Locksley said he has looked back at his accountability and what he could have done better, and retaining elite assistant coaches such as Scottie Montgomery, Jon Hoke and Dan Enos topped the list. He cited salary money along with speculation about his future and negativity as some of the contributing reasons for it.
"The hardest thing I dealt with here was not recruiting players -- it's being able to get the right coaches and assistants with me," he said. " ... For whatever reason, I struggled to keep the really good coaches I had because we win, we were having success, and people come hire them. I was not able to keep consistency with the staff. And then NIL hit."
Locksley was set to earn $6.4 million in his eighth season on a contract that runs through 2028 and is owed a buyout of $9.75 million, sources told ESPN's Pete Thamel. There's no offset or mitigation on the deal, which means Maryland will pay all of it even if Locksley lands another job, sources told ESPN. Locksley said he will most likely turn to television commentary, possibly with the Big Ten Network, to get some practice in and see how much he enjoys it.
Locksley added, "It's actually not hard to win at Maryland; it's hard to win consistently at Maryland."