LOVERRO: Tune in for a new season of ‘Real Coaches of College Park’

OPINION:

In the middle of now-departed and despised Maryland basketball coach Kevin Willard setting fire to everything at College Park — the media, the athletic director, the football program — the school issued the following press release:

“Maryland’s annual football pro day will be held at the Jones-Hill House indoor practice facility on Friday, March 28.”

Somebody kept their sense of humor.

I’m surprised there weren’t Maryland fans out there protesting with signs saying “No money for football” or “Pennies for pigskin” after Willard, among his targets, put the football program, without naming it, in the crosshairs.

“I need to make fundamental changes to the program,” Willard said as his basketball team was preparing for the program’s first NCAA Sweet Sixteen appearance in 10 years. “That’s what I’m focused on right now. That’s why probably a deal hasn’t got done, because I want to see — I need to see fundamental changes done. I want this program to be great. I want it to be the best in the country. I want to win a national championship, but there’s things that need to change … we’ve been one of the worst, if not lowest, in the NIL in the last two years.”

Translated — there’s an NIL pie here, and I want a bigger piece of it.

Now, as it turned out, he was manufacturing an exit strategy to leave for the Villanova job, which he had likely been pursuing once word got out that Kyle Neptune was going to be fired at the end of the season. The NIL money Willard cared about while coaching the Terrapins was the bundle of cash to be had on Philly’s Main Line.

Three days after Willard’s Maryland team got thumped 87-71 by Florida, Villanova — a Catholic institution — announced the hiring of a guy who would have to spend weeks in a confessional box to atone for his lies.

“Coach Willard quickly stood out among an impressive pool of candidates during a comprehensive national search,” Villanova University President Rev. Peter M. Donohue said in a statement.

“Throughout the process, Coach Willard demonstrated that he has the vision and experience to guide Villanova Basketball in the changing world of college athletics. Beyond his notable success on the court, we were also impressed by his ability to articulate how Villanova Basketball fits into the overarching mission of the University.”

This from a man of the cloth. Too bad the tablets Moses brought down from Mount Sinai didn’t include thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s coach.

Under Mike Locksley, the football program has been mediocre (33-41), at least by Big Ten standards. They went to three straight bowls, winning all three, and Locksley led the Terrapins to back-to-back eight-win years in 2022 and 2023. But they are coming off a 4-8 season and often play in a stadium with empty seats.

If it’s a choice between Maryland basketball and football, it’s no contest for Terrapins fans — back the Brinks truck up to the Xfinity Center. At Maryland, the religion is basketball.

New Maryland coach Buzz Williams, at his introductory press conference Wednesday, said “there’s a lot of lenses, in my opinion, as to how you can view a team.”

And it took less than five hours talking with students and fans around the campus, he said, to get a clear vision of how important the program is, not just to College Park but to the whole state. He said he gets “the magnitude and the responsibility that comes with it.”

During the odious Willard exit, Locksley was asked about Willard’s comments.

“Family business is family business, so I really have no comment on it,” Locksley said, according to footballscoop.com. “If it doesn’t pertain to my business, if it doesn’t pertain to what I need to do … as I’ve stated, since I’ve been here, I have gotten the resources that I have needed to build a foundation.

“I’ve learned in 33 years of coaching, there are no utopias,” he said. “Every family has their issues and dirty little secrets, but I’m of the opinion that those are handled individually and behind closed doors within the family ranks.”

Family? More like “Real Coaches of College Park.”

Here’s one of those “lenses” Williams failed to mention, but the only one that really counts — money. Williams is expected to get the financial resources Willard claimed he wanted here.

That would seem to then become Locksley’s business. But, like he said, there are no utopias.

• Catch Thom Loverro on The Kevin Sheehan Show podcast.