Terps Locksley: 'I Lost Locker Room Over Who To Pay'

[Symphony Steve]

I know we've taken shots at him over here, but this strikes me more as a 'canary in a coal mine' than a one-off:
Terps' Locksley: Lost locker room amid pay divide

"I own the fact that I lost my locker room," Locksley told ESPN. "And this is Coach Locks, the locker room king, telling you this landscape, I had to choose between paying young players who were coming in or reward the older players that have been through the fire, three bowl wins, and I tried to do both with limited resources. And that's what you get: a locker room with the haves and have-nots."

 

[AngryOtto]

This is not surprising. You hear some deals given to high school players and it’s unsustainable. If you pay a high school Oline men more than your starting left tackle you are either losing him to the portal or there will be issues in the locker room. 20.4 million seems like a lot of money until you have to spread it out amongst all the players.
I saw there was some agreement with the attorneys on collectives. All that means is eventually there will only be a hand full of teams that will be able to compete competitively.

 

[wfschrec]

Locksley sucked before NIL .. this just gives him an excuse.

 

[jr4750]

Locksley sucked before NIL .. this just gives him an excuse.

In this instance I think both of these things are true. Just not sure how you maintain balance in a roster these days. Certainly easier when you have more funding and at factories where 5 stars are aplenty. I worry about teams like ours. What if Meeks had another year or two and in our pursuit of Russell we gave him more. Not representative in anyway of those two players and purely hypothetical, but a concern to keeping established players happy and bringing in top talent with limited budget.

 

[wfschrec]

In this instance I think both of these things are true. Just not sure how you maintain balance in a roster these days. Certainly easier when you have more funding and at factories where 5 stars are aplenty. I worry about teams like ours. What if Meeks had another year or two and in our pursuit of Russell we gave him more. Not representative in anyway of those two players and purely hypothetical, but a concern to keeping established players happy and bringing in top talent with limited budget.

Valid points but he has done little with some really good talent before and after NIL. After beating us in 2019 he was ranked 21 and then lost the following week to Temple. Since Locksley has been at MD he was ranked just that one time for a week. He has a sub .500 record at MD in a very talent rich area, I think he has little room to blame NIL, considering everyone else has the same problem.

 

[djorange1989]

Locksley sucked before NIL .. this just gives him an excuse.

Hey he’s the self proclaimed locker room king, you take that back!!

 

[upperdeck]

The same thing is happening all over and in the smaller money sports as well. it happens in every day life at most jobs

 

[cusefan88]

Fran has honest and real conversations with the players. Some players will be upset but many will appreciate an adult treating them like an adult and being truthful.

 

[jr4750]

Valid points but he has done little with some really good talent before and after NIL. After beating us in 2019 he was ranked 21 and then lost the following week to Temple. Since Locksley has been at MD he was ranked just that one time for a week. He has a sub .500 record at MD in a very talent rich area, I think he has little room to blame NIL, considering everyone else has the same problem.

totally agree, Locksley is a poor coach. I was simply saying I don't think he's wrong about the difficulties NIL creates in the lockeroom. Certainly is easier at schools like Texas, OSU, where there is no shortage of funding and you can just pay each player what they deserve.

 

[wfschrec]

totally agree, Locksley is a poor coach. I was simply saying I don't think he's wrong about the difficulties NIL creates in the lockeroom. Certainly is easier at schools like Texas, OSU, where there is no shortage of funding and you can just pay each player what they deserve.

True but he is in our peer group that’s why I am so happy we have Fran. Instead of whining he just goes out and executes, no excuses. There are far more have nots than haves in CFB.

 

[baggerbob]

Fran has honest and real conversations with the players. Some players will be upset but many will appreciate an adult treating them like an adult and being truthful.

And as word of Fran's honesty, and doing the right thing gets around more of the better recruits will come here. The reason , because of being treated in the right way. Players and Parents will respect that.

 

[Symphony Steve]

And as word of Fran's honesty, and doing the right thing gets around more of the better recruits will come here. The reason , because of being treated in the right way. Players and Parents will respect that.

To an extent. However, 'I wish I could pay you more' only works if someone can't pay more...

 

[Chip]

I'm no Locksley fan, but two things can be true.

1. This was inevitable and won't just happen to the king of the locker room.
2. He out kicked his coverage in marriage.

 

[qdawgg]

Hey he’s the self proclaimed locker room king, you take that back!!

And unfortunately, it seems for most of his career he can’t get the team out of the locker room to actually play well.

 

[djorange1989]

And unfortunately, it seems for most of his career he can’t get the team out of the locker room to actually play well.

Except against Babers in 2019

 

[All4SU]

Put the money in the middle of the room. Let the players fight it out to see who gets what. That’s as good a system as anything we have currently.