Mike Locksley: The Underrated Gem of Saban’s Coaching Rehab

By Kyle Golik

Over the years, former Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban grew a reputation of rehabilitating coaches and getting them ready for their next gig. As Saban matured in his own leadership style, it resonated with promising coaches who simply needed a system to maximize their own skills. Most point to Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin, or Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian as the star pupils of Saban’s coaching rehab. One you might not think of right off the bat is current Maryland head coach Mike Locksley .

Locksley enters his sixth season at College Park, after last season’s Music City Bowl 31-13 win over Auburn, it marked the first time in program history that Maryland had three bowl wins in three consecutive seasons and the first time since 2006 to 2008 that the Terrapins appeared in three postseason games. Locksley ever known for his offensive prowess helped guide Maryland to being in the Top 5 in the Big Ten in seven offensive categories (points per game (29.7), touchdowns (49), passing yards (3,626), completions (307), total yards (5,035), yards per game (387.3) and yards per play (5.9).

The demons that surrounded Locksley surrounded his tumultuous time at New Mexico. Locksley served as New Mexico’s head coach between 2009 and 2011 and it was fueled by incidents. It began in 2009 when Locksley was sued for sexual harassment by an administrative assistant. The matter was settled by Locksley and his attorneys. On the field, Locksley was suspended for one game for punching assistant coach J.B. Gerald . According to the police report, Locksley grabbed Gerald by the collar and repeatedly punched Gerald as the rest of the staff were trying to separate both Locksley and Gerald.

As the New Mexico program continued to crater under Locksley, it fell to a 2-26 record after New Mexico lost to FCS Sam Houston State, the Joshua Butts incident ultimately did Locksley in.

Butts obtained a vehicle that belonged to Locksley’s son Meiko and that was registered with Locksley’s wife Kia. Butts, who was 19 at the time of the incident, operated the vehicle while intoxicated, without a license, and illegally had alcohol while driving recklessly.

During Butts’ interview with authorities, Butts claimed he was brought from Chicago to play football for New Mexico. When New Mexico was asked about Butts’ relationship with the program, the school said Butts wasn’t a recruit and wasn’t part of the team . It was this incident that immediately led Locksley to the unemployment line.

Locksley returned back to College Park as an offensive coordinator to aid in Randy Edsall’s attempt to reinvigorate a Maryland program that was about to enter the Big Ten. In a way, Edsall was the first to rehabilitate the radioactive Locksley, but the results on the field didn’t help matters.

While Maryland made it to bowl games in 2013 and 2014, it was the disastrous offense and start to the 2015 campaign that included a one-sided affair against Bowling Green, along with four 21-point or more losses that didn't help matters, Edsall was fired and Locksley was tagged as interim coach.

Maryland didn’t respond much better losing five of their final six games, but Locksley holding the situation together may have been something that would aid Locksley a few years later.

As Alabama entered the 2016 season, Nick Saban had one of his legendary staffs that consisted of Lane Kiffin, Jeremy Pruitt, Mario Cristobal, and Billy Napier, Locksley joined the staff as an analyst along with Steve Sarkisian. It is during this time, Saban would rehabilitate Locksley.

During his three season stint in Tuscaloosa, that saw Locksley rise from an analyst to a Broyles Award-winning offensive coordinator in 2018, and coordinating the Crimson Tide to a national championship in 2017.

During his first Big Ten Media Days back in 2019 , Locksley was asked what he learned from Saban, saying:

“If I learned anything from Coach Saban, it’s, one, consistency in your messaging. He talks about the process. I call it behaviors and habits. Also we do a thing called quality control, and I think that is a huge thing because people think when you have the success we had at Alabama under Coach Saban that it’s easy, but it’s so hard to teach your players when you’re having success. And I know he often times says, hey, don’t waste a failure. But when we have had success, we’d still go back and we still went back and looked at why it was successful and we asked the tough questions of how we can make it better. So for me, I love the term “success leaves clues,” and “don’t waste a failure,” and I’m going to take all the clues learned at Alabama, implement them, have our players learn the behaviors and habits to be not result-oriented but to be process-oriented. And if we can focus on learning and having those types of habits and behaviors, I see Maryland being able to reach the success that we all want.”

As Locksley enters his sixth season, Maryland is beginning to reach the success that it always wanted. Locksley may not have the cache that Kiffin or Sarkisian have, but what Locksley has accomplished in a Big Ten division during his first five seasons with Penn State, Ohio State, and Michigan in the same division has been remarkable. Locksley has an eye for talent, according to 247Sports signing 43 four or five-star recruits over his entire coaching career, with 28 from the DMV where Maryland has to be successful. Locksley has coached 114 NFL Draft selections. He can recruit, coach, and mold talent. Possessing all the leadership qualities schools look for, maybe Locksley is the underrated gem that Saban rehabilitated in Tuscaloosa.