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Maryland’s new indoor football facility, set to be finished next year, brings the program up to speed

Michael Locksley wanted to be the coach at Maryland. It’s the school just 10 miles from his childhood home, and the one where he had worked two previous stints as an assistant. But as Athletic Director Damon Evans worked to reel in Locksley from Alabama late last year, the massive construction zone adjacent to the football stadium didn’t hurt. The Terrapins didn’t have an indoor practice facility until 2017, making Maryland the last Big Ten football program to build one. And now the school aims to keep up with the sport’s elite with the nearing completion of the $196 million Cole Field House project that adds more high-end spaces for football, two outdoor fields, resources for other Maryland athletes and a large academic wing. “You want your resources to match expectations,” Evans said. “When you’re competing with all these teams, not only in the Big Ten but around the country, and you see what they have, recruits, student-athletes, prospects, they like the bright, shiny toys. So it was very, very helpful.” The school expects the football performance center to open in the fall or winter of 2020, with the completion of the academic area coming…

Read MoreMaryland’s new indoor football facility, set to be finished next year, brings the program up to speed