Maryland football is set to open fall camp this Wednesday, July 31 with the college football season one month away. Head coach Mike Locksley took the podium at Big Ten Media Days in Indianapolis last week while wide receiver Tai Felton, linebacker Ruben Hyppolite and defensive linemen Jordan Phillips represented the program. The players talk about their mindset, goals and personnel heading into fall camp while Locksley talks in detail about the National Coalition of Minority Football Coaches, the state of college football, former LB Jaishawn Barham and plenty more: LB Ruben Hyppolite on the impact of EA Sports College Football 25 “You never know how impactful the game is like this game is bringing everybody closer together. Like Roman Hemby, he hasn't played a video game in seven years, goes and buys a system just to play this game. So, you got people who are working jobs, getting off of working, coming to play the game, creating dynasties and I got all my coaches talking about their dynasties and whatnot. So, it's definitely a positive light that this game is bringing to the world. And yeah. I mean, everybody loves football, especially college football.” WR Tai Felton on how his class left an imprint on Maryland football’s team culture “Definitely just the accountability we've been holding between each other throughout the years. Guys, like me, Trader, Kyle , guys that came in with. We’re trying to create that foundation, that brotherhood and that's something that we've been harping on. So this offseason and this past summer workouts, we definitely been bonding, creating that relationship with the guys on the team so that's definitely gonna help during the season.” Felton on whether Maryland’s identity changes with a new QB “Our offense always going to have firepower. I mean, we got me, KP, , we've got some young guys that are going to be stepping up as well. We got a nice line. So I feel like offense is going to always have that firepower, always have that fast-paced play. But the defense is just, when you have all those guys returning, and you see what those guys can do, it's going to be very exciting. So, I feel like both sides of the ball will definitely be putting on a show this year.” Felton on being selected to represent Maryland “I like to thank everybody that's helped me get in this position. It's definitely a blessing. I'm blessed to be here. I'm blessed to be representing Maryland and the Maryland Terrapins. I'm glad it's blessed to have my guys back there, choosing me as kind of a leader of the team. So it definitely is truly a blessing. I'm honored.” On what family means to Tai Felton “Everything. Family is everything. My mom, dad and sister. They're probably watching right now. So they're everything. They're my rock and they're the reason why I'm in this position today and the reason why I'm going to keep going. So just having that, them as a support system is always a blessing and I love them dearly.” Felton on what to know about the 2024 QB room “The main thing is all those guys, they're all awesome, they're all good at something. You got Cam, his IQ, Billy, he's a sneaky athletic, he can run, he can throw the ball. You got MJ, he's smooth, he can read defenses. Jayden Sauray, extender, he can extend plays, Champ. It's all those guys, all five quarterbacks. They've all shown up in this spring, in the summer somehow some way. So just having those guys and having seen the way they work, they're in the facility, some of them ‘till sundown. So when you're seeing guys like that, always in the facility, you want to be in the facility as well because you want to elevate your play just like they are. So just having those guys, I know for a fact we're gonna have a great season because of how hard they work, no matter which guy.” Felton on setting the tone for 2024 offseason workouts “Like Ruben and Jordan said, we had a player-led meeting after the bowl game, when the workouts got started back up. We kind of set the standard where we wanted. We want to win. People say you want to win a Big Ten championship, you want to win ten games. So we have to act like it. So that's kind of one of the main things we're holding a standard where everybody got to put in work after practice. Everybody has to get one percent better. So we've been holding everybody accountable with that throughout the winter and summer workouts. So that's one thing that's been big. So everybody's been putting in that extra work for sure.” Locksley on the state of black head coaches in college football “Yes, it's an area we have to attack and it's the reason I started the coalition that we started and to see the fruits of some of the work that the coalition has done with Sherrone , Ryan Walters, both being guys that were part of the academy that we created where what I learned when I got let go of New Mexico is getting under Nick Saban's umbrella allowed me to rebrand myself. And so I took that same strategy and said, you know, people hire people based on recommendations based on their lineage or trees. I can remember my mentor Debbie Yow telling me when I got let go at New Mexico, she said, listen, we need to get you under an umbrella of a Nick Saban or Urban Meyer or Pete Carroll because you should be a head coach and you just need to learn the finishing touches of it. And that's what we've tried to do with the academy and to see Sherrone and Ryan who came through it and being exposed to this helps expand the room.” Locksley on the success of the National Coalition of Minority Football Coaches “This conversation, you gotta continue on. And that's the coalition's job is to continue to find new ways of doing it. If you look at the hiring practices recently in the NFL, which we have as an organization, the coaches that were hired in this year's cycle, a lot of 'em were hired ‘cause they knew them. Alright. Jerod Mayo was drafted by the Patriots. They knew him. You know, it's not a secret that in Major League Baseball and in the NBA, most of the former players are head coaches in the leagues. Why is football not that way? And the coalition is now doing some research and we're working and partnering with the NFLPA. I had Navarro Bowman, was an analyst who came and worked under us and we gave him some skills and helped him to where NaVorro is one of those guys that I think can be like a Jerod Mayo. And so it's about familiarity and who you know and that's what the coalition and the academy did where we created these relationships between ADs and the 12 or 14 members that come through the academy. They develop these relationships like I had with Debbie Yow that it gives me an idea of what I need to do to get to where I want to go.” DL Jordan Phillips on NIL “My whole mentality has always been brand, right? Because whether we realize it or not, we're a brand. I'm a brand, you're a brand, he's a brand – everybody's a brand. And so that's why I'm conscientious of how I act, what I say because I know that I am a brand. Jordan Phillips, the name Jordan Phillips, it means a lot to me. Not because that's my name but it's because how I carry myself is just so important. And so I got my initials right here, Jordan Phillips, to just represent my brand along with my jersey number and then in the inside of my coat it also has my name on it along with my on my sleeve I have J. Phillips right here." Locksley on what former Alabama head coach Nick Saban meant to Mike Locksley “I was a guy that if you said my name, some people would say, ‘oh, Locks is a great guy’. You say my name, some people would say, ‘oh, he's an asshole’. And being under coach's umbrella for 15 years prior, I was either a head coach or a coordinator. And I got to go to ground zero as an analyst. You're in a cubicle, you're not at the front table. It was almost like an episode of Undercover Boss where you sit in these cubicles and you hear some of the young analysts who think they're ready to be coordinators. And half of them didn't know who I was sitting in there. I was a former head coach and I was sitting in there with guys saying, ‘oh, I would have did it this way’. It gave me a fresh perspective and then and I paired up and we were analysts together for the 2016 season and it gave me an opportunity to be behind the curtains of how . I never sniffed a national championship. I went to a BCS game at Maryland in 2001 and we played Florida, but to go to three straight national championships, it wasn't by happenstance or chance. And so when you say what does coach mean to me, he put the finishing touches on Locks the coach.” On what Locksley learned from Nick Saban “First, he didn't give it to me. I had to take and earn it. I know what you're saying, but I hate using the word because nobody gave me anything. Nick got a skill. He got a skill. We had Jalen Hurts who was a true freshman. I had Isaiah Juice Williams, very similar skillset. So, he's smart and I learned this from coach, to hire people that bring a skill set that you want to implement. I mean, you look at us hiring Brian Ferentz on our staff as an analyst and, now an analyst can coach. And the one area of my team that for us to compete in the Big Ten, we got to run the ball. Well, I've got three guys that's working with my line now and it's because of learning or taking what I call grandma's chocolate chip cookie recipe to Maryland but putting my personality on it.” On what Tai Felton has seen from secondary under co-DC, CB coach Aazaar Abdul-Rahim “I would say the defense, this past spring and summer, I would say they came in ready to go. During the spring, it was some good battles during like spring practice and scrimmage and stuff like that ‘cause those guys are always ready to go when you have guys like Ruben and Jordan chasing you around. These guys can prepare and it's the way they carry themselves on and off the field. That's always going to be helpful. If you carry yourself off the field, that's how you're going to play on the field. So that's always helpful.” Locksley on the addition of Brian Ferentz as an analyst “Adding Brian to the staff has been great. Because I've always had a lot of respect for Kirk , for the Iowa program. You talk about a program that people get mad because they win ten games every year. I mean, that's a great problem to have. My heart for coach’s kids because I have kids and I know the sacrifice. Imagine being a head coach and having people just talk about your son, your child. I mean, mama bear doesn't like it. Daddy bear doesn't like it. It's so bad. Coach's kids go through a lot of stuff, man. And I'm very partial. I had Dino Tomlin on my team, Mike Tomlin's son. I got Rick Smith's son, Robert Smith on my staff. Coach's kids – Jalen Hurts was a high school coach's kid. They understand it and they get it, man. And I can tell you that having Brian on my staff, he brings expertise in running the football, offensive line play. I mean, they're the gold standard for what linemen, tight ends look like. Why wouldn't I take him and add him to my team to bring a skill that we need to get better at, but also bring some championship pedigree to it? At a discounted price. Thanks for the grandma's chocolate chip cookie recipe. I lived that life. So it's a tremendous benefit.” Locksley on the expanded college football playoffs “I keep talking about this expanded room and it can wear a lot of different coats. It can be adding new teams to a conference, making the room better and different. I just think whenever you have diversity, it adds an opportunity of being able to challenge status quo and, with the playoffs, the new teams coming in, it gives you an opportunity to think differently outside the box. I hear this landscape we're talking about – general managers, salary caps. I mean, college football is becoming more NFL-ish. Well, we anticipated that three, four years ago, I hired Gerald Dixon from the Buffalo Bills and he served as our first general manager. And then I brought Brian Griffin from St John's College High School, also spent two years with the Atlanta Falcons. And we put in an NFL system for evaluation for how we go get players and identify players. And then we've got Merci Falaise leading up the charges. Our GM, we anticipated this landscape. And that's the one thing when you expand the room and you bring diversity into it, I've had to navigate trying to figure out how to get to be a head coach again. Because of my experience doing that, when you get the NIL thrown at you, you get the pandemic thrown at you, you get expanded playoffs thrown at you, you just always think ahead. Because of how I was raised, the change doesn't frustrate me.” Locksley on the Big Ten’s use of in-game technology “I used it in a bowl game versus Auburn and probably not the way it's going to be used this year because basically in the bowl game you could have communication throughout the whole play. And the touchdown that we threw to Preston Howard, my quarterback was about to check the play and he checked it the play before. And we didn't score and then we called the same play again and he was ready to check it again and I was like, no, leave it on. So it affected that game, but it's just how you use it. You know, technology is one of those things that if you know what you're doing and you study it, it's there to make the game better. And I embrace it. I think it will add an element to it, but there'll still be ways people steal signals, people lips, people do all types of things. If you don't have integrity, it shows up and you're going to do it regardless of whatever modifications you make.” On Maryland’s scheduling philosophy under Mike Locksley “Well, since I've been in the Big Ten, I mean, I have a scheduling philosophy. I work with my associate AD who runs football, Colleen . So on our scheduling and my thing is we play nine games. No other league was playing nine games and I know there's another league thinking about doing it and the playing of that ninth game and having been in both leagues and understanding the value of a conference game versus a non-conference games is why the value of what we've earned in TV rights comes into play. So you do have to be kind of deliberate in scheduling. If you look at the way I've tried to attack scheduling, I want to keep the regional rivals. We played West Virginia, we play Virginia, we play Tech. I'd like to play one of our in-state local schools that maybe the Towson's, the Howard's, the Villanova's because they're regionally programs that are good programs. And then I'll play anybody that my boss or that wants to play that fits. It’s not like we try to duck any wreck in terms of that but when you play nine Big Ten games, we hurt ourselves with opportunities for playoff teams because that extra one game that we play is a little different than the other league and they've been getting two teams in a four-team playoff. And I would attribute some of it to the lack of playing that extra game that we play. And so we do need to be smart in how we do it. And I like the way that me and my bosses have put together how we schedule.” Felton on personal goals for 2024 season “Winning games. Making it , trying to get to a Big Ten championship. That's one of my big goals. Winning is the main thing. Keep the main thing the main thing. And if we're winning, that means I'm doing something right. We're all doing something right. So that would be my main goal.” Locksley on Oregon, other teams coming into the DMV to recruit “They've been here, they've been everywhere, man. I'm used to those battles. Everybody comes into DMV, Alabama, everybody. And I would like to give myself a little credit for opening it up because there was a time in the mid-90s, early 90s, where Maryland was a basketball area and not many people recruited it for football. And we were able to sneak players that maybe would have went elsewhere. But when I left and went to places like Florida and Alabama and Illinois – Illinois went to the Rose Bowl with 18 guys from the DMV area on that team. What really has been the late Vontae Davis, Ian Thomas, some of these great players, Tavon Wilson, this area has always had great players. You guys are just kind of figuring it out and I now have to figure out how to keep them within the walls of where my campus is.” Felton on Maryland’s 2024 QB room “First off, Taulia, he did a great job of just setting the standard and being a leader for those guys to see something like, set the example for them. So, Billy and MJ , they do a great job of just leading the team and being those guys in the room that are going to hold people accountable and set that standard. And you have other guys like Cam Edge, Jayden Sauray, Champ , they're showing up in spring ball. They're playing very good ball. So I can't wait till camp. So it's going to be very competitive camp. So we'll see what happens then.” Locksley on working with Oregon DC Tosh Lupoi “His nickname is Rambo because he flies in, he leaves carnage everywhere, and you gotta come in and clean it up. Tosh is one of those guys that's relentless, man. He is relentless in learning as a coach. He's relentless in recruiting. He's relentless and he shoots first, asks questions later because Tosh, everything he's done has been a hundred miles per hour. I love working with him.” Locksley on how Brian Ferentz has responded to role at Maryland “He comes in, he has great ideas, expanding the room, man. He brings a new perspective and, you know, how do you want to block the outside zone? Why? Makes you ask the question, why are you blocking it that way? Any time you bring in that type of experience and ten wins, they've always had top linemen drafted tight ends. They've got the greatest tight ends have come out of that program. Like that's a win for Maryland. And, you know, again, I didn't invent figuring this out by hiring guys with expertise like that.” Felton on what sport he’d play if not football “I just tell people I’d be playing basketball. I feel like I'm the best point guard on the team, best basketball player on the team, so I'd definitely be playing basketball…Coach Locks, I don't think Coach Locks would let them call me in a practice but coach Locks, every summer we go to Locks's house for a barbecue. So you got a full court back there. We go back there, play knockout, play a little bit of 4-on-4. So guys on the team know what's up with Tai when it comes to basketball.” Locksley on whether former players have been engaged with the program “I think the biggest way they help with they laid a foundation to where it's hard to sell a vision if it's never happened before. And that's where when people think of me and of him, the passion I have for Maryland is because I grew up in an era where the ‘83, ‘84, ‘85 Terp teams was one of the best teams on the East Coast. They won three straight ACC Titles, which that was a big deal and put a lot of players in the NFL. We've had seven players go the last two years, so we know the talent is there. But I would love and having spent time in a place like Bama to see it, see the brotherhood and camaraderie my challenge – and this is something that when I talk about is not just on me to build this brand – the challenge is bringing these guys back to where they're there in the spring when guys are working out. I can remember being at Bama and having Julio back for spring practice. He's training, he's in the weight room and the vision of our players, young Jaylen Waddle, seeing Julio who he sees every Sunday on TV making plays, but seeing them put into work and you're starting to see some of our former players come back and train in our beautiful facility. And it's almost like it feeds itself. And that's why you see us starting to turn the corner.” Locksley on Jaishawn Barham transferring within the Big Ten “It's the NFL man. We are more NFL-ish and those things happen. I always say the portal giveth and the portal taketh and to have Jaishawn in our program and he brought value and he did some great things and played a major role in putting us in this position. When kids and sometimes coaches make decisions that the fit isn't the fit for me, I'd rather a kid leave than stay and not be bought in or all in. And I'm not saying that Jaishawn wasn't, but kids leave for whatever reason they decide to leave and I have no problem with it. I saw CJ Dippre do the same thing a year before when he went to Alabama. Rakim Jarrett almost did the same thing and we were able to avoid that, but it's the nature of the beast. And as we become more NFL-ish, as I said, my give a crap gauge being on , I wish him well, man.” what Michigan is getting in Barham “Dynamic football player. The game comes natural, the instincts are natural. I think one of the areas that you'll see him probably improve in is he has the ability to be a pass rusher, a third down, nickel rabbits guy, we used him in that way. But he loves the game, he plays it physical. Smart football player, instinctive. All those attributes that made us recruit him and he developed and did some great things in our program. So, wish him well.” Locksley on expanding the Maryland brand within the Big Ten footprint “I think, again, anytime you expand the room, it gives the perspective of a fresh new start. Having West Coast teams and what they add, the challenges they add, those are great opportunities. And for us, to add four schools that really complement who the Big Ten is, we always talk about we’re the best of both worlds because we have world-class academics as well as world-class athletics and all four of those teams match and fit the personalities of the other teams in this league. And we were the new kids on the block since 2014 and to bring in four new brothers into the league and they all add value, we've added value by joining this league and I'm sure these four will as well.” Felton on him and Kaden Prather leading the 2024 WR room “A little bit of me being an older guy being here for four years after being behind Rakim and Dontay Demus and guys like that. I kind of feel that chip on my shoulder by the end of the day. It's all about the opportunity, just being able to put in that work. You seize the opportunity. We got games to play and then you got younger guys who are watching me and KP and then they're gonna have to play, so we have to set the example so we can be ready to win games.” Locksley on his relationship with Nebraska HC Matt Rhule “I mean the mutual respect there. One of his close first cousins and I, Craig Sponsky, we played college football together and so we had some synergy there and I've always respected Matt. He's one of those guys that had to take or earn everything he's gotten in this profession. And he's a walk-on at Penn State that you look at his career, man. He's done some good things and had a tremendous value with him being in the league and it's great, man. I embrace being able to compete against people. He's coached at the highest level and it's always a challenge when you go against good coaches, but that's what we got in this business. So it's great to compete against a guy that you also call a friend.” Locksley on freshman QBs stepping into starting roles “I would say that my view on young quarterbacks and freshman quarterbacks, and if you look at my last five stops, man, whether it's at Illinois with Juice Williams as a true freshman, coming to Maryland and having to play true freshman like, Perry Hills and Caleb Rowe and Shane Cockerille and going to Bama in a true freshman, Jalen Hurts. I mean, I'm a glutton for this but I would say the first thing that comes to mind is you've got to get their toolboxes full as quickly as you can. Because the only true test for a quarterback is game experience. And so we try to make practices like the show and the show feel like practices. So that's another one of those grandma's chocolate chip cookie recipe things where you have to make practices almost game-like for these young guys and they can build their toolboxes and practice. If you practice the right way, and that's what we try to do.” Related Links
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