Things are looking bleak for the Maryland Terrapins and one of their most prominent alums, Scott Van Pelt.
Head coach Mike Locksley has been under fire for underperforming on the field and strange behavior off the field. Maryland has banned reporters from asking follow-up questions of Locksley at press conferences this year, a restriction that usually doesn’t happen when a program is consistently winning games.
That is certainly not happening at Maryland.
The Terrapins lost what was essentially a pick ’em game against the UCLA Bruins at home on Saturday, 54-3. Locksley is in his 8th season with Maryland with a 39-51 record. After winning three straight bowl games from 2021-2023, the program has gone 4-8 in each of the following three seasons. And truth be told, the school is badly out of place in the Big Ten and has never been seen as a competitive force.
With pressure building on Locksley, Van Pelt addressed the situation on his SVPod, recapping the week that was in college football. Although he stressed that he didn’t want to pile on and become a distraction with any over-the-top criticism, he also said a 51-point home loss in your Big Ten opener can’t happen.
“I’m a Maryland fan, and I’ll support Maryland always. It just gets tricky now because if I come on here and start going scorched earth, this is where I don’t want to sound like an ass, but I become part of the story, because then it’s like, whether it’s a local paper or our chatrooms, whatever, ‘Van Pelt says this.’ And so I don’t want to be a headache to anybody because Locks is a guy that everybody at Maryland’s, we love Locks,” Van Pelt said.
SVP recounted the loss to Virginia Tech and arch rival James Franklin. He then said he picked Maryland after oddsmakers made UCLA just a one-point favorite to travel all the way across the country for the conference game. He said it was exactly what he was looking for, not just making a pick from the heart. But instead, UCLA took Maryland to the woodshed.
“In my brain, Steve, I’m thinking we’re going to find out what Locks and what Maryland are all about. And the problem is, maybe we did. You cannot lose a Big Ten opener by 51 points as a 1-point dog. There’s very little statistical, historical comparison for that. It just doesn’t happen. Because it cannot happen, it is an inexcusable result. Period,” Van Pelt declared.
Scott Van Pelt then shared that he has had conversations with Maryland AD Jim Smith over the years to see how best he can support the program. He refuses to make an explicit call to force the AD’s hand. But he realizes that it’s going to be incredibly tough for the program to come back from a home loss that lopsided.
“I don’t know the specifics, and people won’t believe this, but it’s the truth. I don’t stick my nose in with Jim Smith and say, ‘what’s the buyout, are you going to fire him, you should fire him.’ I don’t do that. Because I don’t feel like that’s my place. I’m not going to lie and say we haven’t had conversations about everything that goes on since he’s gotten to Maryland. How can I be of help? Of course I’m going to do everything I can to support. But I don’t view it as my role to say, ‘here’s what you should do’ or make demands. I don’t. And I won’t. But 54-3, Steve. That’s a rough one, man,” he said.
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