Maryland coach Mike Locksley has played salesman with his program during this year’s spring practice season, taking the Terrapins around the region to remind people of their recent success as the post-Taulia Tagovailoa era begins.
Spring ball concludes Saturday at noon with the annual Red-White Game at SECU Stadium, only the second in Locksley’s now six-year tenure that won’t feature Maryland’s all-time passing leader, now off to a potential pro career.
To capitalize on the afterglow of that success, which has included three straight bowl victories, the Terrapins have hit the road this month.
Maryland trekked up I-95 to Baltimore on April 6 for a joint practice at Morgan State, a way to “say thank you” to an area that’s been fruitful for the program.
“To me, it’s about selling the brand of Maryland football, what we’ve been able to accomplish the last three years here, going to three bowls, winning the bowl games,” Locksley said. “For us to take the next step, it’s not just about our football team. It’s about our fan base, our supporters.”
Even more poignant was an April 20 homecoming for the District native to his alma mater, Ballou High School. It’s the first time a Division I football program has come to the south side of D.C., something Locksley hopes can inspire others the way he was inspired growing up by John Thompson’s championship Georgetown basketball teams of the 1980s.
“To be able to bring the Terp brand to my high school, it’s kind of surreal,” Locksley said. “You know, I don’t think very many times Maryland stepped through the doors here when I was in high school or within the city limits.”
Maryland’s open scrimmage at the Southeast D.C. school was also a chance for the community to laud Locksley. His football coach at Ballou, Frank Young, was on hand along with other friends and classmates as the school renamed its training facility after Locksley along with a proclamation from the D.C. Council.
“For us to bring the flagship state university of Maryland here to my hometown — to my side of the city, to the south side of the city, which doesn’t get a lot of things like this — it’s a win-win,” Locksley said, “because it gives our players an opportunity to give back to the community that we’re trying to get to come support us.”
Most supporters Saturday will be focused on the quarterback battle and who will succeed Tagovailoa under center. Locksley is taking a more active role in that process, becoming a quarterbacks coach again after doing so at Illinois from 2006-08 and in his second go-round at Maryland from 2012-15.
“It reenergizes me to have that room, to be with the players,” Locksley said. “When you’re a head coach sometimes, you’re the guy that they always — I deal with all the stuff. When you develop the relationship that that room gives you, it does kind of reinvigorate me.”
Fairfax County native Billy Edwards Jr. served as Tagovailoa’s primary backup last season and started in Maryland’s Music City Bowl win over Auburn, with Cameron Edge also getting snaps. Edwards and North Carolina State transfer MJ Morris got the bulk of the playing time under center in the Ballou scrimmage, leading the first and second-team offenses, respectively.
Locksley said at the start of spring practice that he wasn’t anointing anyone as an incumbent — even indicating his decision wouldn’t come until the week of Maryland’s first game of the season against Connecticut.
“It gives me the bird’s-eye view I need to have as to how they prepare and then to see the way they take it from the meeting room to the film room,” Locksley said. “We’ve had a pretty good competition, so excited about being back.”
Six new transfers, including Morris, have been a part of spring sessions, and nine early enrollees from the 2024 recruiting class will take part in the game. Foremost among those are a trio of four-star Maryland natives: offensive lineman Ryan Howerton, running back DeJuan Wiliams and defensive back Braydon Lee.
With a talent like Tagovailoa no longer atop the Maryland marquee, Locksley now more than ever is beating the drum for buy-in from around the region, in attendance and otherwise.
“In this landscape we’re in now, to compete for championships, it’s not just on me to get the job done,” Locksley said. “It’s on the community, whether it’s my community here buying tickets and making ‘The Shell’ a tough place to play, or the supporters we have that want to see Maryland win a national championship here, the opportunity is now.”
• George Gerbo can be reached at ggerbo@washingtontimes.com.
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