Yep. Mike Locksley is from inner city DC and a fabulous recruiter. He was at MD under Fridge then went to Florida and Illinois under Ron Zook and put together some dream team classes of kids from the DC/Bmore area. Fridge's early success was largely due to Locksley's recruiting and stockpiling local talent. When Locksley left for Florida, Maryland started to struggle. Remember the team from Illinois that went to the Rose Bowl a few years back? A ton of that team was from the DC/Bmore area. Maryland fans should thank the football gods that he flamed out at New Mexico and he is looking for work.
We should enjoy Maryland being down because there really isn't a good reason for them not to field a good to great football program- fertile recruiting area, tons of Under Armour money from alum Kevin Plank, good alumni support. With the right coach, they could be the East Coast version of Oregon. However, they hired Edsall instead of pursuing Mike Leach. Don't get me wrong- I think Edsall is a solid coach- Connecticut might be one of the hardest places to build a football program in America, but I don't think he has much upside. I have nightmare's about what Mike Leach's offense could do to an ACC defense, especially ours.
