Maryland has moved on from Mike Locksley in the middle of his eighth season, closing the book on a run that produced three straight bowl victories before the program slid into a deep losing stretch against power-conference competition.
The firing, first reported Wednesday by On3’s Pete Nakos, came after Rutgers stormed back from a 10-point halftime deficit and beat the Terrapins 37-30 at SECU Stadium four days earlier. That loss dropped Maryland to 2-5 overall and 0-4 in Big Ten play.
Locksley finished 38-49 as head coach after taking over in 2019, when he came from Nick Saban’s Alabama staff to guide a program still dealing with the aftermath of offensive lineman Jordan McNair’s death and the firing of DJ Durkin.
His high point came between 2021 and 2023, when Maryland won bowl games in three consecutive seasons for the first time in school history. Since then, the results have fallen apart. The Terrapins went 4-8 in both 2024 and 2025 and finished 1-8 in conference play each season.
This year opened with promise at 2-0, but the wheels came off fast. Maryland dropped five straight games, and the defense gave up 43.8 points per game during that stretch.
After a 54-3 home loss to UCLA on Sept. 26, Locksley said, “I still have a lot of confidence in myself and the staff to get this thing fixed.”
It didn’t turn around. Maryland lost three more games after that and was outscored 92-13 after halftime across its four Big Ten games.
Athletic director Jim Smith, who arrived in May 2025, inherited Locksley and opted to keep him last November after a second straight 4-8 season, while promising additional financial support for the roster. After the UCLA loss, Smith said he and Locksley were “aligned on the work in front of us,” and a department spokesperson said that would be his final public comment on the coach’s status.
Locksley made one last push to shake things up on Oct. 18, dismissing defensive coordinator Ted Monachino and turning the defense over to cornerbacks coach Aazaar Abdul-Rahim, with inside linebackers coach Zac Spavital elevated to co-defensive coordinator.
“As I evaluate our program, I believe this change is necessary,” Locksley said in a statement.
Maryland didn’t wait for the season to play out. Instead, it made the coaching change during its open week, three days later.
Locksley was due $6.4 million this season under a contract that ran through 2028, and his buyout does not include an offset if he takes another job. The total buyout is $9.94 million, according to the report, with Maryland required to pay $4.97 million within 60 days and the rest in equal installments through 2028.
The Terrapins still have five games remaining, beginning with Illinois’ trip to SECU Stadium on Oct. 31.
Smith’s next hire will step into a department that ranked last in Big Ten revenue a year ago. In April, Smith estimated Maryland was $50 million to $60 million behind the middle of the conference.
In Other News...
Maryland Football Just Entered A Reset Fans Never Expected
Maryland football is headed into an unexpected reset after Michael Locksley stepped down as head coach at the University of Maryland, effective immediately. The move comes with the season still in motion, and the school has already said it will launch a national search for his permanent replacement.
Aazaar Abdul-Rahim will take over in the interim for the rest of the year, giving the Terrapins a short-term bridge while the bigger question hangs over the program. For Maryland, the next few weeks are now about keeping the locker room steady, managing the finish to the season and figuring out what kind of leadership the program wants next. [Read more 🡒]
Marylands Next Game Suddenly Feels Bigger Than Fans Expected
A bye week often gives a program a chance to reset, but Maryland comes out of it with a matchup that carries a little extra weight. The Terps are back at home on Saturday, Oct. 31, and the timing alone gives the game a different feel, with both sides trying to regroup after recent losses and both staffs having made midseason changes on defense.
Illinois is the visitor for a noon kickoff on BTN, and the setting makes this one stand out before the ball is even teed up. For Maryland, the date adds a small bit of history to the occasion, and the combination of a fresh start, a conference opponent and a Halloween stage gives this game a little more edge than a typical late-October home date. [Read more 🡒]
LSUs New-Look Roster Has Tigers Fans Eyeing A Fast SEC Climb
Marylands offseason reset has quietly given the Terrapins a different kind of ceiling heading into the next college basketball campaign. With roster movement defining so much of the sport right now, the Terps have been among the teams worth circling because of the mix of holdovers and portal additions that could change the way they play on both ends. Around the league, that same kind of turnover has been the difference between teams that merely tread water and teams that make an early move up the standings.
The intrigue here is how quickly Maryland can turn that incoming talent into something coherent once the games start. The broader look at programs like LSU, Marquette, Xavier, and Ole Miss suggests there are several teams positioned for a jump if the pieces fit, and Maryland is in that conversation for the same reason. The talent is there, the projections are encouraging, and now the real question is how long it takes for the new roster to look like a team instead of a collection of parts. [Read more 🡒]