Ohio State may not be the game Maryland is supposed to win, but it could wind up being the one that forces the conversation around Mike Locksley to the front of the room.
When the Terrapins head to Columbus on Oct. 10, they’ll be walking into a No. 5 Ohio State team that just handled No.
14 Iowa 31-14 in Iowa City. The Buckeyes are 4-1 and 2-0 in the Big Ten, and Jeremiah Smith is already sitting at the center of the Heisman Trophy talk.
That’s the backdrop. Maryland arrives at 2-3, fresh off a 48-23 loss at Nebraska and carrying the weight of back-to-back 4-8 seasons.
That’s what makes this trip feel bigger than a regular road loss waiting to happen. Ohio State has become a measuring stick for Maryland’s place in the league, and right now the gap looks wide.
The series history says plenty on its own. Ohio State is 9-0 all-time against Maryland and 5-0 in Columbus.
The Buckeyes have scored at least 37 points in every meeting and are averaging 55.1 points per game in the matchup. The most recent meeting, in 2023, ended with a 37-17 Ohio State win.
So no, the expectation in College Park is not that Maryland strolls into Ohio Stadium and pulls the upset. The bigger question is whether the Terps can show they still belong in the same conversation as the Big Ten program Maryland has spent years trying to build toward.
That bar feels even lower after what happened against UCLA.
Maryland’s 54-3 loss to the Bruins wasn’t just another ugly result. It was the kind of collapse that changes the tone around a coach.
The Terps finished with 181 total yards, only 39 on the ground, and went 1-for-15 on third down. Malik Washington threw four interceptions, and two of them were returned for touchdowns.
Those numbers are brutal enough. The larger problem is what they say about where the program is right now.
Maryland entered 2026 needing to show progress after consecutive 4-8 seasons. Instead, four games in, the Terrapins already had a 51-point home loss and a brutal stretch still ahead.
Rutgers is next. Then Illinois. After that comes Purdue, Wisconsin, USC and Penn State.
The schedule was never going to be kind, but the UCLA loss stripped away a lot of the room for error. Now every bad performance feels heavier.
There’s also a painful bit of symmetry here. Three years ago, Maryland went to Columbus with a 5-0 record and real momentum.
Ohio State erased an early Terrapins lead and won 37-17, outscoring Maryland 27-7 in the second half. That game didn’t end Locksley’s run, but it became a turning point in the arc of the program.
Maryland dropped its next three games, and what had looked like a breakthrough season ended up becoming the last winning year of Locksley’s tenure. Since then, Maryland has gone 8-16.
This time, the setup is different and much harsher. Maryland isn’t unbeaten.
It isn’t riding optimism. It’s 2-3, and the noise around Locksley is a lot louder.
There’s a financial piece to this too. If Maryland fired Locksley during the 2026 season, the school would reportedly owe about $9.2 million in buyout money.
That figure falls to $8.9 million after the season and $4.5 million after 2027. That kind of money makes any coaching change a serious decision, which helps explain why Maryland might not move immediately even if the results keep going sideways.
And it’s worth remembering that Locksley has done real work at Maryland. He inherited the program in the aftermath of the Jordan McNair tragedy and helped steady it. The Terrapins then put together three straight winning seasons from 2021 through 2023 and won bowls in each of those years.
So this is not a story about a coach who did nothing. It’s about whether what he built earlier still outweighs the direction things are heading now.
That brings it back to Ohio State. If Maryland gets buried in Columbus, nobody will be stunned by the score itself.
What matters is how it happens. If the Terps compete for four quarters, protect the ball and show some fight after what happened against UCLA and late against Nebraska, that changes the tone.
If they come out flat and look outclassed from the start, it becomes harder to treat this as just a rough patch.
That’s why this game feels so loaded. Ohio State isn’t just another tough opponent on Maryland’s schedule. It’s the clearest marker of how far the program has fallen from the version Locksley once had rolling.
In 2023, Maryland went into Columbus undefeated. In 2026, it may arrive with its coach’s future hanging over everything. That’s the irony, and it’s why this game could matter far beyond the final score.
In Other News...
Ohio State Just Delivered The Kind Of Road Win Fans Needed
Ohio State went into Kinnick Stadium and delivered the sort of response win its fans had been waiting for, beating Iowa 31-14 and handing the Hawkeyes their first loss of the season. The Buckeyes controlled the game on both sides of the ball, piling up 484 total yards while keeping Iowa to 238 and a paltry 39 rushing yards, which made this feel less like a tense road test and more like a statement about the gap between the two teams.
Jeremiah Smith was at the center of it, turning the trip into one of those performances that travels well beyond the box score. He finished with 11 catches for 206 yards and two touchdowns, giving Ohio State a dynamic edge whenever it needed one and helping offset a couple of turnovers forced by the defense. For a team that needed a clean, convincing road result, this was exactly the kind of night it was looking for. [Read more 🡒]
Jeremiah Smith Just Put Ohio State Fans On Notice Again
Jeremiah Smith kept the Buckeyes moving in Iowa City, turning a road test against the Hawkeyes into another showcase for Ohio States passing game. The freshman wideout tied the Ohio State touchdown record while finishing with 11 catches for 206 yards and two scores, a performance that helped push the Buckeyes to a 4-1 start and add another layer to what has already become a must-watch season in Columbus.
Smiths latest breakout only raises the stakes for what comes next, because Ohio State now heads back home to face Maryland with its young star drawing even more attention. For a team that has spent the early part of the season trying to establish its identity, his ability to create production anywhere on the field has become one of the biggest reasons the Buckeyes keep looking like a contender. [Read more 🡒]
Ohio State Just Earned The Big Ten Spot Fans Wanted Most
Week 5 brought a clearer picture of the Big Ten race, and Ohio State came out of it looking like the conference team fans expected to see at the top. The Buckeyes handled Iowa in a game that carried more weight than a typical early-season road test, adding a quality win to a rsum that is starting to separate from the pack as the league standings and the national picture begin to take shape.
The rankings around them still have plenty of movement left, with Indiana continuing to push forward, Oregon and UCLA drawing attention for different reasons, and Michigan still trying to sort out its own path. But Ohio States recent momentum is the kind that can hold up as October approaches, especially if the Buckeyes keep matching style points with results in the weeks ahead. [Read more 🡒]