Maryland Fires Football Coach Mike Locksley After Eight Seasons

The University of Maryland fired head football coach Mike Locksley on Wednesday, ending his eight-season tenure leading the program.

The Washington, D.C., native finished his time with the Terps with a 39-54 overall record. Despite leading Maryland to three consecutive bowl wins from 2021-23, his teams never won more than eight games in a season. Things had gotten particularly dire the last few seasons, with his team losing 20 of its last 22 Big Ten games.

On Saturday, Maryland dropped to 2-5 after squandering an early lead in a 37-30 home loss to Rutgers.

Locksley was paid $6.4 million this season and was under contract through 2028. In light of his termination, the school owes him a buyout worth more than $9 million.

The Terps hired Locksley in December 2018 in the aftermath of the death of offensive lineman Jordan McNair from heatstroke earlier in the year, which led to the firing of head coach D.J. Durkin.

Locksley was largely effective in helping to move the program past the Durkin era and earned high marks for his ability to recruit from the DMV area and add talent through the transfer portal. But that did not result in positive results on the field.

Replacing Locksley will fall to Maryland athletic director Jim Smith, who’ll be leading a hiring search for a new football coach for the first time. Hired in July 2025, Smith previously spent five years with the MLB’s Atlanta Braves as senior vice president of business strategy, and before that he ran the Ohio State Alumni Association.

Co-defensive coordinator Aazaar Abdul-Rahim will be the Terps interim coach, according to The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman. Abdul-Rahim, another local, was the head coach at Friendship Collegiate Academy in D.C. before jumping to the college ranks.