before here, every drive should end in a kick if you're a good quarterback. Meaning we should either be punting the ball, we should be kicking extra points, or we should be kicking field goals. If we're ending drives with turnovers or ending drives with penalties or things like that, then that's not playing winning football. And so I can tell you, the guy that does the best of putting the team in position to score points and finish drives the right way will end up being the guy.” On whether intangibles, familiarity factors into the QB competition “That helps them show that they can sustain drives. The drive chart will reflect their experiences. I mean, I've seen a true freshman come in and play in this offensive system. Jalen Hurts was a true freshman right off the old school bus. So the experience has obviously helped anytime you have the opportunity to fail as a player, as a coach, if you take the lesson from it. And so when I always talk about toolboxes for quarterbacks, it's having been in some third and medium situations and games and maybe not made the right decision and then taking what did I see or what did I do? And I can tell you that they've been trained this summer over the last year that I've been back in that room with mitigating risk and managing bad plays because that's what the good ones do. They manage bad plays, they win situations.” On the 2024 QB room “We recruit to a skill set. And so each of the quarterbacks that we've tried to bring in here, Number one, the first thing you have, they've got to be able to do is throw the football. All right. You have to be, I can't have just a running quarterback or Kaden Prater, Tai Felton, those guys will, they'll go, you know, receivers, right? They're divas. And so I've got to make sure I have a guy that can throw it first and then have the athleticism to extend plays. Everybody in that room has those two intangible skills, the ability to throw the ball. I know for some of you guys, because of how we've used Billy, you're like, oh, Billy's a runner, but we've used them in running situations we wanted to take carries off of Lia, but I can tell you that Billy throws the ball as well as anybody in the room. With Cam edge, Cam is one of those guys with a big arm can make every throw. When you can throw comeback to the field, all right, in college ball that expands the defense that creates bigger lanes. He has that ability. He also has the mentality. All right, MJ is kind of a mixture of both of those guys. He throws it well, he's athletic, he can make the plays, he's got game experience. You think back to guys like Billy and MJ have game experience. I mean, Billy came into the game against Indiana two years ago, we were down. Lia got hurt, we were down. Critical third-down play, he finds a way to get it executed, made some plays for us, and then the next week beat a really tough, scrappy Northwestern team to put us and get us bowl eligible. Those experiences help because he can lean on those. MJ has won and played in big games at NC State. Alright, Cam played in the Auburn game and did some really good things, expedited his development by graduating high school early. And then I'm gonna tell you, we got some freshmen in that room, whether it's Champ Long, Khristian Martin, Roman Jensen from over Maret. We got some young guys that have the ability. We're gonna give everybody a chance to win the job. I want the best guy. I'm not just taking the guy that I feel safest with. Because you know what? You want to get over to eight, you can't just keep doing the same things. You gotta be willing to take some chances. So, excited about the room and excited that this competition. When do I plan on making a decision? You guys will find out when we run out, the first play of the game. Now, the quarterbacks will know some time when we, if I were to go back to grandma's chocolate chip cookie recipe, it usually happens about 5 PM on Sunday the 25th. You meet with all of them together. You tell them all the information together at one time. You talk about keeping it in house for the week so we don't give UConn any added advantage as to who our starter will be or players will be. And then you guys will figure it out when we run out with the first drive. Unless we got snitches in our facility, which I think I've managed to get rid of some of those leakage. We've gotten rid of some of that.” On the process to build the trenches “It's a lot like what we've done with this defensive line. I mean, I don't know if you guys, when you look at the line and the Jordan Phillips of the world, the Tommy Akingbesote’s, the Taizse Johnson’s, and then a year ago, the Dillan Fontus, Lavon Johnson, uh, you'll see down in the mix. It takes two to three years in the Big Ten to develop. That's where the grown men play, because it's like being in a car accident every single play when you're up front. I call it grown man strength. You play around with your son every now and then they get a little muscles on, they think they're ready to compete and battle dad and then that grown man strength puts hands on them. And it's like, whoa, well, it takes about three years to develop the grown man strength. But what we try to do, as I say here at Maryland, I got to figure out how to do it quicker. I got to figure out. So what did I do? I go in a quarterback room, which opens up the door to hire a second line coach. Josh is unselfish. He goes to the wide receiver room, which is his expertise. And now I've got two guys that can work with these eight to ten guys that are going to play football for us and expedite their growth. The O-line, five guys play at a time. When you got one coach for five guys, it's hard to get the other guys going. And then you throw a third O-line guy in the mix and now the young guys, those ten freshmen I talked about that we brought in, they'll be developing. I think a couple of them may find themselves in a two-deep, but the ones that don't, when they're down preparing our defense for their game, they're not just looking at a card and running it, they're actually being coached how to step with the right step, how to put the hand where it needs to be. So now we're expediting their growth, and again, I'm looking forward to reaping the benefits of what we've done there and to be able to hire those guys helps, but it takes two to three years and it's just going through some stuff, like getting knocked over, getting run through, and then learning how to battle.” On Locksley being back in the QB room and working through a competition “I'm a glutton for punishment because it seems like whenever I was here, I mean, I don't know if you guys remember that one year we lost five quarterbacks and I had a scout team linebacker start ten games, Shawn Petty. He sent me a text. Sean, what's up? He sent me a text. Come on by. But my point is, is that I'm used to that and it's part, I mean, I actually like it because again, like it'd be nice to walk in and have Lia there for four years, but I knew at some point that was going to end, and that's why we develop and play the players the way we do. When we had a chance to get Lia out of the game, we got him out of the game, it gave Billy game reps. When we had a chance to play a couple quarterbacks in the bowl game, I didn't focus on just, hey, when again, I focused on how do I start my evaluation process? And I was really pleased the way the two young guys, well not inexperienced guys, Billy and Cam played against Auburn. But I've been even more excited just seeing like Khristian Martin be able to come in in June and pick things up like that. I've been really excited. Champ Long has probably some of the best skill set of all the quarterbacks and just doesn't have the experience. We practice a certain way that allows all these guys to get reps. So even if they're not the starter, they're still being developed. And I don't worry because I do know the process of how we prepare and figure these out have been tested.” On the player-driven culture in 2024 “Some of the new guys on the offensive side, like Josh Kaltenberger is a new guy that got here in January. But, I mean, if there's one person that loves living in the DMV, I mean, this dude is downtown D. C., museums, he's, like, Josh is just like a kid in a candy store, but he's also has shown the humility coming in to say, hey, man. The O-line right now has been the tightest knit group all summer, these dudes are cooking with each other, they're barbecuing. I've been trying to get a golf simulator in the player lounge, but I've been told no a hundred times by Colleen because, you know, they like to sit around and hit golf balls, and that's the new way. But also just spend time together. Like I'm just tell you that when it comes to spending time together, that's so important. That's what this, this team has done. And the leadership on the offensive side, guys like Aliou Ball and Kyle Long, who's now three years later, he's a guy that's in the mix as a competing for starting position. Moving Isaac Bunyan from D line over to O line and him at the guard position. So there's some leadership over there. Tai Felton is working really hard. Tai’s not a guy that is a loud guy, but he's trying to come out of his shell. Roman Hemby, a guy that typically kind of leads himself. I see all these guys really going out of their comfort zone because when you talk about, you can't do the same thing, expect a different result. I'm starting to see on the offensive side, that some of these guys not be just internal leaders where they lead by how they do things, but they've taken the next step of being able to peer to peer pressure.” On the NFL development in the secondary “I think the biggest thing is how you recruit to that room. When I talked about being comfortable and confident, again comfortable isn't saying we've arrived – comfortable is knowing who we are. And if you look, it's not by chance or happenstance that we've had the success of that room and how the NFL is valued or viewed the guys that have come through that room. And so I would say it starts in an evaluation and process. But then we've had some good DB coaches along the way here, man. Guys like Henry Baker and Cory Robinson and some of those guys, Jon Hoke that have been here. We have a system in place that no matter who's there, we have an evaluation system of what we're looking for and I can tell you that we've got some really talented young ones. What's developed that culture? I think it's the tradition of the room. I mean, when you got big shoes to fill, I mean, first-round draft pick like Deonte Banks and you got to fill those shoes, like it puts some a little bit added pressure on you to understand and the fact that guys like Deonte have been back here and Jakorian and some of those former players are able to come back and stay in touch and tell the story of, hey man, if you want to get here, this is how and what I did. And being able to do the things earlier in their career, and I think that's probably one of the biggest areas where we've got young players that come here with a pro mentality. Like, I know some of y'all get mad when they say, oh, college is about academics, not athletics. Well, you know what? It's my job to make sure the academics are taken serious. Just like as a parent, it's your job to make sure your kids understand what's important. But I'm going to let these guys be pros before they're pros, meaning how they recover. And the fact that we have the modalities and the resources to help us stay healthy, which is important. How they prepare for games, what type of work they got to put in. Some of this stuff has been passed down, and that's what's happened in the quarterback room for these guys, but it's also happened in that DB room, like you alluded to.” On Locksley’s weight loss journey “I run five to six miles a day. I eat less than 500 calories. No, I'm not going to lie to you. I've had a little help. Dr. Rooks, our team physician, has worked with me in creating a plan. But to go in a quarterback room, I'm back on the front line and I need the energy. We talked about sacrifice. I sacrificed giving up like saying I don't have time because all I wanted to do was ball. Well, I'm being a little selfish. I do therapy once a week. I get massages. I'm a complete makeover of who I am. Y'all ain't gonna piss me off. Y’all ain't gonna see angry Locks no more because you know what? What's the worst thing that can happen? I fail publicly? Well, I think I've done that a few times or two.” Related Links
top of page
bottom of page
Comments