Maryland said goodbye to longtime quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa last offseason and promptly suffered through its worst season since 2019. The Terrapins lost 8 games in 2024, missing out on a bowl game for the third time under coach Mike Locksley.
The offense suffered without Tagovailoa at the controls. Maryland ranked 95th in offensive efficiency, averaging only 5.4 yards per play. And the Terps averaged just 23.7 points per game to rank 100th in the FBS.
But the dysfunction can’t be entirely attributed to the change at quarterback. In fact, at Big Ten Media Days this week, Locksley pulled back the curtain a bit and revealed something deeper was at play.
“I’ll tell you, a year ago Coach Locks lost his locker room,” Locksley said. “I lost my locker room, and it wasn’t because I wasn’t a good coach. It wasn’t because they weren’t good players because we were better than a 4-win team.
“We had haves and have-nots for the first time in our locker room, and the landscape of college football taught me a valuable lesson. That valuable lesson is it’s important for me, even in the midst of this change, to continue to educate our players on the importance of what playing for something bigger than yourself is all about. And I can tell you that if I’ve got to put my desk in the locker room this year, I will.”
Locksley went on to say he now has a sign posted outside the Maryland locker room that instructs players to leave the “Louis belts,” car keys, and “financial statements” outside because inside the locker room, “we’ll all pay the same price for success or failure.”
Maryland hired a general manager this offseason, Geroy Simon, to take some of the burden of roster management off Locksley. The former Alabama assistant admitted that last year was tough on him as a coach.
“For the first time, those really strong relationships were questioned because I had to decide whether to pay a freshman coming in or take care of a veteran player that helped me go to 3 bowl games,” Locksley said. “It was hard to do both.
“… That’s what last year was about for me, but that’s also why I’m excited about this year, because I don’t know what kind of team I have just yet, but I know that they’re really talented. It’s a matter of them playing for something bigger than themselves, which we’re in the process of developing that type of culture.”
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
