01.05.16
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The Case for Mike Locksley

recruiter

Ten years of exemplary service at Maryland makes Mike a good fit here.

The  least popular individual on a football team when an offense is misfiring is usually the coordinator, so that’s why there were few tears shed on Sunday afternoon by Temple football fans when the news broke that Marcus Satterfield was leaving to take the head coaching job at Tennessee Tech.

After a 7-0 start, the Owls stumbled to a 3-4 finish and the fingers pointed directly to Satterfield, whose offense produced 17 and 13 points in the last two losses. Temple looked incapable of running a hurry-up offense in the AACchampionship loss to Houston, and Satterfield’s call of throwing into the end zone on third-and-3 with Temple down 24-13 and driving at the Cougar 38-yard-line with 7:18 left was widely second-guessed. That’s because the Cougars were giving Owls wide receiver Robby Anderson a 10-yard cushion at the line of scrimmage and a simple pitch and catch could have moved the sticks.

Satterfield bore the brunt of the blame but likely would have survived, because head coach Matt Rhule is widely considered “too nice a guy” to fire assistants. The process that Rhule likes to talk about broke down on one side of the ball late in the season and needs to be fixed.

Fortunately for Rhule, convergence of both time and circumstance has made a more qualified replacement available. Just last week new Maryland head coach D.J. Durkin said offensive coordinator and interim head coach Mike Locksley will not be retained. Unlike head coaching contracts, contracts for college assistants usually are not guaranteed meaning Locksley needs a job. Rhule so happens to have one available, and he should grab Locksley before someone else does. Locksley is a big believer in the play-action passing game Temple likes to run and has put up numbers using a similar system in the past. Locksley was OC for a Maryland team that averaged 28.5 points per game in its inaugural Big 10 season (2014), the most points the school was able to produce since 2010 (32.5). Locksley is also a top recruiter, at three schools — Maryland, Illinois and Florida. While at Florida, he engineered two top 10 recruiting classes in each of his two seasons as recruiting coordinator.

Locksley has plenty of recruiting contacts in an area where Temple usually recruits heavily called the DMV (Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia). The Owls could give Locksley the keys to both the offense and the DMV recruiting area and trust the process once again.

Tomorrow: A Recruiting Overview

7 thoughts on “The Case for Mike Locksley”

  1. It can be done…,

    http://espn.go.com/college-sports/football/recruiting/school/_/id/248/class/2016

    the folks on that other site will point to all the advantages Houston has over Temple, etc., etc.,, if that is the case then why didn’t Houston land this type of recruiting class under Tony Levine?

    The guy at the top makes a difference.., and if you don’t want to compare Temple with Houston (the team in our conference), then compare the Herman with the guys who came before him.., the results are eye opening

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    • don’t understand the argument that Houston is so much better a traditional program that it will take years and years to match them. Hey, when Temple started its upward swing in 2008, Houston started a 3-year run when it lost to crosstown rival Rice twice in 3 years. Can’t tell me the Rice Owls have significantly better than the Temple Owls over the last 7 years. Temple should be taking advantage of Game Day, the Notre Dame game, the 10-win season, and the win over Penn State. Right now, unless we sign 6 4*s in our final group of seven, does not appear we’ve made sufficient enough progress compared to the team we have to beat. Houston is not Alabama. No excuse for not overtaking them.

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      • agree 200%, so what is the message we are delivering to new recruits, “it is going to take us years and years to establish a tradition.., so come help us”

        Houston is still a G5 school, kicking the P5 schools in the butt.., it is in our interest to find out why they are suddenly so successful and trump it, not ignore it or put our heads in the sand…., those pravda guys kill me, they shoot the messenger and attack the individual vice attacking the problem, the easy way out.

        the hard thing is solutioning…,

        1. survey every kid who turned us down, analyze the trends and adjust the strategy accordingly. we are only guessing and relying on hearsay if we don’t

        2. dominate your own backyard; less travel costs, more touch points, etc.,

        3. align the entire TUFB program so everyone understands the importance of selling to 18 year olds, and everyone knows their roles

        4. hire an impact recruiter. And take a lesson from the armed forces recruiters who understand 18 year olds better than most in our society (including parents), and who are extremely successful measured against high standards

        5. hold the program accountable, you will bring in X number of 5/4/3/2 stars…,

        or, we can just trust #The Process because we don’t think like everybody else…..,

  2. Locksley is a great recruiter but a horrible coach.

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  3. Maryland scored a lot of their points in mop up time. Locksley is not a good OC.

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  4. I also worry about Locksley assuming he’s the HC in waiting if he takes a “step down” to a lateral move at Temple. MD also kept their 4star recruits after Locksley was not retained; perhaps he’s been overrated as a recruiter.

    Reply

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