Maryland football coach Mike Locksley made a strong claim about his Terrapins' Big Ten title chances at the conference's media days this past week.
“Our program has reached a point where we can say: We're here to compete for Big Ten championships,” he said, via ESPN's Adam Rittenberg. “You haven't heard me say that in the previous four times I've been in front of you guys.”
Locksley and the Terrapins had their best season in his five-year tenure in 2022, when they went 8-5 and won the Duke's Mayo Bowl. Despite that, Maryland finished fourth in the Big Ten East division with a 4-5 conference record.
Twitter users reacted to Locksley's claim with criticism.
Locksley has championship experience. He was on Alabama's football staff under Nick Saban from 2016 to 2018, when the Crimson Tide appeared in three straight College Football Playoff National Championship games. He won a title with the Crimson Tide in 2017 as co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach.
He was full-time offensive coordinator in 2018, which led to his job at Maryland, where he was previously a running backs coach (1997-2002) and offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach (2012-2015).
Since the Terrapins joined the Big Ten in 2014, they have only finished above .500 four times. They have only had one season with a .500 record in conference play.
Locksley has high ambitions for Maryland football in 2023. The Terrapins are a preseason No. 41 team nationally, according to a preview from Athlon Sports.
Here is what the website wrote.
“Head coach Mike Locksley has pushed his chips to the middle of the table and filled coaching staff vacancies with proven commodities, particularly associate head coach Kevin Sumlin and offensive coordinator Josh Gattis,” it said. “The takeaway is that the Terps are close to something special and poised to take another step up the steep Big Ten ladder.”
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