Maryland football wrapped up its 2025 recruiting class as four-star Zahir Mathis became the 21st and final signee on Wednesday afternoon, picking the Terps over Florida State. Head coach Mike Locksley spoke with Rivals about the January pursuit of the Philly star, how it happened, how integral QB Malik Washington was in the pursuit. Plus, Locksley dives into Zymear Smith as a potential two-way player during spring ball:
On the signing of OLB Zahir Mathis
“Zahir was not necessarily a late guy, but I can remember going by Imhotep a year ago, [in] January, and in for the first time seeing him. He's a guy that played his youth football down here for the Maryland Heat program. And he and Malik, as well as Jackson Hamilton, were all part of that Maryland Heat Team where they shared the field together and did some really good thing. I think they won the youth national championship or went to the youth national championship game together. And I can remember Malik calling me once he got down in the Under Armour game, and at one point Malik wasn't going to play in the Under Armor game, he was maybe going to play in the other one. And then when he decided to play in that game, it all kind of came to fruition because of a relationship that those two had. Malik called me and said, ‘coach, man, we may have a shot at this, at Zahir. And I'm like, let's do it. And next thing I know, it sped up. And, you know, I got up to Philly, chance to see him, and we really hit it off. And I think obviously the relationship with Malik, a lot of the players on this team having played with him, with the Maryland Heat youth program here locally. He would travel down from Philadelphia, to play with this group and it all worked out in our favor. What kind of player can he be? I mean, there's no doubt he's one of those guys that has the ability to come in as a pass-rusher and have an immediate impact. He's a lot more mature than what his age shows. And again, anybody that spent any time with this kid knows, he's made up of the right stuff. And he's definitely the type of player that I've had great success with.”
On signing QB Malik Washington
“I think the big thing is, when we came in here in 2019, Malik was a guy we identified very early as a guy that we thought -and this is, I'm talking he and Bryce Jenkins, I can remember them being eighth graders coming up, and they were already had made a name for themselves in the DMV area as young football players. And it's just relationships. I mean, to be able to sign a quarterback of Malik's caliber starts with developing real, authentic relationships, which is a strength of, I think, of mine because I really do it's important to me that these kids know that it's more than just about football with me. And I think with Malik and I, it never really felt like recruiting. It really felt as if we were – I was painting a picture of what this program was going to look like in a few years. And then he had a chance to see it come to fruition, and even going into this season, talking to him a little bit about the struggles of losing some of the players we lost a year ago, but he's never wavered. And to me, he built his high school program very similar. And we basically said, you really don't have to reinvent the wheel. You can take the things you did and implemented at Archbishop Spalding and then transfer it over here to Maryland the way you built that program. Again, he's got some work to do. We've got a few quarterbacks in our system but feel really good about being able to get a player of his caliber to buy into a vision.”
On how the flip process for four-star Zymear Smith developed, how he fits
“We pegged him as an offensive player. There was talk possibly, I mean, very similar to a couple of the guys that – we've had Octavian [Smith], was a quarterback, receiver, [defensive back]. There's no doubt that Zymear has the ability to play on either side of the ball, but his ability with the ball in his hand and he's a guy that, again, we've recruited for two, three years. I've seen him. His athleticism, the critical factors and traits, speed, short area quickness, explosiveness, all those things, to me, translates to and we'll start them on the offensive side of the ball. His return ability [will] also help. But I also would not venture to say that, you know, I’ve played guys both ways. Will Likely was a two-way player for us. Tarheeb Still did a little bit of that, and he's one of those guys, because he's here early that we’ll maybe use them for half the spring on offense, half the spring on defense, to see just where he could best help us.”
On the hire of Pep Hamilton as QBs coach & offensive coordinator
"Pep and I's relationship goes back to, I want to say 1997, ‘98 when he was a young assistant at Howard University. I was the young recruiting coordinator at that time. Had coached against him as a player, coached at Towson when he was finishing up his career at Howard. And so because of that, you know, he would work our camps under Coach [Ralph] Friedgen and I was the camp director. And Pep and I really share a lot of the same philosophical thoughts when it comes to quarterback play, offensive systems. He's been more what I call the Battle of Gettysburg – run game guy, but as you see, he's been able to do a lot with the quarterbacks that he's had a chance to coach and he's coached young ones much like I have, having been a part of Jalen Hurts as a true freshman there at Bama, Tua Tagovailoa. We've played young Juice Williams at Illinois. So if you put both of us together, and the fact that we've got veteran quarterbacks like Justyn Martin and you know, got a couple of young guys that redshirted it a year ago, Khristian Martin and Champ Long have really continued to develop. I feel really good about that room, but there's no doubt, bringing Pep in, his pedigree of developing quarterback. That takes pressure off of me. A year ago, I kind of took over the play calling there midseason and as a head coach, it's not something that I wanted to do, but I can and will. And so to have a guy that has called plays at the highest level, has developed NFL MVPs. And really, if you look at his resume, I mean, if you were to just put his resume out on the internet without a picture, he'd be a guy that most people would have hired as a head coach by now when you look at the type of resume. So [I’m] excited about adding his experience, but even more so, a guy that really shares philosophically the way you develop an offensive system and develop players.”
On the emphasis on local recruiting during Locksley’s tenure as head coach
“Really important for this program. I mean, our lifeline is being able to not have to travel very far. When you look at the things that Maryland has to offer and one of the selling points for us, it's like any other business, it's location, location, location. The most powerful city in the world is 20 minutes, 30 minutes from our campus, two major metropolitan area, life after football opportunities. Obviously, with this new college landscape of NIL, Fortune 500 companies located here, Under Armours is headquartered right here in our state. Again, it's really important for us to continue to show the local players that you don't have to go away to go to school. We're putting guys in the NFL. I think we had over the last couple of years, we've had 12 guys drafted over the last four or five years. We've had three first-rounders out of here [in] the last six drafts. So a lot of times people say you can't be developed, you can't go to the next level. Well, we've shown that you can and you can do it with the local players being the foundation for how we recruit. We're still recruit nationally because we're the Big Ten, and we're the only national conference with both coasts being covered, the middle of the country being covered. But we'll be very local-centric with how we start and build the foundation. But again, with the relationships we have and because of where we're located, we feel we should be able to recruit nationally as well, but we're gonna take care of the home base first.”
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