Mike Locksley

Early life

Locksley grew up in inner-city Washington D.C., and attended Ballou High School.

College playing career

Locksley played college football at Towson State University. He redshirted his first year on the Towson State Tigers and then spent two seasons sharing time at safety and then cornerback, backing up Towson veteran Bryant Hall. For the 1990 season he had 43 tackles and two interceptions at safety, after he filled in for the injured Aaron Bates. He was named the Tigers' Defensive Player of the Year for his senior season. He graduated in the spring of 1992 with a degree in marketing.

Coaching career

He served as defensive backs coach and special teams coach at Towson State for the 1992 season, then defensive coordinator at Naval Academy Preparatory School in 1993 (defensive backs) and 1994 (defensive line), was outside linebackers coach at the University of the Pacific for 1995, then spent the 1996 season coaching tight ends and split ends at Army.

Locksley became the running backs coach for the University of Maryland under head coach Ron Vanderlinden in February 1997. Ron Vanderlinden named Locksley to the additional post of recruiting coordinator, replacing Chris Cosh who left to take the defensive coordinator's job at Michigan State, in February 1998. After Vanderlinden was fired, in 2000, and Ralph Friedgen was named head coach, Locksley and wide receivers coach James Franklin were the only two assistants to be retained by Maryland.

In February 2003, after six years at Maryland, he was named as running backs coach and recruiting coordinator at the University of Florida under Ron Zook, replacing Tyke Tolbert, who left to be a coach with the Arizona Cardinals of the NFL.

Locksley was named offensive coordinator at Illinois in January 2005, replacing Larry Fedora who went to Oklahoma State University, pairing Locksley again with head coach Ron Zook. He is credited with luring at least nine players from the Washington D.C. area for Illinois from 2005 through 2008, including wide receiver Arrelious Benn, 2007 Big Ten Freshman of the Year.

New Mexico

He was named head coach of the New Mexico Lobos on December 9, 2008. He signed a six-year contract worth $750,000 annually.

In late May 2009, a former administrative assistant at New Mexico filed an age and sex discrimination complaint against Locksley with the Equal Opportunity Commission. The complaint was filed by Locksley's former administrative assistant Sylvia Lopez, who claimed to have been subjected to age and sexual discrimination before being transferred out of Locksley's office. The claims were later withdrawn.

In late September 2009, Locksley was reprimanded for an altercation with an assistant coach. He was subsequently suspended without pay for ten days. He was not on the sideline for the game against UNLV on October 24, 2009. Locksley led his Lobos to 1–11 records his first and second seasons. The high buyout was a large reason UNM chose at first not to fire him. New Mexico athletic director Paul Krebs, who made the decision to retain Locksley, expected improvement in the 2011 season. On September 25, 2011, Locksley was relieved of his duties following an 0–4 start that culminated in a loss at home to FCS Sam Houston State as well as the arrest of a minor for a DWI while driving a car registered to Locksley's 19-year-old son Meiko, a member of the Lobo Football team. After an internal investigation by UNM, it was found the minor was not a recruit as erroneously reported. Instead, the minor was a childhood friend of Meiko Locksley from his Champaign, IL days, when his dad served as Offensive Coordinator for the Illini from 2005-2008.

Maryland

On December 22, 2011, Locksley returned to the University of Maryland to join Randy Edsall's staff as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

Locksley was named interim head coach at Maryland on October 11, 2015, after Randy Edsall was terminated.

Alabama

On March 1, 2016 Locksley joined the University of Alabama staff as an offensive analyst.

On January 13, 2017 Locksley was promoted to an on-field coaching role.

Personal life

Locksley along with his wife Kia have four children, three sons, Mike, Jr., Meiko, and Kai, and a daughter, Kori. On September 3, 2017, Meiko was fatally shot in Columbia, Maryland.

Kia is a yoga instructor. She helped teach some members of the Fighting Illini football team yoga in the summer of 2008.

Coaching tree

Assistant coaches under Mike Locksley who became NCAA or NFL head coaches: