“Haven’t Scratched The Surface” – University of Maryland Athletics

As Mike Locksley addressed the media on the day Maryland Football kicked off its spring practices, and by extension, its 2023 season, he made one thing clear early on: he doesn’t believe teams can automatically add to what they did the year prior, especially not in this day and age where player and coach movement is the norm.

“We have to be very cautious about approaching this season with the mentality of building on what we were able to do a year ago,” Locksley said. “I’m a strong believer that there is no building on last year. Each team is its own entity and when we lose players like some of the players we will be losing from last year’s team, it’s a restart.”

But while this year’s restart of Maryland football will look substantially different in a number of facets, there are two essential things Locksley is confident will carry over from last year’s team to this year’s: culture and development.

And it’s those two elements that are what the program will rely on to move from a good team to a championship-level one.

“What I do feel is that the culture is what will allow us, in this restart, to hopefully maintain some of the characteristics that it takes to build a winning program, to build a championship program,” Locksley said. “For me, the locker room is where it starts. And if there’s anything that really jumps out to me, it’s the locker room. The players that have left have left a huge imprint on the way we need to do things, the Terp way, the right way. I think the players in the locker room now see the dividends of when you do things the right way. I think that that gives us a great start into the 2023 version of the Maryland Football family.”