Maryland’s coaching search is already drawing a harsh dose of reality.
With the Terrapins set to return to the field this weekend against Illinois in a noon ET kickoff, interim head coach Aazaar Abdul-Rahim gets his first chance to steady things on the field. But off it, the big-picture question is already front and center after Maryland moved on from Mike Locksley in the middle of his eighth season: who is actually realistic for the job?
John Brice of USA Today and FootballScoop, who has tracked coaching movement across the country for years, poured cold water on the idea that Maryland can simply land some of the buzziest names attached to the opening. Wake Forest head coach Jake Dickert and New Mexico head coach Jason Eck were both mentioned as possible targets, but one agent told Brice they would be unlikely options unless Maryland makes major changes to its NIL budget, which sits in the middle of the Big Ten.
Another agent was even blunter about the search, saying it “starts and ends with Huff, in my opinion.
"If [Huff] doesn’t want it, we get into Lance Taylor, Dan Mullen, Brian Kelly. Not sold the Indiana coordinators would even consider it.”
Brice also reported that Miami (FL) coordinators Shannon Dawson and Corey Hetherman are not expected to be interested in the opening.
One candidate Brice did flag as a practical fit is Jeff Monken, the Army head coach and cousin of Browns coach Todd Monken. Monken has been at Army since 2014 and has built a 94-65 record there, including a 16-5 mark since the program joined the American Conference in 2024. He has never coached at the Power Four level, but his résumé includes a four-year stop at Georgia Southern, where he went 38-16 overall and 22-8 in conference play.
The case for Monken goes beyond the raw record. He has posted winning seasons in five of the last seven years and led Army to seven bowl games since taking over. Brice also noted that Monken has visited with LSU, Ohio State and Oregon over the last 1.5 years.
As one sitting head coach told Brice: “If they can’t be better (from a talent standpoint), they would be wise to be different than everyone else. Nobody could win consistently at Army, either," a sitting head coach told Brice.
In Other News...
Arkansas Is Chasing A Recruiting Opening Rivals May Regret
Arkansas has spent the late stretch of the recruiting cycle doing what ambitious staffs do best: making itself part of the conversation with prospects already pledged elsewhere. The Razorbacks have been hosting official visitors and pressing on targets who are committed to schools such as Baylor, Maryland and UTSA, banking on a mix of coaching movement and fresh offers to create openings where there did not seem to be any.
For Maryland, the interesting part is less about the headlines and more about the ripple effect. A recruit tied to the Terrapins is among the names being watched in this kind of flip-watch environment, and Arkansas has shown enough persistence to keep that door cracked. If recent developments around other programs keep shifting the board, this is exactly the sort of recruitment that could get complicated in a hurry. [Read more 🡒]
Marylands Frontcourt Could Decide How Far Buzz Williams Second Season Goes
With Buzz Williams heading into his second season in College Park, Marylands frontcourt is shaping up as the clearest place to measure how much progress the Terps can make. Pharrel Payne is back after a productive stretch in limited action last year, when he averaged 17.5 points and 7.2 rebounds, and the staff has added size and options around him with transfer arrivals Tomislav Buljan and Robert Jennings II.
The challenge now is turning that collection of bigs into a unit that can carry the Terps through a season where depth and consistency should matter as much as talent. Maryland is trying to build a rotation it can trust before the opener against Bucknell, and how quickly those frontcourt pieces settle in could say plenty about how far this group is prepared to go. [Read more 🡒]