Maryland Minute - 01.10.12 - Looking at Mike Locksley's Contract

by Dave Tucker on Jan 11, 2012 7:47 AM EST in Maryland Minute

Lots of stuff going on regarding the Terps lately between basketball starting ACC play and the impact Locksley is already having on recruiting in football, with signing day quickly approaching. Speaking of Locks...

Terps offensive coordinator Mike Locksley to earn $500,000 a year - Baltimore Sun
Locks is making $500,000, which isn't surprising, but he also has recruiting-related bonuses tied to where Maryland ranks in the final Scout & Rival rankings each year. I think that's a pretty unique clause in a contract, but it makes sense.

At University of Maryland, a $7.2 million president’s mansion demonstrates the wrong priorities - The Washington Post
Listen, I understand where Maryland is coming from here - you have to spend money to make money in a lot of instances, but regardless, the timing of this is just piss poor. Couldn't you wait, even until after the school year was over, before starting this? If your main argument for this is that you need a place to wine & dine donors, why not use that giant, shiny new alumni center, which was built for that very purpose and is a stone's throw away from the President's house? At lease do that for a while and then move forward with the renovation/expansion.

Terps' Padgett takes charge on offensive glass - Washington Times
Nice piece by Patrick Stevens on Padgett. I've been saying all season that one of the things some fans are overlooking is Padge's development this season.

power-rankings-011012 - ACC Blog - ESPN
Heather Dinich gives her final power rankings for the football season. She put Maryland last.I know we had the worst record, but that's a result of this team under performing and having no depth on defense because of injuries. Overall, there is no way Maryland is in worse shape than Duke and BC though.

Meet the Recruit: Terps quarterback commitment Caleb Rowe - baltimoresun.com
Another piece by Matt Bracken, this time looking at Terps quarterback commitment Caleb Rowe. It has a great highlight video of Rowe included, which I enjoyed watching. He seems very good at getting out of the pocket when it collapses and still looking down field to make a play. But he'll also take off and run and has surprising speed. He also has great touch on long passes. I think he'll be good.

Recruiting Report: Season recap, Terps tight end commitment P.J. Gallo - baltimoresun.com
Great piece by Matt Bracken on future Terp football player P.J. Gallo. Maryland recruited him as a tight end, but apparently he's pretty awesome at DE and LB too.

Terps lose at NCST; The Good, The Bad, The Ugly | Baltimore Sports and Life
Chris at Baltimore Sports and Life looks at the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly from Maryland's loss to NC State.

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Heather Dinich = Irrelevant

Padgett > Glass

Incentives = Results

by LowcountryTerp1 on Jan 11, 2012 8:15 AM EST reply actions

MM Recap

-Locksley already has been more influencial to Maryland Football then Gary Crowton ever was and there making the same amount. Locks has much more upside and is proving his worth.
-The President Mansion announcement didn’t come at the best time, but I am sure they are wanting to have it completed before the start of next year, so I assume this is why. As for the financial funding for the Mansion, this has nothing to do with the Athletic Dept. this money was raised seperately and for this purpose, so please don’t go down the road that this money could have saved some programs.
-Padgett is getting better and better in my opinion. I think he will be a viable option down low next year if he continues to progress.
-Dinich is a fucking idiot that doesn’t know much about sports and she has the stereotypical bias in the ACC as many others at ESPN.
-Love to hear about the recruits and look forward to seeing what they can bring to the table.
-The NC State game falls into the didn’t expect to win, but easily could have won area. Maryland proved they can go on the road an compete, but competing and winning are two different things. In order to win that game, Maryland needed to make free throws, not force unnecessary TO’s and reduce the open shots. That is the little things that change the outcome of the game. Though I am impressed with how close they came, but in the end its still a loss.

Nice work Dave T. didn’t know if you died or overdosed on all the Randy E bashing.

by El Goodd Terps13 on Jan 11, 2012 9:11 AM EST reply actions

Locksley

Incentives based on recruiting rankings is AWESOME.

Some people don’t care about stars, I think they’re pretty close to being the tell-all of the quality of your football team. Apparently the University thinks this also or they would not have added this as an incentive. What it means, in short, is that a guy who knows how to chase and land talent now has the serious incentive to do so every year. It means that if Locksley succeeds, we won’t be out-talented by teams like West Virginia and Clemson every goddamn year. It means that Randy Edsall cares about recruiting physical talent more than I gave him credit for at the beginning of this recruiting class.

I’ll officially say it: I may have been the first guy to utter the words “fire edsall” and I’m officially retracting that. I’m now on board with the Edsall Era, 2-10 or not. It was never about our record this year, it was always about recruiting. Bring in the big boys and let’s get after it.

by FlaTerp on Jan 11, 2012 9:42 AM EST reply actions

Presidents Mansion

I agree not only with the poor timing but the fact that we have the beautiful Alumni Center to use for schmoozing. Sounds like another president I know.

by KugTerp on Jan 11, 2012 9:46 AM EST reply actions

Putin?

by NAmstrong on Jan 11, 2012 10:03 AM EST up reply actions 1 recs

Burlusconi?

by TerroristFistJab on Jan 11, 2012 4:15 PM EST via mobile up reply actions

President's house needed to be done

but it’s too bad they used so much money to expand Byrd with seats and suites that they’ll never be able to sell. I think the folks who expect a successful Locks/Randy deal are in for a bumpy ride. Locks in loading powder into a time bomb – the question is whether he (or anyone at Maryland) can manage the explosion when it happens.

by dmor20 on Jan 11, 2012 9:56 AM EST reply actions

The bomb went off when Yow left.

How much WORSE can Locks make the situation. The football program basically hit rock bottom this past season. You’re not a fan of Locks or RE, we get it, but what is this “time bomb” you’re worried about?

by 1 proud terp on Jan 11, 2012 12:31 PM EST up reply actions

fit

Locks brings in good recruiting classes of guys connected to him. They get to GSP and are losing, now you’ve got a bunch of guys who weren’t interested in RE anyway (at least they weren’t until Locks got ‘em) loyal to an assistant who certainly has no background supporting RE’s style of management. When some of these guys want to make waves, where’s Locks going to be?

It just looks like a bad fit with a future of guys who are being set up to be unhappy, and one we could’ve bought for $200k but are paying $600k for instead . . .

I think you’re confusing thinking we wasted a lot of dough on Locks with “not being a fan” – I’m a fan of him recruiting, but who thinks its a great idea to pay 2 or 3 times market for anything with state money? Especially when smarter use of resources would’ve saved a couple of sports.

You’re right about Yow, though.

by dmor20 on Jan 11, 2012 2:31 PM EST up reply actions

Recruiting has been the biggest bone of contention to the football program for years.

“We need to lock up the DMV”, goes the crowd. Well, in an attempt to assuage the masses, a master-recruiter was hired to do just that. Was he overpaid? Only time will tell. He may turn out to be a disaster, but given the energy and attention he’s already brought to the recruiting, I find it very difficult to draw that conclusion at this time.

Just as you assume this thing could blow up, there is also the possibility that it will work out great. You have to be fair and give it a little time before you can declare this another KA/RE fail.

Per saving a couple of sports, some of our 27 programs couldn’t and shouldn’t be saved. They aren’t sustainable, and drain resources better spent for the overall good of the Ath. Dept. I personally blame Title IX for screwing a lot of traditional sports teams at colleges around the country. It’s cheaper to ax a men’s track and field team than to offer additional schollies for tumbling. But I guess fair is fair.

by 1 proud terp on Jan 11, 2012 2:50 PM EST up reply actions

I wanted to clarify...

…that I think the President’s House needs to be done and it’s completely independent of Athletics and the comparison shouldn’t have been made. Is the university supposed to stop all construction on campus to pay for the sports that are being cut? The problem is that Maryland should have never had this many teams in the first place. If some alumni want to start an endowment to fund them moving forward, that’s great. But the current state of the AD can not support 27 teams.

The point I was trying to make is that if Maryland was going to move forward with this, they should have maybe waited until after the Spring Semester, after things have calmed down. It was just another example of Maryland’s lack of PR/media talent.

by Dave Tucker on Jan 11, 2012 10:14 AM EST reply actions 2 recs

Thank you.

I keep waiting for people to understand the situation, and they rarely do. This is a PR issue first and foremost and doesn’t have anything to do with cut sports.

by TheOsbyShow on Jan 11, 2012 11:10 AM EST up reply actions

Is this(president's house) really a PR issue?

Or just another chance for critics like the Wapoo-poo to write yet another negative hit piece about the University?

Dave is right, we could no longer support 27 teams in this economic climate, and the Ath. Dept had to be streamlined. It has no connection to the University spending money on renovations to the presidents house, money which was raised for that exact purpose. People need to stop trying to spin everything that happens in CP these days into a negative.

by 1 proud terp on Jan 11, 2012 12:40 PM EST up reply actions

I stated this in the fanpost about the topic

But just linking to the opinion piece, and not to the story that the opinion piece is about, is a disservice.

Here’s the link: University of Maryland plans $7.2 million president’s house amid budget cuts

I do believe though that the timing is bad. But it’s also difficult to imagine when the timing would be good. As Mote points out:

When the house was damaged by a tornado in 2001, Mote said, he contemplated a major expansion but decided doing so would attract negative attention. When he announced his retirement, the foundation that fundraises on behalf of the university decided to take on the project itself.

There’s always going to be something in a project like this that causes a black eye. It’s a matter of choosing the best time to minimize the damage. They probably failed at that here.

by NAmstrong on Jan 11, 2012 11:39 AM EST up reply actions

We all need to remember

That the “University” comes before “Maryland”. The mansion remodel is something that will benefit the University on an academic and athletic level. Fact of the matter is that Non- revenue sport are a luxury of a prosperous athletic department. When they can’t fund it you make cuts. That is how the real world works.

College students don’t eat Ramen because they aren’t in the mood for Steak do they.

by Jeffro78 on Jan 11, 2012 10:32 AM EST reply actions 3 recs

I cant stand when people jump all over the school for doing things like this with the house

im sure the people making these decisions know about a million times more than i or any of us do about this kind of stuff. its their jobs!

by terps3030 on Jan 11, 2012 11:48 AM EST reply actions

Why doesn't the school start cutting some of the salaries

of the many over-paid, tenured professors? How come that never comes up? I had some pretty worthless professors at UMD, and I’ve never understood why they are the untouchables when it comes to budget issues. And you wonder why tuition continues to rise so much.

by 1 proud terp on Jan 11, 2012 12:47 PM EST reply actions

Professors Salaries

It is simple, if MD doesn’t pay them they’ll go to another University to get paid. They pay the professors for hopes that they will some day turn out students who create things such as Google, Under Armor, etc. to give the University recognition. Besides the fact that almost all the professors have a PhD, or masters at worse. Many of the professors you had as an undergrad also teach grad level classes as well, not just the one or two classes you had with them.

They’ve recently started allowing graduate students teach under grad classes to an extent, I know my ECON326 class when I attended was taught by a graduate student. I believe a lot of the math based courses are/were heading that way as well, all of that saves the University money.

by djcarv2005 on Jan 11, 2012 12:51 PM EST up reply actions

I'm all for paying the Top Profs, top money.

The problem is there are many I dealt with whom I wouldn’t consider “top tier”. Many clowns teaching courses that seem unworthy of being offered(cough, cough…American Studies elective) But in any case, I’m done with school(or at least for 18 more years when my twin babies become Terps), so it’s not my fight to fight anymore. I just don’t want to hear current students complain about tuition costs, and not include prof salaries in the discussion.

by 1 proud terp on Jan 11, 2012 1:28 PM EST up reply actions