Maryland Football: Mike Locksley and Taulia Tagovailoa believe they can win a championship

Can Maryland football take the next step in 2023?

Maryland is a basketball school. That statement isn’t a surprise to anyone who follows college sports. Even Maryland fans themselves will tell you that they are a basketball school. But that doesn’t mean that the Terrapins don’t have a good football team this season. Head Coach Mike Locksley is heading into his fifth season at the helm in College Park, Maryland where he has slowly been building for this moment.

Locksley was 5-12 after his first two seasons in Maryland. Since then, he went 7-6 in 2021 and then 8-5 last year, winning back-to-back bowl games to end their seasons. The NFL has taken notice as well. Following the 2021 season, Locksley saw two of his players get drafted. Last year, that number grew to five. So, the talent is being brought in and developed.

Maryland’s recruiting has also improved. Situated in one of the nation’s best locations for high school talent known as the DMV (Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia), Locksley has slowly been building his roster. In his first year in College Park, the Terrapins finished 11th in the Big Ten in recruiting. The next season in 2020, they climbed to sixth, then to fourth in 2021. Now that talent has been developed, and Locksley believes they are ready to make a serious impact in what many are calling the toughest division in college football.

"“For us, our program is at a point finally we can say we’re here to compete for Big Ten championships. You haven’t heard me say that in the previous four times I’ve been in front of you guys (at Big Ten Media Days,) but I think now is the time. But we’re not going to let foals like winning championships get in the way of doing the work, and our players understand that.”"

That’s a bold statement coming from a man who has a combined record of 21-28 at his current school. But let me remind you, Maryland is a basketball school. But maybe that’s why Locksley is so confident? As a basketball school, he has been able to fly under the radar, building better seasons one after the other. Or maybe it’s because he has one of the more athletic quarterbacks in the country leading his program.

Taulia Tagovailoa is in his final year at Maryland. The younger brother of Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa began his career in his brother’s shadow at Alabama. But when offensive coordinator Lockley left for Maryland football, Taulia felt like he needed to hitch his wagon to the man who recruited him to Tuscaloosa. Since then, Taulia has had a pretty solid career at the school whose most famous football player was quarterback Boomer Esiason. Taulia already owns most of the career passing records in Maryland and could have decided that his best chance at winning a championship could have been elsewhere.

It was reported that Tagovailoa turned down millions from other schools, reportedly from the SEC, who were illegally tampering with him to leave College Park, MD since he wasn’t in the transfer portal. But chasing the money and championships in the South wasn’t something Taulia wanted for himself. Instead, he is ready to chase championships in the Big Ten.

"“It would be hard for me to go to another place and not be happy but have all the money in the world,” Tagovailoa told The Athletic. “(I’d rather) be at a place where maybe I don’t have as much, but I’m happy and I’m here to work. It can be eye-opening, but I think for my situation, if I was in a different situation where maybe I didn’t have a brother in the NFL or maybe my parents, it’s be a different situation.”"

But thankfully for Locksley, Tua is in the NFL, and Taulia does have both his parents. So, Maryland football will have their ace under center when the season kicks off in less than a month. And when they do, expectations have never been higher for the football program.

What does the next step for Maryland football look like? Nine wins and beating one of the big three in the Big Ten East Division? A Big Ten championship? Only time will tell if the Terrapins can accomplish their 2023 goals and take another step closer to being more than just a basketball school.