As Big Ten shuts down football for the fall, Mike Locksley faces another challenge at Maryland
With six players already opting out before decision was made Tuesday, Locksley believes that COVID-19 concerns was an "issue" for many of his players.
Ever since he was hired as Maryland’s football coach in December of 2018, Mike Locksley has faced challenges rebuilding a program that had its share of struggles, on and off the field.
Locksley was brought in six months after the death of offensive lineman Jordan McNair from heat stroke, four months after his predecessor, DJ Durkin, was suspended for creating a “toxic” atmosphere and a little over a month after Durkin was fired.
And did we mention that the Terps were coming off a fourth straight losing season?
But like every other coach in the Big Ten, Locksley had never encountered the potential loss of a season amid a pandemic that has seen more than 150,000 Americans lose their lives from the complications caused by COVID-19.
Now that the league has put the 2020 on hold - with no concrete plan yet whether it will be played in the winter or spring of 2021 or not at all - Locksley is trying to keep the Terps moving in the right direction.
It isn’t going to be easy.
“It was a rough day around here for our program,” Locksley said in a Zoom call Thursday with reporters, speaking on the Big Ten’s decision on Tuesday. “My heart breaks for our players. They’ve worked really hard in the last couple of months here and through no fault of their own, football has been taken away from them.
“We’ve had some guys that have gone through some extensive rehabs to get back in an effort to play, in the best shapes of their lives. We have guys who are ready to play their senior seasons, which is their last shot. And to to tell them there is no football now, is a tough pill to swallow and hard for all of us.”
Locksley credited his players for adhering to the protocols that produced no positive tests since July 8 - this after eight Maryland athletes and one staff member tested positive after the Fourth of July break - and said that he and his assistants as well as others in the athletic department are now putting together a fall program.
What that will entail Locksley is not quite sure until he is given guidance from the Big Ten and the NCAA.
The Terps had practiced twice with helmets last week before the league - possibly after getting reports that five Big Ten players who had tested for COVID-19 also were diagnosed with a rare and serious heart condition - ordered the teams to scale back. At that point, Locksley kept his team off the practice field and at a local hotel .
According to Locksley, the six players who opted out last week before the Big Ten made its decision have the ability to now return to the team, but added that he assumed most who did have played their last game for the Terps. That list could include offensive linemen Johnny Jordan and Austin Fontaine, both projected starters.
For those who remain on campus and continue to adhere to the protocols, including testing, Locksley said, “We’re hoping that they take advantage of this extra time to improve physically, mentally and in the classroom and we start classes here on Aug. 31.
“We’ll continue to watch things as the NCAA comes out with information on eligibility and the Big Ten conference with information on the possibilities of what a spring/winter schedule looks like and we’ll be able to make adjustments as we see fit.”
Unlike some of his counterparts who came out publicly against the league’s decision, most notably Nebraska’s Scott Frost, Locksley said he was completely supportive of the Big Ten’s decision to postpone the season.
“We’re a program that had six guys opt out because of COVID, so I do know that it was and is a concern of our team,” Locksley said. “My job is to lead the team. We spent a lot of time communicating to our players how we could and would try to create an environment where we could play the game and stay safe and healthy. The best way I could put it, there’s a bunch of them that wanted to play and had we made the decision to play, we were going to do all we could as a staff and as a support staff here to put them in the best position to be successful.”