Locksley on Tagovailoa Status, Next Breakout Player & Transparency on the Trail

Head coach Mike Locksley spoke with ESPN Radio in a wide-ranging interview.

Maryland is close to wrapping up their first full week of individual, voluntary workouts as the team prepares for the next step of offseason workouts on June 23. As the coaching staff will trickle onto campus later this month, the Terps will hope for a return to a bit of normalcy as they begin to piece the puzzle together ahead of 2020.

A critical piece to that is the quarterback situation and the likelihood of a waiver for Alabama transfer Taulia Tagovailoa heading into 2020. The NCAA’s decision to pass on a one-time transfer waiver for this season dampened the odds of Tagovailoa suiting up for Maryland this season, which was expected as Locksley reiterated yesterday with Kevin Negandhi on ESPN Radio.

“Obviously we signed Taulia with the mindset that he would have to sit, which had a redshirt year available because he played in five or six games last year at Alabama,” Locksley said. “So, we signed him with that mindset that he probably wouldn’t be available once they pushed the immediate eligibility waiver back a year. We’re in the process of putting in a waiver, don’t know if it’s actually been sent in yet. It will be up to the NCAA to decide if he gets immediate eligibility.”

In the meantime, Maryland enters 2020 with a pair of scholarship quarterbacks as veteran Josh Jackson hopes to claim control of the starting job ahead of redshirt freshman Lance Legendre. Resolving the quarterback woes could set the offense up to take a big step forward offensively in 2020 with ample weapons at the quarterback’s disposal with a deep receiver room. To Locksley, he pointed to junior wide receiver Dontay Demus to become more of a household name this fall.

“Big-time wide receiver we have in our program that made a lot of plays for us last year but because of how bad we played at the quarterback position, made it a little tough to throw the football. But he’s a guy that has an opportunity to be a big-time, big-time player in college football.”

The transparency in Locksley’s response mimics the staff’s philosophy on the trail. The Terps have blazed through this cycle as they enter summer with 16 verbal commitments to sit among the nation’s best classes, and according to Locksley, that transparency made their success possible.

“We started this process with being really transparent about where our program is today, but also much like everything else I do, I also had solutions and answers for how we’re going to get it. So we told them where we want to take the program and then, what we sell them on is how we’re going to get it there.” That vision for the program was reiterated through offseason and spring visits, but life-after-football within the DMV remains a key selling point in Maryland’s efforts. Locksley used former offensive linemen Ellis McKennie as an example of one of many Terps to provide the blueprint for building your resume on and off the field.

“To me, one thing about this area—and all of us that understand the business side of things---location, location, location is everything. Here, we’re 20 minutes from the most powerful city in the world, one of the richest African-American parts of the world right here within 20 minutes of campus. The opportunity to build your resume with or without football, we had players do internships on Capitol Hill during the day and make it back in time to do their offseason lifting program. You can’t do those in certain places and locations because of where they’re located in college towns.”

“So many great things to sell about it. I think the big thing is the plan for how we want to get Maryland to a championship-level program, while at the same time, building their resumes and their brands without the football because of our location and all the things we have in close proximity to our campus.”