Mike Locksley responds to Nick Saban's comments about departed assistants' 'personal agendas' causing distractions
Nick Saban made some comments about his departed staffers that raised a few eyebrows this week at SEC Media Days. Talking with Paul Finebaum, Saban said that some of his former assistants’ “personal agendas” led to distractions around the program, particularly after the LSU game in November. One of his former assistants, Mike Locksley, was asked about those comments.
At Big Ten Media Days, the former Crimson Tide offensive coordinator, now the head coach at Maryland, told a Washington Post reporter that he was assured Saban’s comments weren’t directed at him. Locksley pointed out that any speculation he wasn’t trying to win the national championship game doesn’t make sense.
“I know this, why wouldn’t I want to win the national championship to springboard my time here at Maryland?” Locksley said.
While the outcome was unfortunate, Locksley doesn’t stress over “what might have been” for the 2018 Alabama football team.
“I can sleep at night knowing we did a great job,” Locksley said. “We broke records there on offense. We gave ourselves a chance to win except one game, which I understand the expectation at Alabama is to win championships and we picked the national championship to not execute well.”
You can bet Locksley won’t be the last former Alabama assistant asked about Saban’s comments.
Locksley: “I can sleep at night knowing we did a great job. We broke records there on offense. We gave ourselves a chance to win except one game, which I understand the expectation at Alabama is to win championships and we picked the national championship to not execute well.”
— Emily Giambalvo (@EmilyGiam) July 18, 2019
Locksley was the only coach on that staff who became a head coach, but he said there were “quite a few guys on our staff at Alabama that had opportunities to interview for head-coaching jobs.”
— Emily Giambalvo (@EmilyGiam) July 18, 2019