Opening statement
“I want to start first by congratulating all of our winter sports and the success that they've had. And I know baseball and coach [Matt] Swope got it going on right now, but also both of our men's and women's basketball team, Coach Frese and coach Willard. Congrats to them and what they've been able to accomplish thus far. And anybody knows me knows I'm a huge, huge basketball fan, so this time of year to see our Terps doing some big things is really good. Wrestling coach, Clemsen a top 25 finish in the NCAA [Tournament] and an All American as well as our gymnastics squad, which qualified for the NCAA. Want to wish all of them well.”
“In terms of football, it's the start of spring ball, and it's a little different for me this year. I know for years I've stood up here and talked about being a developmental program, and as I've learned with the new landscape that we're in, you don't have time to develop. We have to identify, we have to create value, and also bring along the guys in our program in a way that allows us to win now. I talk a lot about the best being ahead, but I told our team the best is now in the landscape we're in. And I know we're all excited as coaches to get out on the field and get started to take a look at what the [2025] iteration of Maryland football, what will begin to look like, because I can tell you that we won't know our team until we get through this next transfer portal window. It's just the way the landscape has kind of shifted. And I would expect after this last portal window, and we get through spring practice with our spring game, April 26 and we will play a pseudo game. I do want to see guys compete. I want to have a chance to evaluate our players, but I can tell you that we won't really start building the ‘25 roster or the ‘25 team probably till sometime in May or June when they get back here. A lot like the NFL, we've transitioned from thinking three and four years down the road to every year, we have to reinvent our team. We have to figure out who we will be this year. And I actually like this landscape because it's very challenging as a coach to organize and also detail and put processes in place to give yourself a chance. But I can tell you, we've been able to do that. This year, the word that we've been talking a lot about is elevating. If you look at where this program was in 2019, I got hired in December of ’18, there was a lot of things going on around this campus, athletics wise. And if you look at where we are today, it's a byproduct of the leadership that we've had from Damon [Evans], from Colleen [Sorem], all the staff over there in XFINITY that have been able to help rebrand what Maryland athletics looks like. And I can tell you, there's no surprise to see what basketball has done. There's no surprise to see what lacrosse has done over the years and soccer, but it's because of the leadership. And I got to give a lot of credit to Damon Evans for the job he's done, providing the necessary resources for me to build Maryland football. And so I know that Damon is leaving. I wish him well. As I've learned in this landscape, change is inevitable and those that anticipated and have plans in place usually will be successful. And it's because of that that I know that Dr. Pines will do a tremendous job in finding the right person for this job.”
“We've elevated every part of our program since December 1, whether it's the roster, whether it's the improvement of the resources in our program, whether it's how we've gone back and looked at how we do football in this new landscape, every part of it's been studied, and I like the direction that we're headed. We've got new coaches in our program that you'll get the opportunity to meet today, have a combined 55 years of coaching experience and NFL experience with this group. And as you start looking at the pro model of where college football has gone, I thought it was important for us to take that next step by elevating in every area of our program, and I think we've done that with our coaching hires. We've elevated our recruiting. A lot has been made about the last couple of classes around here and the class we have going as we speak, and I can tell you that, when we looked at the landscape and how it started to shift, I anticipated that we would have to build through the draft. And the draft, to me, is the high school recruiting, and high school recruiting will always be a priority for me as long as I'm the head coach here because it's the quickest way to establish culture. Because if you can find ways to keep some of these guys in your program long enough to where the culture sets, I've seen the success that we've been able to have doing it this way but I can also tell you that we will and continue to use the transfer portal. And knowing now that we've gone from the model of collectives to revenue share, I feel really confident that we put a plan in place that will allow this team to bounce back pretty quickly. So when you look at the roster and you see the freshmen that we have coming in, as well as some of the incoming transfer portal guys, I think you'll understand why we use the word elevator as we head into our ‘25 team. We built a lot of depth, especially on the [offensive] line and [defensive] line. We've been able to get some of the questions answered through the portal and recruiting. At the DB position, last year, not having Lloyd Irvin and Braydon Lee both kind of hurt us because they were two young corners that we expected to help us. Well, those guys are healthy now, and I'm excited about the direction of both those two positions, which, as you look at the way this team has been built, it was an area of focus. And we've been able to meet, as well as create the necessary depth there to build our team.”
On the QB room, why they’ll be ready for the 2025 season
“We got five other quarterbacks in our program. We recruited Khristian Martin, who was one of the top players out of [the] state of Virginia two years ago, traveled with us. Champ Long played in a couple of series in the Penn State game a year ago. So we have names and quarterbacks that we think obviously are capable to do the job. Obviously, we recruited Malik [Washington]. It's been well-documented the efforts we put into recruiting a player of his caliber. I've played freshmen quarterback. I don't know if you studied my background, but there's been a lot of freshman quarterbacks. Jalen Hurts played as a true freshman, Taulia Tagovailoa. We had guys, Perry Hills played as a freshman and Caleb Rowe. We had a bunch of freshmen. So my expectation is when you go out and recruit players like Malik Washington, or you bring in a Justyn Martin, who has experience and played in this league and played in some games in his league, it's my job and our jobs as a staff to get them ready to play. But I feel that very confident in how we evaluate and how we recruit that these players have the talent that allows them to come and help us early.”
On Kevin Willard’s comments about revenue changing, Damon Evans leaving
“I'm an old school DC guy. Family business is family business. So I have no comment on any of those things. I mean, it doesn't pertain to my business. It doesn't pertain to what I need to do. So as I've stated, since I've been here, I've gotten the resources that I've needed to build a foundation. I've learned in 33 years of coaching, there are no utopias. Every family has their issues and their dirty little secrets, but I'm of the opinion those are handled individually, handled behind closed doors, within family ranks.”
On CB Braydon Lee
“Braydon was one of our big gets a year ago. I mean, he was a guy that's, you know, I don't put a lot into what other people ranked him but he was our top owner coming out of the DC area a year ago. And it was a really big get for us that we had anticipation, much like the Deonte Banks and the Tarheeb Stills, both got off the yellow school bus and were thrown right into the deep end of the pool. We were expecting to be able to do that with a guy like Braydon Lee. He has the talent level, the skill set, the size and really had showed early on that I thought he'd be a guy that could help us. Unfortunately, the injury showed up in I think game three, maybe, and it really cost him the opportunity to develop a little bit, but I really liked what I've seen from him through our first phase of our program, the foundation part of it. He's grown up, has put some weight on. He's built a little armor around himself. So it's going to be fun to watch him and how he has developed, and how he has grown as a player here this spring.”
On the objective for spring ball
“For us, the spring is individually getting better at the fundamentals of football. It's us implementing our systems. We've got new coaches that come in. Sometimes they bring new language that we have to install. But it's also the first opportunity for us as coaches to start the evaluation process of who the playmakers will be for this team for this year. As I said before, the ability to build over three, four years, I'm not sure you're afforded those opportunities in this landscape and I embrace that. And so what I want to get out of this spring, one is to figure out who can play. Number two, to see our coaches develop the fundamentals and the skills that are going to be necessary. And then as we complete our roster in May, when we kind of say, hey, our roster [is] set for the year based on who we have coming back, then you start trying to identify who those play makers can be for you in all three phases.”
On how the program gets back on track
“One of the things I've done when I look back to last season, it wasn't that it wasn't expected. Obviously, with the change in the landscape, with NIL, with transfer portal, navigating that landscape, you had to be creative. And for me, I thought for my first time as a coach, I lost my locker room. And to me, that's a strength of mine, the locker room, and it wasn't because I don't know my guys but it's the first time that at Maryland, we dealt with haves and have nots. Imagine a guy like Tai Felton who maybe didn't get an NIL dollar and he sees young guys coming in that come in because, based on the market, they get something. Well, now, as a coach, I got to teach Tai, you can't worry about what little Billy is getting over here. You have to worry about what you've created, and then somehow flip it to say, you open the door for this to happen. It's like a big brother leaving it better for your little brother, and that's what we faced a year ago. I mean, I own that, and so what I've done is gone about fixing the locker room and making sure I've got the right pieces, the right people on the bus, in the right seats, whether it's staff, whether it's myself, how I approach things. So you know, when you have a year like we had a year ago, it makes you take a really hard look, but I also know that was year six, and when you take out year one in the pandemic, we've graduated a lot of really good players that are in the NFL – Deonte Banks, Tarheeb Still, Nick Cross, Jaylen Duncan, DJ Glaze, Spencer Anderson. I mean, that's a lot of three, four-year starters that had a chance to develop, but we're out of that model of developing. And now it's what can you do now.”
On how to attack pressure
“I don't see it as pressure. When this landscape happened, I told our fans, this is – I embrace it. This is good for Maryland. This change of landscape gives us a chance to grow the program because I can tell you that there's some programs that have benefited from being maybe over resourced that now we all kind of got the same money. Well, let's see who can coach, including myself. And so it's not pressure for me. I've made that out of southeast DC and I'm the head coach at my dream school. What other pressure can be on me?”
On the new coaching staff, what Ted Monachino & Pep Hamilton add to the staff
“I think the big thing is, when you look at the staff, and again, comparison is the kiss of death. So when I talk about elevating the staff, this is by no means to downplay the work that some great coaches have done to build Maryland football because I didn't do it by myself. I had some really good coaches and staff that have all benefited from their time here and left mostly for better opportunities. But I can say that with Pep and Ted, they're both guys that have spent most of their careers in the NFL. I mean, Ted played in the league, was drafted out of Howard University, so he wasn't a guy that was a five-star player. Pep if you were to put his resume without a name at the top, you'd say this guy should have been a head coach in the NFL by now. [For] whatever reason, it hasn't happened. But these are guys that I've known for over 20 years, that I put a lot of trust and faith and as we develop our football program to more of a pro model, like I have a moral compass that it's my job to get these guys degrees. So that part, when I talk about a pro model, I have a moral compass that I didn't play in the NFL. My degree is the reason I'm standing here. But I can tell you that adding the NFL value that Pep brings that, Hal Hunter brings, that Ted Monachino brings. This now is the new recruiting, because as you go into the portal these guys, everybody's gonna have the same money, it's gonna be about can you get me to the next level? Well, I just named three, four coaches that have gotten and coached players at that level and some of us have had opportunities to know what that level looks like, and it's, to me, been a great as we transition how we recruit and how we develop and build a team year in and year out.”
On the promotions of Corey Liuget, Louis Swaba
“When I always look at coaches, always talk about recruiting, managing and developing. That's the job that I asked those coaches to do. And a guy like Corey Liuget, who I had a chance to recruit and coach to Illinois and first-round draft pick, and just watching him, very similar to Navorro Bowman a couple years ago, I've gotten into some of these players that I've recruited and grown over the years that have gone on to play in the NFL, they all say they want to coach. Well, a lot of those guys volunteered for a year or two before they were put in this position, and I can tell you that for guy that was a first round draft pick that played 12 years, Corey Liuget was a guy that you wouldn't know that he was here volunteering. And for the last year and a half, he's been one of those guys that the players gravitate toward because of his experience. He's not as old as some of maybe the other coaches that have coached him, so he can kind of relate a little bit more. And as I said, with his experience of a former NFL experience and what he's been able to accomplish in his career, he's a guy that people listen to.”
Whether the team does anything for the NCAA Tournament
“Because of spring break, I know the quarterbacks got together on Sunday, they had a voluntary pizza party, and they got back early Sunday and had a chance to watch the game. But a lot of the guys travel, obviously, during this time of year, but we all tuned in. I mean, huge fans of what's going on over in Xfinity [Center].”
On his interview with the New York Jets
“Well, first of all, there's only 32 of those jobs in the world, to have a chance to interview and one being having created an organization that the reason for the organization is to prepare, promote and produce the next level of coaches. How do you pass up an opportunity? I mean, if you had a chance to interview to be the editor for The New York Times, that's kind of what that's like. And so the experience for me, though, is I rehearse everything, and as we progress into a pro model, it's not the first time I interviewed for a coaching job at the NFL level and I did my research on it. Obviously it was something for me to go through the process as this team now becomes a little more pro-like, I think it's a great way for me to learn. I learned that from Nick Saban, how he would bring in 20 guys and interview him and get all the information he needed, keep notebooks on everything and then when we went to face those teams, we kind of knew the inside scoop. So for me, having to become a general manager, manage salary caps and put values on players, what a better place to do it than maybe at the NFL. And so to me, to go through that process, to have opportunity for – there's only 32 of them in the world. I think it's a testament to the job that Maryland has allowed me to do to have that opportunity.”
On who will call the plays on offense
“Pep is going to call the plays. I don't want to be the guy all in the video. I'm like, I don't want to be all up in the video. I'd rather, I like to hire guys to do the jobs, and I have all the confidence in the world that Pep, based on our relationship, the system is still the University of Maryland system. As I said before, the play callers personality is what you see the difference in it, how play callers personalities fit.”
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