Mike Locksley may have saved Maryland football coach Randy Edsall … for now.
The offensive coordinator helped deliver a solid recruiting class, which once seemed unthinkable after Edsall crashed the program in his debut last fall. Kamikazes didn’t spiral downward faster than Edsall in taking Maryland to a 2-10 record that easily could have been 0-12.
There were legitimate calls for Maryland to fire Edsall immediately, not just for a losing season but for driving more than two dozen players to leave the program in one year, including quarterback Danny O’Brien and two others Monday. O’Brien was the 2010 ACC rookie of the year before the arrival of Edsall, who benched the passer last season.
Unfortunately, Maryland doesn’t have the money to fund eight soon-to-be eliminated teams, let alone pay Edsall to leave. The Terps are stuck with him for at least one more year even if Byrd Stadium might double as a setting for “Life After People” during games this fall.
Edsall got rid of his coordinators and smartly hired Locksley, the architect of predecessor Ralph Friedgen’s early success. Locksley may not be head coach material after a miserable stint in New Mexico, but he’s probably the best recruiter in college football.
Locksley managed to sell a program that stopped putting players’ names on its jerseys and was the joke of the ACC last year to five-star recruit Stefon Diggs, who wowed Terps fans by committing to Maryland last week. There’s some thought that Diggs is the best player ever recruited by the Terps, but that’s an insane statement. No matter the case, that Locksley signed the Good Counsel receiver was a miracle.
Maryland’s recruiting class was ranked last among ACC schools before Locksley’s Dec. 22 hiring. The Terps are now a consensus national top-40 class, which should help turn around the team by 2013. Diggs may contribute immediately as Maryland’s first five-star recruit since offensive lineman Bruce Campbell in 2007. Campbell was solid but not the greatest Terps player of the past decade. Star ratings are always subjective.
Locksley became the Terps’ recruiting coordinator in 1998 under coach Ron Vanderlinden. While many Friedgen haters claimed he won 31 games in his first three years using Vanderlinden’s recruits, those players were really Locksley’s. He departed in 2003 to take the same job at Florida, where his seventh-ranked 2004 class fueled the Gators’ 2007 national title.
Locksley became Illinois’ offensive coordinator in 2005 and spent four seasons there, regularly poaching D.C.-area recruits, including 2007 Big Ten freshman of the year Arrelious Benn. The jump to New Mexico in 2009 seemed a natural progression, but a 2-26 record led him back to Maryland. Locksley’s spread-option scheme should revamp an offense that failed to score 20 points in six games.
Maybe madness won’t envelop College Park again this fall. Perhaps Locksley is one of those great assistants who makes the boss look better.
The Terps better hope so.
Examiner columnist Rick Snider has covered local sports since 1978. Read more on Twitter @Snide_Remarks or email [email protected].
