Bob Asmussen | He's locked in at Maryland

Oct. 12—CHAMPAIGN — Mike Locksley knows what a football rebuild looks like at Illinois and Maryland. He has been part of both.

Locksley served as Ron Zook's offensive coordinator at Illinois from 2005-2008, helping the Illini upset top-ranked Ohio State in 2007 at Ohio Stadium in Columbus.

Most forget that Locksley wasn't Zook's original choice to run the Illinois offense. Zook picked Larry Fedora, who stayed in Champaign-Urbana for a few minutes until Oklahoma State made him a better offer.

It worked out well for Illinois and Locksley, who showed his skills as a play-caller and recruiter, before taking his first head-coaching job at New Mexico.

Now, he is going to try to beat up on his old school. Maryland (5-1, 2-1 Big Ten) is a 14-point favorite Saturday at SECU Stadium when the Illini (2-4, 0-3) visit for a 2:30 p.m. kickoff.

Don't count on Locksley taking it easy on Illinois.

"How about they take it easy on me because I used to coach there?" Locksley told me during a 15-minute chat on Wednesday afternoon.

Because of his ties to the Illinois program, games against the Illini will always be special for the 53-year-old Locksley.

"This one is near and dear to me," Locksley said. "As I've told many people, once the New Mexico thing happened and I failed miserably, (he was fired in his third season), I always thought in my mind if I were ever to be able to be a head coach again, there were really only two places that I thought knew who I was and knew me well enough to know that maybe that New Mexico thing was a one-off. Illinois and Maryland were the two places. The two places I spent the most time at."

Illinois is also important to his family.

"My younger two kids, Kai and Kori, when they talk about where they grew up, they remember Champaign-Urbana," Locksley said, "It is a place I really enjoyed working and coaching. Great people, and we did some really good things there. It has definitely always had a soft spot in my heart."

After Saturday, Locksley will have to put that feeling on hold for a bit. The teams don't play in 2024, but resume the series in 2025 in College Park. Maryland is scheduled to return to Illinois in 2026.

Saturday's game is just the third all-time meeting between the programs. The Terrapins rolled Illinois 63-33 in 2018, the year Matt Canada served as Maryland's interim coach.

In 2021, Locksley brought Maryland to Illinois — with Zook on his staff — and rallied for a 20-17 victory at Memorial Stadium.

Lessons learnedTalent was on hand when Zook and Locksley arrived at Illinois in 2005. Future All-Americans Martin O'Donnell and J Leman were part of the team. But the losses had been piling up.

How did they turn the corner?

"One, it starts with having a head coach that gets recruiting," Locksley said. "Anybody that met Zook knew the effort he put into recruiting is what made him a good recruiter.

"We were also smart enough to understand that we're going to be a developmental program. We're going to go recruit guys, the three-star that has the skill set that you're looking for, but maybe hadn't been developed in high school to his full potential just yet. I thought we did a really good job of evaluation."

They found players who became stars, like offensive linemen Jon Asamoah and Jeff Allen and tight end Michael Hoomanawanui.

And they landed a handful of stars, like quarterback Juice Williams, wide receiver Arrelious Benn, cornerback Vontae Davis and safety Tavon Wilson.

"I don't think Zook gets enough credit for his ability to develop players," Locksley said.

The coaches used their relationships to recruit specific areas: Reggie Mitchell in Detroit, Locksley in Washington, D.C., Dan Disch in Florida and Eric Wolford in Ohio.

"We all had these pockets of areas where we knew we could go and maybe get the homeboy discount and get a player that normally wouldn't want to come to the cornfields of Champaign-Urbana," Locksley said. "We got them to believe in our vision and saw it come to fruition to a degree."

Locksley's work at Illinois drew the attention of New Mexico officials, who hired him as football coach in 2009. But he only went 2-26, with a pair of 11-loss seasons.

"There is a silver lining in it," Locksley said. "All those things I went through as a coach, I was able to learn and experience to where when I sit in this chair and this office now in the same role, it's not the first time I've seen it.

"Very few times do you get a chance to redo things in life. Maryland gave me an opportunity to redo New Mexico. I can't say I've gotten it all right, but I'm very rarely a guy who makes the same mistake twice. Very thankful and grateful for the two years and four games at New Mexico. I learned more in the two years and four games at New Mexico than I did in the three years under the greatest coach in all of football, Nick Saban, because of the experience of what I went through. It was not fun. It served me well."

Three years working with Saban was good, too, with Locksley in an analyst role in 2016 before bumping up to co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach in 2017 and then offensive coordinator in 2018. The Crimson Tide went 41-3 in those three seasons, winning a national title in 2017 and playing in the College Football Playoff national championship game in the other two seasons, losing to Clemson both times.

"For the religious buffs," Locksley said, "it was like the equivalent of going to Mecca or Rome."

Hazardous dutyMaryland entered last Saturday's game with a perfect record and hung with Ohio State for a half in Columbus, Ohio.

Then, the Buckeyes figured it out, outscoring Maryland 27-7 in the second half of a 37-17 victory.

"I'm still licking my wounds a little bit, coming off of a tough loss," Locksley said. "I really thought we had a chance to do something, kind of like that '07 Illinois team when we went up there."

More powerhouse teams are on the way. Later in the season, Maryland hosts Michigan and Penn State. That makes three teams ranked in the top six of the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll.

Nasty.

"The goal is to figure out how to compete for championships," Locksley said. "You've got to find ways to win those games."

They go way backEarlier in the week, Illinois coach Bret Bielema talked about his friendship with Locksley. The Maryland coach has nothing but good to say about the current Illini boss.

"I've got a lot of respect for Bret," Locksley said. "Of all the coaches in the league, he's the guy when we've got to go to meetings, I usually gravitate to sit next to Bret.

"It's always a good time. He's a smart dude. He gets the big picture. We are very similar personalities. I thought he was probably the best fit you can have there at Illinois."

Though Illinois is struggling this season, Locksley expects a challenge.

"You look at them on defense and I would say this is the best defense we'll face this year," Locksley said. "That's his side of the ball. There's no doubt they play good defense and they compete really hard. They give great effort."