Maryland football coach Mike Locksley admits he lost locker room due to NIL in 2024
Maryland football lost a ton of games in 2024, but Mike Locksley admitted he lost the locker room before those on-field losses.
Speaking to ESPN on July 22, Locksley said he lost the locker room over which players he needed to compensate with NIL. That led to a 4-8 record, the worst since his first season in 2019 when the program finished 3-9. The Terrapins won just one conference game and lost each of the last five games of the season by at least 14 points.
"I own the fact that I lost my locker room," Locksley told ESPN. "And this is Coach Locks, the locker room king, telling you this landscape, I had to choose between paying young players who were coming in or reward the older players that have been through the fire, three bowl wins, and I tried to do both with limited resources. And that's what you get: a locker room with the haves and have-nots."
Following a 3-win season in 2019, the Terrapins went 2-3 in the COVID-19-impacted 2020 season. However, they went 23-16 between 2021 and 2023, which included three straight bowl victories. Maryland had not had three straight winning seasons since 2001-03. The program had never previously won bowl games in three straight seasons.
Locksley called the 2024 season "a valuable lesson."
"You go outside my locker room [now] and I have a sign that says: 'Leave your Louis belts, leave your financial statements and your car keys outside of this locker room, because in here we're all going to pay the same price for success or failure,'" Locksley said. "If I've got to put my desk in that locker room, I will. A valuable lesson learned."
With the House settlement in place since July 1, Locksley said he has been able to focus more on the locker room this season rather than how much players are paid.
He has a 33-41 record in his first six seasons with the Terrapins, and is 35-67 over his nine-year career as a head coach.
"I call this a year of vulnerability for me, because I've been torn about what to say about our team when people ask; but I don't know what type of team we have yet," Locksley said. "Some people, as a coach, it's like a bad thing to say, 'I don't know.' But it's a good thing that I don't know."