Terp Time

Maryland head football coach Michael Locksley posed for a photo with his team in the weight room. He sported a mean-mugging facial expression while flexing his biceps with a heavy chain link rope dangling around his neck. 

Locksley joked with reporters, saying it allowed a lot of negative comments regarding his appearance. The audience shared a good laugh as the coach rattled off the responses he received. But the coach knows who he is.

“I was walking after our 6 am workout through the weight room and they were taking the picture they take at the end of Terp Time,” Locksley said. “A player said, ‘Coach, are you afraid to take your shirt off?’ I've never been a guy that isn't confident, so I took my shirt off and walked into the picture.”

The encounter was harmless fun, but it represented something larger. Locksley has been at the helm of Maryland football since 2019. His tenure is underlined by three consecutive bowl game wins in 2021, 2022 and 2023 - a first in program history. The head coach has always valued building a brotherhood within his program. Locksley views it as the foundation of every successful football program and his willingness to pose for a silly photo represents his commitment to the core value.

“Terp Time” is the football program’s name for its winter workout sessions in which it prepares for Spring practices. It’s where players seek to prepare their bodies through proper nutrition and training, but also creates continuity with the teammates and coaching staff by building resiliency and consistency.

Building lasting relationships between players has become harder in the age of NIL compensation and the transfer portal. It takes someone like Ruben Hyppolite II to help instill Locksley’s vision of a brotherhood. The linebacker is returning for his fifth season with the Terps after being named a 2023 captain by his teammates at the end of the regular season. He has seen the program grow as a cohesive unit and explained what the brotherhood represents.

“The brotherhood just means doing hard things together,” he said. “That's the only way you can build a bond. Whether that's your relationships, or whatever the case may be, you have to go through hard times with people to see where they stand and to see how you can get on the other side of it.”

The Grind

The brotherhood the program speaks of and the goals that Terp Time is meant to achieve aren’t original creations. Locksley was on the staff at Alabama from 2016-18 and coached alongside Nick Saban. Locksley learned a lot from the future Hall of Fame head coach and his commitment to creating a brotherhood as one.

Locksley says it started when Saban was an assistant at Michigan State from 1983–87 for George Perles. Saban later became the Spartans' head coach and had many other stops before landing at Alabama. Saban utilized the system and built one of the greatest dynasties in football history with the Crimson Tide. He won six national championships, including one with Locksley, and nine SEC titles in 17 years.

The brotherhood isn’t limited to the players. Maryland retained eight of its 10 assistants and all three of the team’s primary coordinators on offense, defense, and special teams. One of the returning assistants is offensive coordinator Josh Gattis.

Gattis always preaches five critical trust factors to the team. They include player-to-player, player-to-coach, coach-to-player, coach-to-coach and player-to-system. He stressed the importance of chemistry being the main component of all the trust factors and admitted that chemistry wasn’t always there. That has changed, and the team is a much more cohesive unit thanks to something as simple as spending time together.

“It's continued to grow on and off the field. Spending time with our players and time with themselves off the field,” Gattis said. Whether that's bowling events or the wide receivers, we went out to Grazie Nonna on Sunday. Just finding as much time as we can to develop the friendships and the cohesiveness off the field will allow us to coach and develop better on the field.”

Damien Wroblewski is one of the two new assistants at Maryland. He’s an assistant offensive line coach and was previously an assistant at James Madison. Wroblewski says he was part of similar continuity among coaches with the same coordinators and main position coaches for five straight years. He says he sees similar values at Maryland despite being a newcomer.

“I think there's a wonderful authenticity, about the coaches with the players,” Wroblewski said. That awesome authenticity comes out day in and day out. Passion is the other thing that there is. You can see the passion that this group of people has for coaching football. The best part of my day is anytime I'm here in the meeting room or on the field coaching my players. I think there's like-mindedness here in that regard.”

Running backs coach Latrell Scott is entering his second year with the program. He gives a lot of credit to Locksley for being the “ultimate family guy.” Maryland football will continue to build a brotherhood within its program, and it has led to steady improvement every year.

“It all starts with him. Our staff is very close in terms of our families,” Scott said. “We lead from the top down and when you're able to have your team at your house for dinner on a Thursday night, you’re able to take your guys out in the city somewhere to have dinner, you get those guys a chance to be together and create a cross-culture.”