Mike Daly Adding to Maryland on the Margins

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — On an early September Saturday shortly after he joined the Maryland men’s lacrosse staff, Mike Daly saw just how many demands there were on his new boss.

Terrapins coach John Tillman had people approaching him with requests, to talk, to shake hands and countless other things during Maryland’s home football game against Michigan State.

For Daly, accustomed to life at smaller, private universities in New England, it was different from his prior experiences. But it also illustrated he would find a way to stay busy with the Terps. Everyone else on staff does.

“The reason this was a great fit for me was because of the program,” Daly said. “It’s already high functioning. It’s already great culture. It’s already all of that. It’s not to take over anything. It’s not to be anything but a supplement to that.”

Daly’s job title is director of player development, a role former Tewaaraton winner Jared Bernhardt filled last season. Bernhardt is three years removed from playing his final college game. Daly has spent the last 26 years as a head coach, first at Tufts and then at Brown.

The two couldn’t possibly do the job the same way, but that’s all right. And Daly isn’t permitted to coach on the field at practice and during games because of NCAA rules, so he’ll go about his work differently at Maryland.

Yet he’s still seen a lot, going 244-83 with three Division III titles at Tufts. He was 46-51 with one NCAA berth at Brown before departing the program in the spring.

“Mike’s experiences are going to be different, but here’s a guy that’s been in a lot of locker rooms,” Tillman said. “He’s been around a lot of kids. He’s seen a lot of kids be successful. He’s been on a lot of successful teams. I just thought ‘He’s a guy who has seen a lot and has been super-successful. There’s a lot he can bring to our players in terms of our players.’”

Although Daly and Tillman have never worked together, they have crossed paths. Both coached in the Boston area at the same time (Daly at Tufts, Tillman at Harvard), and the Terps beat Brown in overtime last season. They have also gotten to know while working teaching-heavy camps at Bryant in recent summers.

Still, Tillman wasn’t sure until well into the offseason he would have an opening. Bernhardt — who followed up his lacrosse career by starting at quarterback on Ferris State’s Division II national title team in 2021 and then making the Atlanta Falcons’ 53-man roster as a wide receiver — decided he wanted to pursue football again.

With Bernhardt’s departure, Tillman rethought the role. He wanted someone with a big-picture view of leadership, of acclimating players to the college game, of improving performance.

He thought quickly of Daly. A conversation with Griffin King, who played at Brown for Daly before joining the Terps as a graduate transfer last season, offered insight as well.

“Here’s a guy that brings a lot to the table,” Tillman said. “I just felt like ‘How could you not at least have that conversation with him?’ After talking to him, it just seemed like it was too good to be true.”

From Daly’s perspective, fit and the opportunity to have a positive impact were important. After years as a head coach, he knows the value of having a strong staff.

He’s joining one at Maryland that includes defensive coordinator Jesse Bernhardt and offensive coordinator Michael Phipps, both program alums. But early indications are the Terps really will have him lean heavily into the player development portion of the job description.

“It’s not like there’s voids or gaps that I need to fill in any way shape or form,” Daly said. “In a great way, it’s finding ways to relieve strain and stress — add a little here, add a little there. On a normal college roster, those top 25, 30 guys get a lot of attention. I’ve tried to have an impact on some of those other guys that maybe don’t get hands-on, day-to-day attention all the time and add value wherever I can.”

One of the defining traits of Tillman’s tenure at Maryland is how many of his former staffers have become head coaches. Just in the Division I ranks, Bobby Benson (Providence), Kevin Conry (Michigan), Ryan Moran (UMBC), J.L. Reppert (Holy Cross) and Kevin Warne (Georgetown) had stints in College Park in the last 14 years.

Daly is the first former Division I coach to be part of Tillman’s staff, an intriguing development that could foster an exchange of ideas.

“We need to challenge what we’re doing and question if we’re doing as well as we can,” Tillman said. “I feel like that’s what the best do. You look at guys who have been coaching for a long time — [former Alabama football coach Nick] Saban really changed offensively and brought in Lane Kiffin. He changed what he did. You can’t be afraid to shake things up a little bit, because the game always changes.”

Ultimately, everything changes. For Daly, it’s a move away from a way of doing things he’s accustomed to as well. There aren’t athletic scholarships at Brown (per Ivy League regulations) or Tufts (in accordance with D-III rules), and both schools sponsor more than 30 varsity programs.

Maryland not only has a smaller athletic offering, but it also has power conference resources. And there’s little doubt men’s lacrosse is one of the school’s most high-profile programs --- as the attention paid to Tillman at an early-season football game made so clear.

“It's been so natural,” Daly said. “It hasn’t been overwhelming. It hasn’t been anything but just exactly everything I hoped and wished for.”