Terps hire Gattis as offensive coordinator
Named the nation’s top assistant coach in 2021
Mike Locksley and Josh Gattis are teaming up again.
Maryland football has hired Gattis, who coached alongside Locksley at Alabama, as its new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, the team announced Thursday.
The hiring could be seen as a burying of the hatchet for the former Crimson Tide assistants, who publicly took jabs at each other in 2019 after sharing the offensive coordinator title at Alabama in 2018. Gattis was originally expected to join Locksley’s staff at Maryland after the 2018 campaign, but he decided instead to take the offensive coordinator job at Michigan, where he spent three seasons and won the Broyles Award in 2021 as the nation’s top assistant.
“Josh and I have a strong relationship and a proven track record of working together to produce a potent offense,” Locksley said in a press release. “He and I share many of the same philosophies and it should be a very smooth transition.”
Before the 2019 season, Gattis told reporters that he had a “tremendous amount of respect” for Locksley, but added a comment that suggested Gattis felt he deserved more credit for Alabama’s offensive success. Locksley was the Crimson Tide’s play-caller, while Gattis created game plans.
“Mike Locksley can say I watched him call every play, but ask him where the game plans usually came from,” Gattis said, per the Detroit Free Press. “So I’m fine with that. He did call every play, and I’ve got a notebook upstairs with all the game plans written down in them.”
Locksley fired back the following day, saying “there’s a difference between suggestions and decisions.”
“I don’t care to comment on it, but I am, because I’d like to put this to bed,” Locksley said. “Here’s what I say. I’ve been a firsttime play-caller before. Back in 2005 [at Illinois] was the first time I had a chance to call plays, so I know the anxiety that comes along with it. Josh knows the truth, that’s really important to understand.”
With the Wolverines, Gattis’ reputation as a play-caller grew after leading Michigan’s offense (35.8 points per game) to a Big Ten championship and a College Football Playoff berth.
The move continues the carousel of offensive coordinators at Maryland since Locksley took over four years ago. The offensive coordinator job was open after Dan Enos left in January for the same title at Arkansas. Co-offensive coordinator Mike Miller also left in November to be the play-caller at Charlotte under former Gilman and St. Frances coach Biff Poggi.