Maryland’s coaching search is open after parting with Mike Locksley following a 2-5 start (0-4 in the Big Ten). One local name has already publicly thrown his hat in the ring.
Biff Poggi, the 66-year-old Big Ten Network analyst, former Charlotte head coach and Michigan interim head coach, and longtime Baltimore high school coaching success, told the Baltimore Sun he wants the job in College Park.
“Yeah, I really would like the job,” Poggi said in a phone interview. He has not spoken with athletic director Jim Smith or anyone involved in the search, but he outlined a clear vision for turning around a program he believes has the talent, geography, and resources to compete in the Big Ten.
Poggi cautioned that simply swapping coaches will not fix deeper structural issues. “Don’t think you can think, ‘Hey, we’re just going to hire a new coach, and everything’s going to be better.’ There have been plenty of coaches there that haven’t won.” He envisions the head coach operating like a chief executive, aligning administrators, donors, coaches, and state officials around a shared plan. “If Indiana can win, we can win,” he said.
Poggi is a Baltimore native and Gilman School alumnus. He coached the Greyhounds for 19 seasons (assistant 1988-95, head coach 1996-2015), posting a 135-43 record and winning 13 MIAA conference titles. He later founded and built the football program at St. Frances Academy into a national power, going 34-1 from 2017-2020 while investing significant personal resources (including funding scholarships). Some MIAA opponents declined to play the Panthers over competitive and safety concerns.
At the college level, Poggi worked as an analyst for Jim Harbaugh at Michigan in 2016, returned as associate head coach in 2021-22 (Michigan went 25-3 with two Big Ten titles and two College Football Playoff appearances), then spent two seasons as head coach at Charlotte (6-16) before being fired with two games left in 2024. He cited funding shortfalls there. He rejoined Michigan in 2025 as associate head coach, served as interim during Sherrone Moore’s suspension (going 2-0), and took over again after Moore’s December firing, coaching the Wolverines in a 41-27 Citrus Bowl loss to Texas amid significant player unrest.
Poggi’s blueprint for Maryland emphasizes experienced staff, aggressive transfer-portal work, and substantial investment in player compensation. He floated names such as Northwestern offensive coordinator Chip Kelly, former Ravens/Michigan defensive coordinator Wink Martindale, and Ravens defensive line coach Lou Esposito as the caliber of assistants he would pursue (he stressed these were examples, not confirmed candidates).
On the portal, he said he would target “bounce-back” transfers from the Baltimore-Washington region: “If I was named the Maryland coach, I would have 50 calls that day from kids and their agents.”
Funding is central to his pitch. Poggi estimated Maryland would need $25-28 million annually for player compensation, drawn from institutional revenue and corporate sponsorships rather than trying to match the Big Ten’s biggest spenders. As a former hedge fund manager, he said he would leverage business connections immediately: “If I get the Maryland job, Jim Smith and [senior deputy athletic director] Diana Sabau and I are going to go make a lot of visits on the first week.”
He defended Locksley as “a great football coach” and noted that he was the one who recommended Locksley to Nick Saban years ago, while questioning some recent assistant hires and the program’s ability to consistently recruit and develop linemen. “You can’t do it alone,” he said. Poggi called the Maryland job “one of the great honors of my lifetime” and warned that anyone approaching it casually should “stay the hell away.”
Maryland has named co-defensive coordinator Aazaar Abdul-Rahim as interim head coach for the remainder of the 2026 season. The program is conducting a national search under athletic director Jim Smith.
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