Maryland Terrapins head coach Mike Locksley has been coaching football since the early 1990s. He has never seen anything like this in college football. The NIL era has been marred with controversy as programs try to navigate the new landscape. Locksley is not a fan and blasted the NIL era in a recent interview.
Maryland Terrapins Mike Locksley On The NIL Era
Wonder why CFB head coaches are fleeing their jobs?
Maryland’s Mike Locksley said a 3rd-string RB demanded $100K or else he was hitting the portal. pic.twitter.com/7IWXoOC6jB
— College Sports Only (@CollegeSportsO) February 11, 2024
In the last couple of weeks, we have seen a few college head coaches leave to take coordinator jobs in the NFL. Their reasoning? They want to get back to coaching football. The modern college football coach has to deal with recruiting and fundraising first; otherwise, the program will fail. Actually, coaching the team becomes secondary. Lockley talked about this in an interview with SiriusXM radio.
“I’m never one to complain about the amount of work, but I can tell you for the first time in 33 years of coaching, I went home and said, ‘Am I really gonna have enough energy to do this for the long haul?’” Locksley said. “My hope is that we can put a guardrail around the NIL and the transfer portal stuff and create more accountability in terms of knowing.
“The hard part is you just can’t build a roster and know exactly who, what, when. So, for me, I think it’s going to be really important. There’s a lot of different things you have to do, but you have to prioritize when it’s time to coach football, we’ve got to coach football. I’ve been able to do that and I’ve got a staff of coaches that help me do that.”
Ridiculous Demands
Dec 30, 2023; Nashville, TN, USA; Maryland Terrapins head coach Mike Locksley waits to take the field before the game against the Auburn Tigers at Nissan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports
In the interview, Locksley revealed that a third-string running back was demanding $100,000 in NIL money. Money doesn’t grow on trees. In order to pay everyone, serious fundraising has to be done. In the NFL, rosters are limited to a smaller number of players. In college, rosters are allowed to be much bigger. If this is going to be sustainable, college football will need some guard rails in place.
Does Mike Locksley have a point? Only time will tell, but it looks like there will be a lot of changes coming to college football in the coming years.
Sep 15, 2023; College Park, Maryland, USA; Detailed view of a Maryland Terrapins helmet during the game between the Maryland Terrapins and the Virginia Cavaliers at SECU Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Reggie Hildred-USA TODAY Sports
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Publish date : 2024-02-12 03:00:00
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