By Oct. 21, 2025, nine FBS programs had moved on from their head coaches. On Oct. 21, 2026, we had the first. It was the one everyone saw coming.
It took three and a half days after Maryland's 37-30 loss to previously-winless-against-the-FBS Rutgers to press the red button on Mike Locksley's seven-and-a-half-year tenure in College Park, but the Terrapins did so on Wednesday morning. "Following thoughtful conversations with Coach Locksley, we agreed that a coaching change was in the best interest of Coach Locksley and the Maryland football program," said AD Jim Smith.
Locksley will walk away with $9.75 million with no offset, and Maryland will walk away, hopefully, with a lesson of what does and does not work at a middle-class Power 2 institution in today's college football.
What was the high point? Despite the ending, there are multiple choices here. The absolute peak probably came at the 8:45 mark of the second quarter of Maryland's Sept. 24, 2022 game at Michigan. The Terrapins were 3-0, playing the fourth-ranked defending Big Ten champions in their house in a Big Noon game, and possessed the ball at the Wolverines' 41 with a 1st-and-10 and a 13-10 lead. (Taulia Tagovailoa was intercepted the very next play, Michigan scored a touchdown just before halftime and led the rest of the way.)
Locksley led Maryland to three consecutive bowl wins. He pummeled Virginia Tech 54-10 in the 2021 Pinstripe, upset a ranked NC State in the 2022 Mayo Bowl (in Charlotte, no less), and blew out Auburn before an ABC, holiday weekend audience in the 2023 Music City Bowl. UMD alums no doubt hear it from their ACC colleagues about how they surely secretly wish they could move back, so beating ACC teams in bowl games felt good, and it's always fun to beat an SEC team in an SEC market no matter what conference you're in. Locksley made those moments happen.
What was the low point? Dreams of competing against the Big Ten's Big Three never materialized. The Terps were 1-15 against Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State (the one win coming over a covid-depleted Penn State team), mostly losing by blowout. Of course Maryland wasn't ready to take on Ohio State -- Rutgers was the more immediate problem. The Terps have dropped three in a row to the Knights. Rutgers is a symptom of Maryland's bigger problem: Locksley exits College Park having lost his last 13 games to Power 4 competition.
What did Locksley/Maryland get right? The theory of the Locksley hire was "Saban assistant with DMV recruiting connections" and that bet paid dividends, for a time. Taulia Tagovailoa had multiple seasons of 25-plus touchdown passes while leading the Terps to bowl wins. True freshman defensive end Zion Elee is the highest-rated recruit in program history, and sophomore quarterback Malik Washington (both Baltimore kids) isn't far behind. Neither wears the, uh, Maryland red, black, yellow and white without Locksley.
What did Locksley get wrong? He cycled through multiple coordinators on both sides of the ball, and not because those guys were getting plucked for bigger jobs. Also, while Locksley succeeded in getting DMV stars to College Park, he never built deep classes behind them. Maryland regularly ranked 10th or 11th in the Big Ten recruiting rankings, which is not what you hope when you hire a recruiting-focused head coach in one of the most talent-laden metros in B1G country.
But all that is secondary. It's no coincidence Maryland fell off a cliff just as NIL took root in college football. He admitted he lost the locker room over NIL in 2024 and promised he wouldn't make the same mistake twice. "You go outside my locker room (now) and I have a sign that says: 'Leave your Louis belts, leave your financial statements and your car keys outside of this locker room, because in here we're all going to pay the same price for success or failure,'" Locksley said at 2025 B1G media days. "If I've got to put my desk in that locker room, I will. A valuable lesson learned."
The change in work locations proved to be too little, too late.
What did Maryland get wrong? It's always easy to Monday Morning Quarterback a coaching search (or, in this case, a non-search), but this one seems especially egregious. Maryland rode with Locksley as he rode an 8-game losing streak into the winter, while UCLA traveled 3,000 miles to hire Bob Chesney away from James Madison. Maryland could have cut Locksley's buyout check, drove to Harrisonburg, kidnapped Chesney and driven him back to College Park by the time UCLA's plane landed.
Where does Locksley go from here? At 56, this will be Locksley's last head coaching job. A 2-26 tenure a lifetime ago at New Mexico means Locksley, 41-80 lifetime, would not a prospective university president's spouse's initial Wikipedia search, which is always the first and often most important barrier any head coaching candidate must clear. If he so desires -- remember, Locksley's buyout requires no offset nor duty to mitigate -- he would bring value as an offensive assistant at a Power 4 school that recruits the Eastern Seaboard.
Where does Maryland go from here? Well, Indiana and UCLA are currently tearing up the Big Ten with head coaches they hired from a school located 144 miles from UMD's campus. I'm not saying Maryland should blindly hire current James Madison head coach Billy Napier (especially now that he's given up play-calling), but the Terrapins could certainly do a lot worse. There will be a natural pull to get either Mike Shanahan or Bryant Haines from Indiana given their experience at Cignetti's side, but pulling the trigger depends on how much the Cig Factor can be duplicated by someone who's not the man himself. After all, working for Nick Saban didn't turn Mike Locksley into Nick Saban.
Richmond's Russ Huesman, Villanova's Mark Ferrante, and Yale's Kevin Cahill are not names bubbling up hot boards, but all are Professional Head Ball Coaches who know how to win football games. Louis Vuitton belts would not be welcome in any of their locker rooms, either.