Maryland’s coaching search is already one of the most intriguing in the Big Ten, and the list of possible hires says plenty about where the program could go next. After the Terrapins fired Mike Locksley on Wednesday, they became the first team on the coaching carousel, and with Maryland’s spot in the DMV and its closeness to Washington, D.C., the next move could matter well beyond College Park.
For Penn State and the rest of the league, the uncomfortable possibility is that Maryland could land a coach who actually changes the temperature in the conference. There are a few names out there who fit that description.
JaMarcus Shephard is the kind of swing that would make people around the Big Ten take notice. He was coaching Alabama’s wide receivers in 2025, but now he’s driving one of the country’s most dangerous offenses.
He also just pulled three-star receiver Jesse Legree away from Locksley and Maryland. If the Terrapins somehow brought Shephard in, it could mean importing the whole Oregon State offense with him and landing one of the three most productive wide receiver groups in the country in the Big Ten.
Jason Eck belongs in the same conversation because he’s kept winning wherever he’s gone, even in places that don’t make that easy. He’s a Midwest coach whose head-coaching career has unfolded in the Mountain Time Zone, which makes him an unusual fit on paper for Maryland.
But fitting on paper is not the same thing as fitting on the field. Bob Chesney was a strange fit at UCLA too, and he still proved to be a good football coach.
Eck will likely have plenty of options in this cycle, so if Maryland can sell him on building something in College Park, that would be a problem for the rest of the league.
Jake Dickert also checks the box as a hire that could get ugly for everyone else. He went 9-4 in his first season at Wake Forest after making the move from Washington State, and he’s now got the Demon Deacons set up as the likeliest team to face Miami in the ACC Championship Game. That comes with Wake Forest working on a $16-20 million roster budget, the third-lowest in the conference.
Then there’s Bryant Haines, who has never been a head coach but would be a major headache for the Big Ten if Maryland got him. He worked his way up alongside Curt Cignetti, and the schematic piece of Indiana’s rise to a national championship is something people don’t always talk about enough.
Haines was more responsible for that than anyone. If he finally takes the leap into a head-coaching job, he’d likely know exactly how to build an elite defense, or at minimum fix that side of the ball fast.
Not every Maryland option would scare the conference, though. Billy Napier has his current situation rolling at James Madison, just as he once did at Louisiana.
He’s a strong recruiter who can identify and land top-level talent wherever he coaches. But his Florida track record still hangs over the profile: when the other roster is comparable, he loses on the chalkboard.
Napier would probably give Maryland a modest boost in recruiting, but there’s no clear sign he’d squeeze significantly more out of the talent already on hand.
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Cael Sanderson Just Raised A Serious Penn State Wrestling Concern
Cael Sanderson used Penn State wrestlings media day to voice a concern that has lingered around college athletics for some time: whether the rules are being enforced clearly enough for programs to know where they stand. The Penn State coach sounded frustrated by the NCAAs uncertainty, saying the lack of consistent standards can make it hard to tell whether playing by the book could actually leave a team at a disadvantage.
The immediate wrinkle for Penn State involves former wrestler Levi Haines, whose eligibility status remains unclear even as he continues preparing for international freestyle competition. Sanderson pointed to that uncertainty as part of a bigger problem, one that affects not just the Nittany Lions but the broader landscape of college wrestling, where clarity on who can compete and when still seems frustratingly out of reach. [Read more 🡒]
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Penn States Offensive Problems Go Well Beyond The Scoreboard
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The quarterback situation is part of the picture, too, with Alex Manske unavailable and receiver Koby Howard also among the key players sidelined. Head coach Matt Campbell has said he believes in Manskes future, but has also made clear he is not ready to hand him the job right now, leaving Penn State to keep searching for answers while the offense tries to find some much-needed stability. [Read more 🡒]