Maryland pulled the trigger on head coach Mike Locksley on Wednesday, according to Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger, making him the first college football coach fired this 2026 season, four days after the Terps stumbled to a 2-5 record with a 37-30 home loss to Rutgers.
The Bottom Line on This Season’s Collapse
Locksley was in his eighth season of this tenure with Maryland, and honestly, the writing has been on the wall for a minute. He was somehow kept on for 2026 even after back-to-back 4-8 seasons. Look, the guy had a couple of decent years, going 8-5 in both 2022 and 2023. That felt like progress, you know? But ever since the Big Ten expanded, it’s just been a complete mess for the program.
The Late-Season Swoons That Broke Everything
This isn’t just about a bad start, it’s a trend that’s been killing them for years. Maryland has only managed to win two Big Ten games since the start of the 2024 season. Think about that for a second. Every year has been plagued by these brutal late-season collapses. In 2024, they kicked things off 3-1. In 2025, they looked even better, starting 4-0. But then, after a 27-10 win at Wisconsin on September 20, 2025, the wheels absolutely fell off. They lost their last eight games of that season, and what’s worse, the final five of those losses were by at least 10 points each. That’s just not acceptable at this level.
Locksley’s Rocky Road to Rockville (and Beyond)
This wasn’t Locksley’s first rodeo with a hot seat, or even his first stint at Maryland. He was actually an interim coach back in 2015 after Randy Edsall got canned. Before coming back for this latest tenure in 2019, he spent three years with Alabama, including a run as their offensive coordinator in 2018. The Washington, D.C. native also served as a Maryland assistant from 1997 to 2002. And get this: he was even a head coach at New Mexico for a couple of seasons, where he was fired after an 0-4 start in 2011, following back-to-back 1-11 seasons in 2009 and 2010. It’s a pattern that, frankly, has become all too familiar for Maryland fans. What happens next in College Park? That’s the question everyone’s asking.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
Leave a Reply