00:00Jeff Ehrman, founder of InsideMD Sports, been a busy man over the last 24 hours or so.
00:07Jeff, thanks for joining us, man. We appreciate the time.
00:10Absolutely. Thanks for having me.
00:12Mike Loxley was at the University of Maryland for eight years, but especially since the beginning of the 2024 season,
00:20the results were just putrid.
00:23It was time for him to go. It was a mutual parting of the ways.
00:26Apparently, he had a meeting with the AD, and we got the news yesterday that Mike Loxley let go from
00:32his job as head coach of the Maryland Terrapins football program.
00:36Nobody could be surprised. I'm sure you weren't.
00:38Give us your takeaways on the Loxley era and how he was dismissed.
00:43Yeah, I mean, I think, like you said, not surprising.
00:46The only surprising thing was maybe it didn't happen a couple weeks earlier.
00:51A lot of people expected that.
00:54You know, I think Maryland was actually going to try to kind of kick the ball a little bit further
01:00down the hill for a few more weeks until they lost to Rutgers.
01:04And I think even after the Rutgers lost, they were planning on keeping them around for a little longer.
01:09Something changed in the past couple days.
01:12And, you know, it was clearly at that point.
01:15And it was just, you know, a little reminiscent of late in the Turgeon years where everybody knows it's over
01:21and it's just a matter of when.
01:23I think Lox, you know, like you said, the results have been putrid.
01:2916 losses, I think, in the last 17 Big Ten games.
01:3314 straight losses against power conference opponents.
01:35So, you know, it had to happen.
01:37You feel for Lox, obviously, because he's not one of these mercenaries who's just bouncing around.
01:43He loves Maryland.
01:45He's loved it since he was a kid.
01:46He's worked there three different times.
01:49And, you know, it's a challenging job at Maryland.
01:52The funding is not what it is at a lot of Big Ten schools.
01:55He came in and took over at a time when the program was in really bad shape, obviously, on the
02:01field and, excuse me, off the field with Jordan McNair's death.
02:05So, you know, it's a little more complicated than the overall record.
02:09But either way, anybody who has the kind of two-and-a-half-year stretch that he's endured is going
02:15to get fired.
02:18We have him on the show the last couple years, maybe even longer than that.
02:21And he is a nice guy, and you do feel bad for him.
02:23You know, he's kind of a local legend in his own way, right?
02:26I mean, he definitely had his way with the recruits and coaches around town, like everybody, you know, knows Mike.
02:32And I felt bad for him.
02:34But then I looked up, and I said, wow, this guy's made $35 million.
02:36I think he's getting a $9 million buyout.
02:38That's $44 million.
02:40He's doing pretty good.
02:41Like, you know, we should all be so unlucky.
02:43So he'll be fine.
02:45I know that.
02:46What are you talked about the challenges?
02:49You know, the deal in Indiana kind of hurts everybody, right?
02:53Because they go, oh, my God, if Indiana can do it, I can't.
02:55Well, Indiana's been spending money a decent amount.
02:57And they got an elite staff, and it's been building.
03:01People weren't quite paying attention, and it just hit them.
03:04How can – I mean, let's forget about winning a national title.
03:07How about just getting back to the mail bowl or whatever?
03:11You know what I mean?
03:11Duke's mail bowl.
03:12How can they do that?
03:14I mean, they are spending more money.
03:15Believe it or not, I'm going to just tell this story, Jeff.
03:18Three years ago, I was in the box at the Music City Bowl against Auburn.
03:24I told the boys this the other day, and I was on one of the guys who was in charge
03:27of NIL.
03:28And he said to me, this was three years ago, that the total budget that I understood him to be
03:36was $2 million three years ago for basketball and football, right?
03:40Yeah.
03:40And I would say – and now, okay, reportedly they're up to $20-some million for football, right?
03:47So they've come a long way, but it's still in the bottom third of the Big Ten.
03:52They've still got a long way to go.
03:54What are the realistic sort of potential options for this program here?
03:59Yeah, I mean, part of that $2 million number is not just Maryland being behind,
04:05but obviously it's before the revenue sharing was allowed at $20 million.
04:09Yeah.
04:10But they were still – they were still way behind.
04:12I think Damon Evans really let the situation slide for far too long.
04:17You know, they were not proactive about embracing NIL and finding revenue streams.
04:23And so Jim Smith's done a good job with that.
04:25But, you know, you guys know, you've followed it for years.
04:28This is a local fan base that's more of a pro fan base
04:33and more of a basketball fan base in terms of Maryland.
04:37And so you're not going to have the kind of religious support from everyone in the state
04:43that a lot of these other Big Ten schools have.
04:45It's just they don't have the same culture.
04:47Maryland as a school and a state doesn't have that same giving culture
04:52toward the flagship school's football program than all these other Big Ten schools.
04:58But, you know, I think Jim Smith's done a really good job improving the situation.
05:01As you mentioned, over $20 million this year, not in the Big Ten basement,
05:07not, you know, obviously not in the top half by any stretch.
05:10But they're going to have to improve that.
05:13Any top coach they want to get or, you know, in terms of restocking the roster,
05:18it's all going to be extremely expensive.
05:20And there's no – you know, as much as it was time for locks,
05:24there's no reason to even do this restart if you're not going to fund it in a way,
05:28like you said, where you can at least – even if you're not a powerhouse,
05:31you can at least be, you know, a bowl kind of team every year or most years.
05:35And then, you know, every four or five years, whatever it might be,
05:38you have that kind of breakout season.
05:40Joined by Jeff Ehrman, founder of Inside MD Sports.
05:43So you tweeted this 19 hours ago that now there's uncertainty swirling around.
05:48Malik Washington, the quarterback, with locks gone, he's tight with locks.
05:52Like, do you expect him to be here next year at Maryland?
05:55Does he go into the portal?
05:57Like, that's a pretty important piece.
05:58What do you see happening with Malik?
06:00I think that probably depends mostly on who the higher –
06:05the head coach and offensive coordinator are,
06:08and then also Kyle Schmidt, who is his high school coach at Spalding,
06:12is on staff, he's very close with him.
06:14If he sticks around, I think that would help the chances.
06:17You never know, though.
06:18There's a lot of times in a spot like this where it could just be time
06:22for a fresh start somewhere, you know.
06:25It hasn't gone quite as planned for Malik.
06:27He's really struggled this year, hasn't looked comfortable at all,
06:32you know, for the most part.
06:33A little spurts, but, you know, pretty inconsistent.
06:37And, you know, I think he's still a guy who has those raw tools last year
06:42last offseason.
06:43He had, you know, supposedly the best arm at the Manning Passing Academy,
06:47which says a lot.
06:48But in terms of, you know, putting it all together,
06:51that just hasn't happened this year.
06:53So I think with Malik it's going to depend largely on who the higher is.
06:58But I think if you're Maryland also with how he struggled this year,
07:01the next coach is not going to necessarily, even if he does stay,
07:04rely on him being the foundation of the program.
07:08Because, you know, so far he hasn't quite lived up to expectations.
07:14What were Mike's shortcomings as a coach?
07:17Obviously he didn't have all the resources necessarily, but they did grow.
07:20They did get better.
07:21But he obviously, there's something must be missing, right?
07:24Because, you know, his head coaching record is just fairly abysible.
07:27So, yeah, some of it, you know, there was obviously the discipline issue.
07:32Penalties were a pretty constant issue for them.
07:37Outside of Talia, Tungavailoa, you know, he wasn't really able to find that star quarterback.
07:44You know, they've struggled at quarterback other than those few years,
07:48and it's no coincidence that those are the years where they were going to bowl games
07:52when Talia was the quarterback, and then the staff turnover has been very consistent.
07:58I think he had five offensive coordinators and five defensive coordinators in seven and a half years.
08:03So, when you can't get that continuity going and you're hiring guys who aren't really getting the job done
08:09on a high level, you know, it makes it tough.
08:11Jeff, do you feel like the emergence of Indiana over the last couple of years
08:17was one of the final nails in Lox's coffin?
08:20Because, like, when a doormat like Indiana can, you know, embrace NIL,
08:25bring in a coach that, you know, reboots the whole program,
08:28then other ADs are going to be like, well, why can't that happen at Maryland?
08:32Or fill in the name of, you know, a doormat school.
08:35Like, why can't that happen at Vanderbilt if it's happening at Indiana?
08:38Did that hurt Lox?
08:40It had to have, right?
08:41Maybe a little bit in terms of perception because any school right now
08:45that's been struggling in a power conference,
08:49the fans are going to point to Indiana no matter where you are.
08:52It's become, you know, but the thing is,
08:56Indiana is maybe the most unprecedented turnaround in American sports history,
09:00you know, so you have to just place that one off to the side
09:03and not really judge yourself against that.
09:05You know, we've never seen anything happen in college football
09:09like what Indiana's done with the turnaround.
09:12So, you know, I don't think it was a big factor,
09:14but definitely you do see fans pointing constantly if they can do it.
09:18And like you said, it's not if they can win national titles, we can,
09:21but it's if they can win national titles, then we can at least be good, right?
09:26Can I ask you a quick hoop question?
09:27What are realistic expectations after a somewhat shocking first year for Buzz last year?
09:35I think they're going to be pretty good.
09:36I think they're better than expected.
09:38You know, it's a talented team.
09:40They have a little, I mean, compared to last year, it's night and day.
09:43Last year in the preseason, you could tell by the way Buzz talked about the team
09:46that he knew they weren't going to be very good.
09:48This year, the tone has changed.
09:50They're much bigger, more athletic, more talented and deeper.
09:54And so, you know, I don't know that it's like a Final Four contender,
09:59but I do think that they're clearly better than what they were picked in the preseason,
10:03which was No. 12 in the Big Ten.
10:05I like the new guys.
10:06You know, Baba is, to me, the big X factor.
10:10He struggled a little bit in the two exhibition games,
10:13and if they're going to reach their peak, he needs to kind of live up to that one-and-done
10:17billing.
10:20Jeff, thanks for the time, man.
10:21We know you're super busy with the dismissal of locks.
10:24We appreciate the time.
10:26Appreciate you guys.
