Mike Locksley

Mike Locksley is Alabama's new wide receivers coach and co-offensive coordinator (RollTide.com)

Before Mike Locksley's official Alabama title was announced, a former colleague made a prediction that proved accurate.

Told that the Crimson Tide needed both a wide receivers coach and a tight ends coach, former Maryland colleague Lee Hull responded confidently: "He'll probably be the receivers coach."

"Mike can coach receivers?" Hull was asked.

"He can definitely coach receivers," said Hull, who has been a wide receivers coach with Oregon State, Maryland and the Indianapolis Colts.

Nick Saban apparently agrees.

Like Tosh Lupoi, Lane Kiffin and Steve Sarkisian, Locksley has been promoted to a full-time assistant after a year helping the Tide behind the scenes as an analyst, taking over as Alabama's wide receivers coach and co-offensive coordinator.

While this will be the first time Locksley has coached receivers since 1996 at Army, he is a veteran, respected coach and recruiter whom USC offensive coordinator Tee Martin describes as a "triple threat."

"He's a triple threat because he's a guy that has head coaching experience, has coached a lot of different positions, and the way that he recruits is an asset," said Martin, who worked under Locksley at New Mexico in 2009.

Recruiting prowess

Alabama's previous wide receivers coach, Billy Napier, was an All-Star recruiter. So is Locksley.

The 47-year old has been recognized as a top recruiter since his early days as an assistant at Maryland and Florida.

Because of Locksley, Illinois once beat out schools such as Florida State and Notre Dame for five-star wide receiver Arrelious Benn.

After being hired as Maryland's offensive coordinator in 2012, Locksley was key in Maryland landing one of the top-10 players in the 2012 recruiting class, wide receiver Stefon Diggs, over high-profile programs like Florida and Ohio State.

Behind Locksley, Maryland also signed other top recruits in recent years such as five-star offensive tackle Damian Prince and four-star linebacker Yannick Ngakoue, who had eight sacks last year as a rookie with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Locksley ranked 15th in 247Sports' recruiter rankings in 2014.

Saban has called Locksley "one of the best recruiters in the nation."

"At Maryland, there were a lot of guys we got in recruiting that no one thought that we could get, but Mike did a great job," Hull said. "I was recruiting Stefon Diggs before Mike got there and was doing a good job but just couldn't get over the hump, but Mike came in and helped me and did a great job of just also building a great relationship with Stefon and with his parents and everybody that was helping him make a decision."

Well-rounded

Former Maryland and current Connecticut head coach Randy Edsall paused while praising Locksley as a recruiter.

"Mike gets a lot of credit for his ability to recruit," Edsall said, "but where I think he does a really good job is his ability to look at defenses and know what you have to do in order to attack an opponent's defense and be able to score points."

A lot of coaches have only worked with one or two position groups. Locksley has coached every position group offensively and defensively except for the offensive line while also having been a head coach at New Mexico and an offensive coordinator at Illinois and Maryland.

Illinois ranked 86th nationally in total offense in 2004, the year before hiring Locksley as its offensive coordinator. Under Locksley, Illinois was up to 34th nationally in 2007 and then 19th in 2008.

In Locksley's second season as Maryland's offensive coordinator, the Terrapins eclipsed 5,000 yards for the first time in 10 years and ranked 55th in the nation in yards per play despite playing the second half of the season without their top two offensive players.

"He is an outstanding offensive mind who brings a wealth of knowledge and experience as both a head coach and offensive coordinator," Saban said.

Continuing to grow

Locksley was a free agent last year after serving as Maryland's interim head coach in 2015, choosing to leave the program after a new head coach was hired.

Locksley surely could have gone elsewhere and landed a much higher-ranking position than the one he took at Alabama. Yet, he chose to join the Tide as an offensive analyst.

One of the reasons: Saban.

"I think it just goes to show you how he wanted to continue to grow as a coach," Edsall said. "To go and be a part of Nick's staff at Alabama showed that he wanted to learn and learn more about what a championship-caliber program was all about and how it was run. The way I look at it, here's a guy that, at his age, is still willing to go and learn to become better as a coach and gain a better understanding of what it takes to run a successful program."

It's worked out well for both Locksley and the Tide, which Martin recognized during a December conversation with Locksley.

"He talked about how much he's learned from Nick Saban and the way coach Saban runs the program," Martin said. "Mike's one of the more creative, innovative, smart coaches that I've been around, and I really think that his time at Alabama has made him better. That's a good sign for him and a good sign for Alabama."