Under the Shell: one-on-one with new Maryland AD Jim Smith

Ahmed Ghafir
Aug 27
4 min read

Under the Shell opened the season with an interview with new Maryland athletic director Jim Smith, who discussed his path to College Park. Smith reflected on his unique background in sports — from professional bull riding to the World Wrestling Federation — and outlined how he plans to balance revenue sharing, NIL and new facilities for the teams he now oversees.

Here are some of his responses from the interview:

Q: You've said a couple times now since being named the new athletic director, you want to build Maryland into the best athletic program in the country. In the next five to 10 years, what does that vision look like for you?

JS: It's about creating a culture, right? And it's about creating a championship culture where the expectation is that we come to work every day to be champions. And that doesn't mean you win championships all the time, but that does come with the mindset of, we're going to be the best. And how can we be the best? And so to be the best, it helps to have been in a few really good organizations, but it also helps to understand the DNA of it and that makes sure you have the right people that are part of that.

Q: You said that when you took the job, it wasn't necessarily something you had pictured, but when Maryland called you, they didn't pitch it like a typical athletic director. It was more along the lines of this was running a professional sports team. I want to ask you, what did they say in the interviews? What was the hiring process like that made you kind of come up with that analogy? What was Pines and the committee telling you that really kind of convinced you to take the job and made you think that it.

JS: When I read the job description, it had the traditional factors of an athletic director, but it read far more like that of a president of a pro sports team — building culture, building revenue streams, thinking long term and adapting quickly. Those things happen every day in pro sports, but traditionally hadn’t happened in college sports. That’s when I said, ‘I’m interested.’

A lot of the questions in the process weren’t traditional AD questions. They were about NIL, revenue sharing, player management, contracts. Then it came down to time with the president, and I saw how committed he is to collegiate athletics and to making Maryland one of the best public schools in the country. That combination is a huge advantage.

Q: Mike Locksley is obviously the largest earner at this school, probably the coach under the most scrutiny right now. He enters year seven with a pretty porous overall record across his time. Tell me a little bit about the conversations you and Locksley have had and what are you looking for from the football program to really give you confidence moving forward?

JS: I already have the confidence. I believe in Coach Locks. I think he's done a really good job at that. You know, no one shied away from last year wasn't a very good year. That was last year. And we're on to this year and we're on to building a program that can be really successful. I think you also have to realize you have to give coaches the resources to be successful.

And it's what I said at my opening press conference. It's really hard to hold someone accountable if you're not going to provide the resources to compete at the highest level. And that's on me now going forward. The resource piece has got to come from us in the department. And there's got to be a belief that you can compete at the high level. And if you have the belief you compete at the high level, you have to have the resources in order to match that. And that's going to be the goal going forward.

Q: Jim, you come from a bull riding background. Tell us the craziest bull riding experience you had.

JS: These guys don't have any fear. It's a seventeen hundred pound animal that they're going to try and ride for eight seconds and unpredictably, it's not running straight. It's not intended to buck you off. the very first time I stood above the chute and saw this animal and the rider, I was like, this is the craziest thing I've ever seen. It's nuts. you know, and these guys are fearless and they're incredible athletes. They are the fittest athletes – fit like zero percent body fat. It's an unbelievable core and arm strength.

Q: You've extended a couple coaches in your first few weeks on campus. What gave you that confidence to give out those extensions as one of your first moves?

JS: It gives me an opportunity to thank a lot of the people that were here before me, right? That they started that process. We have really good sports administrators that were supportive of the extension for the coaches. And after meeting with the coaches, I certainly understand why it was the right time to extend them.

So a lot of credit goes to some folks, to some of our sport administrators and then some folks who moved on to other roles because they were really instrumental in getting those done and putting us in the right position to get that done.

Q: What were your kind of general perspectives on Maryland before you actually got here?

JS: In order to be in the Big Ten, you have to be a really good school. You’re the land grant, the flagship — that’s important academically and athletically. There’s no other conference you’d want to be in right now than the Big Ten.

Some alums think back to the ACC days, and that was a great era. But I don’t think there’s any other conference you’d want to be in today than the Big Ten. When you’re in the room where it happens, you’re in a good place.

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