Maryland football’s coaching search is moving in the background while Aazaar Abdul-Rahim gets the team ready for its first road game as interim head coach. With the process expected to start taking shape by the end of the month and the early signing period arriving in the first week of December, the bigger conversation is which names do not fit the job.
There are plenty of directions Maryland could go, but some candidates simply don’t line up with what the program needs right now. A few names may carry recognition, success, or a strong résumé in one lane, but that doesn’t make them sensible options to replace Mike Locksley.
Brian Kelly is the most accomplished coach in this group, and maybe the least natural fit. He’s in his first full season as a TV commentator after his LSU run ended badly, even if his time there still produced a 34-14 (19-10) record before he was let go midway through his fourth year.
Kelly has won just about everywhere he’s coached, but he hasn’t always delivered in the biggest moments and fell short in the SEC. The questions around him are obvious: how eager would he be to rebuild a roster and essentially start over, how would he operate with a competitive but far smaller NIL budget than LSU’s, and would he actually energize Maryland fans for what comes next?
Billy Napier is another name that doesn’t make much sense here. After a strong start to his first year, James Madison has now dropped back-to-back games on overtime field goals and sits at 7-2 (4-2).
The Dukes were back in action Thursday night at Southern Miss, where they controlled the second half on ESPN2 and improved to 8-2 (5-2) before turning their attention to UConn next week. Still, the last two games before Thursday have only fueled criticism of Napier’s play calling and decision-making, with some of that scrutiny echoing the end of his Florida tenure.
That leaves more doubt than confidence about how he would handle a Power Four job.
Biff Poggi is the clearest no from this list. The former high school coach built up Gilman and then St.
Frances with his wealth, and in the process he alienated plenty of local coaches across the DMV. His first college head coaching job came at Charlotte in 2023, and it never came close to working.
His two-year run ended with constant negative feedback around the program and a 6-16 (4-10) record. Charlotte also tried to rebuild through the St.
Frances pipeline, leaning on overlooked players and Power Four transfers looking for a reset. After leaving midway through 2024, Poggi returned to Ann Arbor for a second stint on staff and eventually became interim head coach after the Sherrone Moore saga that ended in charges filed against him.
He has never shown he can run a college program, and local recruiting would be a major problem with such a polarizing figure.
Dennard Wilson is the most interesting name on the list, but not for Maryland. A former ACC honorable mention for the Terrapins who also played one season with the Washington Redskins in 2004, Wilson has built his reputation in the NFL.
He spent more than a decade coaching position groups for the St. Louis-turned-Los Angeles Rams, New York Jets, Philadelphia Eagles and Baltimore Ravens before getting his first shot as an NFL coordinator.
After two seasons with the Tennessee Titans, he is now in year one as the New York Giants’ coordinator under John Harbaugh, and they’ve put together one of the NFL’s best pass defenses in 2026. That success matters, but sitting NFL coaches rarely leave for college, and there’s a bigger issue anyway: coordinating at that level is not the same as running a college program.
Maryland didn’t move on from Mike Locksley to hand the job to someone learning the rebuild on the fly, especially with AD Jim Smith repeatedly emphasizing the need for a candidate who has built a program in the modern era of college football.
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Buzz Williams Just Gave Maryland Fans A New Ceiling To Debate
Buzz Williams has barely settled in at Maryland, but the early buzz around his roster is already giving Terrapins fans something to argue about. ESPN draft analyst Jeremy Woos initial 2027 NBA Draft Big Board put two Maryland players in the top 100, a sign that the talent base in College Park may be deeper than the usual preseason chatter suggests. For a program trying to establish its identity under a new coach, that kind of recognition matters.
Baba Oladotuns place on the list points to the upside Williams is working with, while Pharrel Payne brings the kind of veteran size and physicality that can stabilize a front line. It is the sort of combination that can change how high a teams ceiling feels before the season even starts, and it also leaves one obvious question hanging over Maryland: just how much more room is there for this roster to climb if the development hits? [Read more 🡒]
Maryland Gets A Real Test For Aazaar Abdul-Rahims New Approach
Maryland heads into a road trip to Purdue still trying to steady itself after a last-second loss in Aazaar Abdul-Rahims first game as interim coach. The focus this week has been less about a reset and more about tightening the details, with the staff pushing for better defensive play and sharper situational awareness as the Terrapins try to turn a promising approach into something more reliable.
Abdul-Rahim has also brought a different feel to practice, and players have noticed the change in competitiveness and routine. With the head coaching search still ongoing, the challenge now is keeping the message consistent while the on-field product gets cleaner, because this next stretch will say plenty about how quickly Maryland can respond to the new direction. [Read more 🡒]
Maryland Finally Ended A Big Ten Slide It Couldnt Afford
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Malik Washington was at the center of it, while Marylands defense piled up pressure with seven sacks and 14 tackles for loss to help contain Purdues attack. Purdue stayed within striking distance behind Jacobo Echeverria Lozanos five field goals, but Maryland answered with enough timely offense to finish the job and leave the program with a result it could finally build on. [Read more 🡒]