“It’s been a dream come true for me to come home,” Locksley says.
The past two seasons, 49-year-old Locksley served as offensive coordinator at Alabama—a program that has won four national championships since 2011 under Nick Saban—the which made him attractive to Maryland.
Locksley has a long association with the Terps. He worked as an assistant coach at the school for 10 years and took over as interim head coach for six games when Randy Edsall was fired in 2015.
Locksley, who also was the head coach at the University of New Mexico for three seasons and played college football at Towson State University, inherits a program coming off a tumultuous season in which the death of offensive lineman Jordan McNair led to the suspension and ultimate firing of head coach DJ Durkin.
Locksley says his relationship with McNair’s parents made his transition to the job easier. He recruited McNair to Maryland and reached out to the family when he learned of his death in June of 2018. Locksley was able to relate to their pain because of the death of his own son Meiko, who was fatally shot in Columbia in September of 2017.
We recently sat down to talk to Locksley about improving the Terps, what he does to relax after a tough game, and his relationship with the McNair family.
How do you turn the program around after a 2018 season where the school was criticized for mismanagement of a very difficult situation?
If you look at last season, there’s not that big a gap between Maryland and some other programs. They beat Texas and played Ohio State down to the wire. They lost three or four games in the fourth quarter. We are not as far away as some want to make it seem. Turning it around starts with the right kind of work habits. I think we have a strong core of players that have really bought in. We have to develop the right kind of culture that it takes to be a successful program.
Can you talk about your relationship with the McNair family and how you guided them through that tragedy because of your personal experience?
Unfortunately, we both share a fraternity that stinks to be in. The circle of life is not built for parents to bury their children. Both of us, over the last year and a half, have dealt with the tragedy of having to bury a child. You never get over it. You learn to get through it. Our sons and daughters went to high school together. They both signed their National Letters of Intent on the same day. My daughter [Kori] went to Auburn for soccer.
When I heard the story of Jordan’s death when I was at Alabama, it brought back so many emotions for me when I lost Meiko nine months earlier. I reached out to [McNair’s father] Marty and offered support and an ear to listen to. I was able to mentor him a bit in dealing with the tragedy and being the man of the house. I told him, “Be really strong for the brothers, wife, and the mom. They see you as the rock.” We both were able to grow as men and our relationship was really cemented and forged even more.
You have said your relationship with the McNairs made the transition easier to taking the job and allowed you to have empathy for the team. Do you still feel that way?
I think my relationship with them was important for me to take this job because I had their support. It was important for two reasons. First, taking over the job and having them be there to support me would make the transition easier. Second, the players here were like brothers to Jordan. We needed to all heal together. Because of me having gone through Meiko’s death and their having to deal with the loss of their brother, it gave me empathy and an understanding of what our players were going through. If you haven’t experienced it, you don’t know how people feel. We wanted to continue to move the program forward, but doing it the right way and honoring Jordan by the way we compete, prepare, and practice.
What did you learn at Alabama under Saban that you brought to Maryland?
I learned Nick was such a clear and concise communicator to the coaching staff and the players about what the values and standards of the organization were. I also learned quality control in every aspect of the program. Whether it was recruiting, offense, defense, special teams, nutrition, or strength and conditioning. Whenever you do something, you quality control it, meaning ask the questions, “Why was it good? Why wasn’t it good? Why didn’t it work? What can we do better?” It’s something where you don’t have to continue to reinvent the wheel when running into similar situations down the road.
Can you talk about how sports was the outlet that allowed you to get where you are today when you grew up in an underserved part of D.C.?
I went to high school in the southeast section and grew up in the southwest earlier. There are not many people from the southwest section of D.C. that are running companies or Division I football programs. I grew up in a single-parent home for most of my life. Growing up in that environment was very motivating to me to want to do better.
College football is big business. What are your thoughts about players potentially getting paid?
Anything you can do to take care of the players, I am all for. I have no problem with the players getting paid. I think we have to come up with a consistent way to do it to ensure that everybody gets a piece of the pie. I have no problem with players fighting for pay.
What do you do to relax after a difficult game?
I like going home and being around my family. To unwind, I like watching sports of any kind. I am an avid reader. I love to read autobiographies or leadership or self-help type books. But I don’t do a lot of relaxing. I typically get right back to watching film.
Your wife, Kia, is a yoga instructor. How much yoga have you done?
She taught yoga to our team at Florida, Illinois, and New Mexico. I don’t participate in a lot of yoga. She has tried and she wants me to. It’s something I may take on as I get up there in age. It helps you keep limber. At some point, it might be something we do at Maryland.
You did something coaches rarely do: invite the media to your house for a barbeque before the season. Why do that?
I was on staff at Illinois and Florida with Ron Zook. It was one of the things he did. There is such an odd relationship between coaches and the media at times. The media has a job to write a story and coaches have a job to prepare their teams to play. Somewhere in between lies a story. We completely respect the media and what they do. It was kind of a thank you. I just thought we could use it as an opportunity to get to know the media a little more personally and let them see us outside the element of a press conference. It’s kind of what we are doing with our team: turning the page on last year and moving forward.
