Maryland head coach Kevin Willard is putting immense public pressure on his school to invest in the program as he is repeatedly linked to another job.
Willard made new comments Saturday and made it clear that the Maryland program needs major changes if the school is to compete for national titles. He even said the Terps have been among the “worst” when it comes to name, image and likeness, and demanded improvement.
“I want this program to be great,” Willard said, via Lindsay Schnell of The Athletic. “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.
“I need to make sure that where we are with NIL and revenue share is not where we’ve been with NIL over the past two years. We’ve been one of the worst, if not lowest, in the NIL in the last two years. So that’s first and foremost.”
Willard’s remarks are the latest in a string of critical remarks about the program. They come as he has been repeatedly linked to the Villanova job, which opened up last week.
Notably, Willard made waves in the lead-up to Friday’s NCAA Tournament opener against Grand Canyon for criticizing a lack of support from the program. He specifically cited one instance in December, when he was told staying an extra night in New York to celebrate Christmas would be too expensive.
He also pointed out that the program had lost transfers because of a lack of NIL money, citing one in particular who jumped to Villanova.
“We lost Hakim Hart to Villanova, and when I found out what (our budget was), I was like, ‘That’s our total payroll? We have to get with it,'” Willard said.
Willard seems to want to give Maryland the chance to keep him, but is certainly using the outside interest as leverage. It is highly unusual for a major college coach to be so openly critical of his university, but he has sufficient options and clout to get away with it. Plus, public honesty seems to be a growing trend among some coaches in the NIL era.
Willard is in his third and most successful season with Maryland. The team is 26-8 ahead of a second-round game against Colorado State on Sunday. A win would put the Terrapins in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2016.
