Maryland has fired head coach Mike Locksley, per CBS Sports and Yahoo Sports. It is the first coaching departure of the 2026 season at a Power Four program. CBS's John Talty wrote that the school ended his tenure before the end of his eighth season, "after years of declining results." Yahoo tied the timing to the 37-30 home loss to Rutgers on Oct. 17.
Yahoo reported that co-defensive coordinator Aazaar Abdul-Rahim is serving as interim head coach. None of the reporting we have says how long the interim arrangement will last, or whether Locksley's staff is staying.
The outlets give slightly different records. Yahoo put Locksley at 39-54 across eight seasons. Our archive has him at 39-53, with 2025 at 4-7 so far in our data. Yahoo's note that Maryland went 4-8 in both 2024 and 2025 points to a 4-8 finish in 2025, which our archive may not yet reflect. Our tables show him at 8-5 in both 2022 and 2023, his best seasons, and a combined 8-15 in 2024 and 2025.
Maryland is 2-5 and 0-4 in the Big Ten, listed 17th in the conference. Its only wins came in September against Hampton (62-0) and UConn (38-14). Since then it has lost five straight: 35-26 to Virginia Tech, 54-3 to UCLA, 48-23 at Nebraska, 45-16 at Ohio State and the Rutgers game. In those five games the Terps scored 98 points and allowed 219.
2-5, 0-4 conf17th in Big TenStreak L5
The last loss was to a Rutgers team that is 2-4 and 14th in the conference. That is the sort of result Yahoo's "long overdue" column points to, though it is opinion rather than reporting.
The coverage has already turned to a successor. Yahoo's candidate list includes Brian Kelly. CBS's list is headed by Jake Dickert and Billy Napier. Both are speculation from the outlets, and neither names anyone Maryland has contacted. Yahoo also ran a piece on four Maryland players who could be poached now, and another asking whether anyone can win at Maryland.
Abdul-Rahim's first game is Saturday, Oct. 31, at home against Illinois. Maryland has no game this weekend. Rutgers plays at Northwestern on Saturday, Oct. 24.
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