12 things that can be true at once about Maryland’s hire of Mike Locksley

1. Maryland has been a bad football program for a long time. The Terps have made bowls exactly as often as they’ve missed them for the last 20 years. They were great three of those years, right at the beginning of the century, and have otherwise spent almost their whole modern existence somewhere between below average and slightly above average.

2. More recently, Maryland has been a scourge in a way that has actual human stakes. DJ Durkin’s program fostered a culture that made players too scared to speak up when they were worried for their own safety, a big school investigation found. In May, one of those players collapsed at a team workout and wasn’t properly treated. The player, Jordan McNair, later died.

3. As Maryland looked for Durkin’s replacement after firing him (only under intense public pressure) on Halloween, the school wanted to do two things: a) Make the program better in the way all losing programs need to be better, by recruiting better players and winning more games, and b) Make the program better in the way that should matter most in anything a university does: providing a safe environment for 100-some players.

4. Locksley is suited to make Maryland better in the usual way, and that’s the simplest reason he’s being hired. That’s a weird thing to say about a coach who went 2-26 at New Mexico around the start of the decade, but that was a long time ago. It’s also a weird thing to say about a coach who’s been coordinating offenses for more than a decade and has only had really good ones when he’s had Juice Williams or Tua Tagovailoa playing quarterback.

But he’s legitimately schemed the hell up at Bama, helping Tagovailoa become a star and building the country’s No. 2 offense by S&P+. He just won the Broyles Award, given to the nation’s top assistant.

5. He has a deserved rep as one of the best recruiters in the country and the best recruiter in the DMV. He’s signed a bunch of the best players to ever come out of this region, including convincing Stefon Diggs, Vernon Davis, and Shawne Merriman to come to Maryland despite having countless options elsewhere.

Ohio State Heisman finalist Dwayne Haskins would probably be in College Park if Locksley had gotten the head job three years ago after he’d been interim coach, but Durkin got the job instead.

6. Recruiting is important. It’s less important than building a program that treats players right, but I bring it up because the two things come from the same place: trust. You can only build a healthy program if your players trust that you care for them.

Players and families in this area trust Locksley a great deal. Both the school’s active players and recruits will love this hire, because they trust Locksley will be in their corner. This assessment from an outgoing linebacker aligns with my understanding of their feeling:

7. The last time he was a full-time head coach, at UNM, Locksley did not build a good program in any sense of the term. It does not appear he fostered trust or respect.

He was accused of punching one of his assistant coaches in the face. An administrative assistant accused him of age and sex discrimination before withdrawing an EEOC complaint. He reportedly had a profane, non-physical dustup at a bar with a student journalist who’d been critical of his team.

8. Locksley’s going to have to answer questions about why, given those allegations, he’s the guy to lead Maryland right now. They’re old charges now, and Locksley’s a more experienced guy, and none of those described events is the same as what went on at Maryland under Durkin.

But none of that answers the question at hand. When asked how Locksley could be the right choice now, the school and the coach had better have a more convincing answer than the passage of time. Maryland needs to be above reproach in everything to start repairing the damage. The last time Locksley was a head coach, he did not come close to clearing that bar.

9. The biggest question Locksley has to answer is simple and forward-looking: “How, specifically, will you make sure the players in your care feel safe and are safe?” Neither was totally true under Durkin. Neither will ever be totally true on any football field, but everyone knows what that question means in current context.

10. Maryland’s administration deserves no benefit of the doubt that it knows how to pick people who will treat players well. Maryland’s players do deserve it. They were aggressive in speaking out against Durkin, and indications are they’re thrilled to get Locksley.

11. Everything said here, by Maryland’s most famous alum in media, is accurate:

12. It could turn out that Maryland leaders are making the exact wrong choice, despite evidence telling them they should not be making it.

It could also turn out that Locksley is not just the guy who will win more, but the guy who can do it while inspiring belief from the constituency that matters most: the Maryland players who just went through a year from hell they did nothing to deserve.