Michigan Football: Maryland coach takes cheap shot at Josh Gattis

Michigan football’s first-year offensive coordinator Josh Gattis said he has tremendous respect for Mike Locksley. The newly crowned Maryland head coach wasn’t as respectful.

After taking the head coaching job at Maryland as a second choice (behind Michigan’s former defensive coordinator DJ Durkin), Mike Locksley – who has a head coaching record of 3-31 – decided he didn’t like what the new Michigan football offensive coordinator had to say about their time at Alabama.

To add some perspective, Josh Gattis was asked recently after practices about Locksley and their 2018 season at Alabama where Mike was the OC and Josh was the assistant.

“I have tremendous amount of respect for Mike Locksley,” Gattis said via Wolverines Wire. “He called every play. There was never any other comments about that.”

Gattis went on to say that while Locksley was the play-caller, he was the one who drew up the game plans.

“Ask him where the game plans usually came from. I’m fine with that, you know what I mean?” Gattis said. “He called every play, and I’ve got a notebook upstairs with a lot of the game plans written down in them.”

Locksley, clearly offended by the comments, made this disrespectful statement.

"“I’d like to put this to bed, here’s what I say: I’ve been a first-time play-caller before. I think back in 2005 was my first time I had the chance to call plays, so I know the anxiety that comes along with it. Josh knows the truth. I think that’s really important to understand. And I also know that there’s a difference between suggestions and decisions, and he’ll have an opportunity to make decisions. He’s got a job to do. I’ve got a job to do here. I want to talk about my coordinator, the guys I have in our program, which I feel really good about the guys in our program. But he knows the truth, and I’ve said before, there’s a difference between suggestions and decisions. And I’m sure that notebook he has upstairs has a lot of suggestions in them. And hopefully he’ll utilize them in the right way and make good decisions like I did for Alabama.”"

Yes, Gattis does know the truth. He knows you don’t have to do a job for 40 years to be the best at it. He knows that any NFL coach would take Patrick Mahomes over Ryan Fitzpatrick and any NFL team would hire Sean McVay over Hue Jackson.

And while there might be some anxiety, Gattis knows the journey is not the same for everyone, some head coaches win more than three games over three seasons.

The true test will come November 2nd when Gattis and Locksley will once again stand on the same field, this time on opposing sidelines as Michigan football will take on Maryland. Will Locksley and his superior playcalling prevail? Or will Gattis and his gameplans take the day?