Locksley 'at peace' with Maryland firing, open to NFL, college OC jobs

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COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- A day after he was dismissed as Maryland's head coach, Mike Locksley told ESPN he doesn't expect to have an opportunity to be a head coach in college again, but is looking to revive his career in the NFL or as a coordinator for a college program "you can win a championship at."

"But I'm done with the heavy laboring of building," he said, "and taking a job that's going to wear me out. I can't do it anymore." Locksley, 56, was in his eighth season as the Terps' head coach, when the school announced the decision to part ways with him Wednesday. He went 39-54 at Maryland but held a record of 10-21 since the start of the 2024 campaign.

"To be honest I kind of knew it was coming, just didn't know when," he said. "I'm not mad about leaving. I'm not. I'm at peace with it because I know it's better than what it was when I got here. A player died right before I got here and this place was burnt to the ground. Stabilized it, went to three bowls, NIL kicks in, and wasn't prepared for it."

Locksley said he met with Maryland athletic director Jim Smith on Sunday, and packed up his office Wednesday evening.

"I said, 'Jim, I understand, and if you have to do what you need to do, I care more about Maryland and these kids than my ego,'" Locksley said. "But what I won't do is resign. But we can talk and figure out how to let the pressure off of everybody because I care more about Maryland."

Locksley said he has looked back at his accountability and what he could have done better, and retaining elite assistant coaches such as Scottie Montgomery, Jon Hoke and Dan Enos topped the list. He cited salary money along with speculation about his future and negativity as some of the contributing reasons for it.

"The hardest thing I dealt with here was not recruiting players, it's being able to get the right coaches and assistants with me," he said. " ... For whatever reason, I struggled to keep the really good coaches I had because we win, we were having success, and people come hire them. I was not able to keep consistency with the staff. And then NIL hit."

Locksley was set to earn $6.4 million in his eighth season on a contract that runs through 2028 and is owed a buyout of $9.75 million, sources told ESPN's Pete Thamel. There's no offset or mitigation on the deal, which means Maryland will pay all of it even if Locksley lands another job, sources told ESPN. Locksley said he will most likely turn to television commentary, possibly with the Big Ten Network, to get some practice in and see how much he enjoys it.

Locksley added, "It's actually not hard to win at Maryland; it's hard to win consistently at Maryland."