By Wayne Viener – Who is going to be the next football coach at Maryland? Interviews are going on today. Interim coach Mike Locksley and Michigan defensive coordinator DJ Durkin are on the list. I am not sure the interview list is complete.
When last I saw Kevin Anderson on Saturday night, he was navigating the hallways of Xfinity Center with suitcase in tow. He has been traveling and talking about the job opening for 2 months now. I would think that the issue would have been decided by now.
Some think it is Pep Hamilton, former offensive coordinator for the Colts and before that with Stanford. Others had Dan Mullen, head coach at Mississippi State as the leader, that notion has seemed to cool.
Scott Frost, the former Nebraska quarterback and current Oregon offensive coordinator is still on the list. As is former Terp quarterback Frank Reich, now the offensive coordinator for the San Diego Chargers.
Could it be Rich Rodriguez, the current head man at Arizona and formerly of WVU? Keith Cavanaugh has mentioned that Scott Milanovich, the former Terp qb wants back in at Maryland.
The names are still swirling around. The job is still open.
What I want to know is, how with a two month head start do we not have a coach by now? Not even an agreed upon favorite.
So what follows is a guess, a possible future – What if the job goes to Mike Locksley? He can recruit and might be even better at that as the head guy at Maryland. Could Maryland land Mike London, the recently let go Virginia head coach as the defensive coordinator? It would be a heck of a combination.
The questions on Locks are, “is he a head coach? Can he teach? Will the players get better over the four years?” I think the team was much better under Mike the past few games than they were under Randy Edsall. The offense certainly picked up, but the Terps need a qb.
In context, no one is coming to the games now. Remember when we were assured sellout crowds at Byrd if Maryland went to the B1G, If one wants to argue that removing the interim label from Locks will dampen ticket sales, I don’t know if that is possible.
Wins sell tickets. He will have to win here and fast.
Locks has a 3-31 record as a head coach. He ran a failed administration in New Mexico. I think he can win here at Maryland, the job fits his connections much better than New Mexico. If he is the choice, I can live with it.
Ryan Armacost
If they do NOT hire Mike as the permanent, they are committing suicide.
First, you lose Haskins, then probably the entire #17 class. THEN, all the kids that Mike has gotten the last two years. Prince, etc.
Lots of jobs open up, so Lockely goes to Rutgers, or anywhere near us, and all these kids go to schools that will play us.
PLUS, as far as recruiting this area? Goodnight. We will get NO ONE.
This team was so much better under Locksley, and you can see that if they had a QB, they might have won every one of those games.
He has a top class coming in, after building the recruiting since coming back in 2011.
Let him have the reigns and see what he can do. To not do that, would be the dumbest, most absurd, intentional set back in NCAA football history.
I PRAY that Anderson makes this obviously correct call.
· 11/12/2019
freddy from boca
kinda of easy why the job and most jobs haven’t been filled. when the md job opened up most, if not all the prime candidates were working. as time went on more jobs, better jobs became available. it’s a coaches market with so many firings. md is not the kind of job a quality candidate is going to jump at from the get
go. coaches are doing lots of shopping before they buy.
locksley would have to be a long long shotshot. the only reasons i culd see locks getting the job is md doesn’t feel it can get the type guy they really want because there are so many good jobs available and keeping locksley would do the same thing md wanted when they extended edsall. maintain continuity in the program until the cole practice and performance center is ready. when cole is very close to being ready it becomes an excellent sales tool for the school to hire a coach and that coach will have an excellent recruiting tool to have at his disposal. right now they haven’t broken ground you have no concrete sales tool or recruiting tool available.
i don’t think locks is that good of a coach. the kids played harder and with more passion which isn’t hard to imagine after edsall left. nobody wanted to play for him. but overall i don’t think locksley is the answer. locks wouldn’t be the big splash the fans want for whatever that’s worth. md needs new blood. a coach who can come in and change the culture of the program. i don’t think you can do that from within
· 11/12/2019