COLLEGE PARK — Back in the good old days, nearly four or even five years ago, a freshman quarterback returning for his sophomore season was just part of college football’s annual cycle.
Nothing to see here. Move along.
At Maryland last December, it was a press release, accompanied by a glossy video of Malik Washington affirming that yes, he would return next season.
Extra, extra — please renew your season tickets.
It feels something like progress that a school like Maryland can hold onto a quarterback as talented as Washington in the modern era when NIL dollars seem to matter most. But when a middle-class program has a blue-chip quarterback the anxiety is never over. Every year, week-by-week, it renews again.
As Washington hopes for a sophomore leap for the Terps in the 2026 season, a question looms over them: Is the Archbishop Spalding grad ready to uplift this program from mediocrity? Or is he auditioning for his next team?
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That question is the powderkeg embedded into a program that is trying to project continuity and cohesion in an era where those qualities are rare. Short of actually winning and making headway in the conference picture this year, that question isn’t going away.
This offseason does reflect significant efforts by head coach Mike Locksley to keep last year’s nucleus together to generate momentum by a program that so often feels stuck in place.
Not only did Locksley retain Washington, perhaps the most talented of his quarterback recruits he’s had in eight seasons at Maryland, but he brought back 71% of his roster from last season’s 2025 campaign, the second highest return rate in all of the Football Bowl Subdivision. His high school recruiting class was headlined by Saint Frances star edge Zion Elee, and one of the players he previously lost to the transfer portal — defensive lineman Lavon Johnson — came back to Maryland after a year at big-time football program Texas.
“I doubled down on connection,” Locksley said. “I doubled down on relationships. And it kind of shows itself.”
But roster continuity and recruiting class rankings mean little without finding ways to win on Saturdays. This year, Locksley is uncommonly guarded, which is perhaps the result of lessons learned from ambitious discourse in the past.
In 2023, he declared that the Terps were “here to compete for Big Ten Championships.” That team went 8-5, but still finished just 4-5 in the conference. They dropped to 4-8 in 2024. In 2025, he acknowledged that the program “didn’t meet our standards.” But after going 4-8 again, he tried to explain in July that “the 4-8 last year was a lot different than the 4-8 I saw the year before.”
The speculation about Locksley’s job security was so hot last season that athletic director Jim Smith had to cool it with an open letter of support for the coach. On Tuesday, when asked what success in 2026 looks like, Locksley decided to punt.
“That’s too big of a picture for me to worry about,” he said. “For me, it’s going to be about Hampton this week only. Not worried about our past. It’s not indicative of what the future looks like for us.”
As much as Locksley would rather not dwell on his track record, he (and every other Maryland coach since 2014) has struggled to make the Terps relevant in the Big Ten. Under Locksley, the team has never beaten a ranked Big Ten opponent, and never appeared in a College Football Playoff ranking itself.
Washington threw for nearly 3,000 yards as a freshman with 17 passing TDs and a 57.7% completion rate. His 473 passing attempts led the conference, in part because the Terps’ offense was hamstrung by a running game that ranked 124th in the country.
In only his second year, Washington is already on his second offensive coordinator, Clint Trickett, after Pep Hamilton was, erm, reassigned to special advisor.
This offseason, the Terps hired Washington’s high school coach, Maryland alum Kyle Schmitt, to lead the tight ends room. It’s not hard to connect the dots to how hiring Schmitt helps bring some stability for Washington after a challenging freshman season. Keeping things stable for Washington has to be one of the Terps’ top priorities this fall.
“To look at how he was able to play speaks volume to what type of player he is,” Locksley said of Washington. “Because for a guy that didn’t have a training camp [due to injury], true freshman starting every game, going through some tough times, some adversity as a quarterback, he never wavered.”
One wonders how much adversity Washington is willing to weather before another program — and whatever money it can muster — starts to seem more appealing.
It’s impossible to ignore that Indiana’s fabled 2025 title run — a new platinum standard for aspiring middle-class teams like the Terps — was powered in large part by transfer quarterback Fernando Mendoza. From a 6-7 Cal team, Mendoza used his Hoosier tenure to win a Heisman Trophy and become the first overall pick in the NFL draft.
Longtime draft analyst Todd McShay fanned some flames in the offseason that Washington could be the type of quarterback that schools view as a star-in-the-making. Citing conversations with college football insiders, McShay speculated that Washington could command more than $7 million per year if he continues to develop.
“If he builds off of what he did last year, just watching him physically, nobody had his arm — nobody,” McShay said after watching Washington at the Manning Passing Academy. “And he’s that big, and he’s mobile.”
While Smith and his administration have made a point to increase the department’s budget — Maryland recently announced its largest commitment pool ever ($43.7 million) for the 2026 fiscal year — it has always been overmatched financially since entering the Big Ten. Securing Washington’s tenure in College Park beyond 2026 could be dicey if it comes down to a question of money.
It’s fortunate for the Terps that so far, that has not seemed to be Washington’s primary motivation.
Washington appears quite focused on the season in front of him. Locksley lauded his leadership, saying the team has taken on more of his characteristics. Washington played a pivotal role in recruiting Elee to College Park, and he said he wants to see the cliques and factions of the locker room continue to break down for the common mission.
“It’s really not so much what people think about our team — it’s how we think about ourselves and view ourselves that motivates us and keeps us moving forward,” Washington said. “The energy in the locker room, the energy on the field in practice, that’s what pushes our team. Not so much the outside noise.”
It’s easy to keep out the outside noise and speculation before any games are played.
Once they kick off, it might be difficult to hear anything else.
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