How Mike Locksley, 4-0 Maryland found way back from ‘lost’ locker room

Maryland coach Mike Locksley admitted that NIL jealousy fractured his team last season.
The team has seen a significant roster turnover, with 64 new scholarship players this year.
Freshman quarterback Malik Washington is credited with helping unify the team and leading its turnaround.

Nothing about college football makes sense of late, so this just fits perfectly. 

The revelation, and the response. 

Earlier this summer, Maryland coach Mike Locksley admitted he lost his locker room last season, that infighting and jealousy over NIL dollars led to a fractured team and a coach at a loss to fix it. 

“You get in the middle of that, it’s difficult to see a way out,” Locksley said.

Here’s your way out: man-child freshman quarterback Malik Washington.

“I love the heart of this team, like the way we’re growing,” Locksley said after Maryland’s 27-10 win over Wisconsin on Sept. 20. “We’re growing together.”

Welcome to another episode of the ever-evolving story of college football in the player empowerment era.

To put Maryland’s 180-degree change into perspective, Locksley may as well have planted a scarlet letter on his chest — to match those sweet Maryland-red trousers he confidently wore at Big Ten media days — by declaring the extent of his professional failure. 

He essentially admitted a fireable offense — an unrecoverable sin in coaching circles — and lived to tell about it. That’s how important the quarterback position has become in the sport. 

If winning is the engine to cure all problems (even NIL envy), elite quarterbacks are the fuel.

A top-50 recruit by most recruiting services, Washington (6-5, 235 pounds) stayed in his home state and took a chance on Locksley when he could’ve taken the easier road at Penn State or Oregon. 

Before Washington signed last December, Locksley told him how and why the 2024 season unraveled, and how Washington would be at the forefront of a significant roster turnover. Here’s how significant: 64 of the 85 scholarship players weren’t part of the 2024 fractured locker room.       

Locksley knew something when he publicly bared his coaching soul in July, when he spoke about the 64 new players and how they were going to cause problems for the rest of the Big Ten. They weren’t the most highly scouted guys, he said, but they were talented. 

Guys like freshmen defensive ends Zahir Mathis and Sidney Stewart, who have combined for six and a half sacks in the first month of the season. Or senior wideout Shaleak Knotts, who spent three years at Maryland figuring out the position, and now looks like a legit NFL draft pick with five touchdowns in four games. 

And then there’s Washington, who last week became the first true freshman since 2020 (and only second in 20 years) to throw for 250-plus yards in each of his first four games. He has completed 60% of his passes, has accounted for 10 touchdowns (two rush), and only one turnover. 

Who knows where this thing goes, especially considering the Terps have played three gimme putts (FAU, Northern Illinois, Towson) and a Big Ten rival on the verge of collapse (Wisconsin). But one thing that’s undeniable: operationally, this team is miles ahead of 2024. 

Locksley got rid of problems in the locker room, and figured out a workable solution to paying players. He struggled last year with the concept of paying young players and building organically, or paying older players from the transfer portal and hoping for the best from the annual crapshoot.

What happened last week in Madison, Wis., could’ve never happened last year, no matter how dysfunctional the Badgers now look. Those 64 new players went on the road for the first time together, and beat a desperate team. 

“Last year has no bearing with anything we have going on with this team,” Locksley said. “We’ve ripped off the rearview.” 

Because with Washington, and the right mix of talented young players and portal additions, it doesn’t matter anymore. When you have a player at the most important position on the field who’s difficult to defend, who creates matchup problems for defenses and constantly puts them in conflict, everything is in front of you. 

“We’re defined by the present, by what we’ve done today,” Locksley said.

The beauty of living in today, and forgetting about yesterday. 

Then living to tell all about it. 

Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.