Maryland football coach Michael Locksley is stepping down

The arrival of Michael Locksley as Maryland’s football coach in December 2018 was billed as a triumphant homecoming.

It introduced a leader fresh off directing Alabama’s highly powered offense into a talent-rich recruiting region with the hopes that he could elevate a Terrapins program stuck in mediocrity to respectable heights.

The end of Locksley’s tenure, midway through his eighth season, showed that dream was just that — an aspirational target for a program that has flailed since joining the Big Ten.

Maryland announced Wednesday that it had mutually agreed to part ways with Locksley a few days after the team fell to Rutgers, marking the conclusion of a lackluster eight seasons. Locksley finished with a 38-49 record and only three above-.500 seasons. Maryland won all three bowl games it appeared in under Locksley, but the Terps won four games in 2024 and 2025, respectively, and they are experiencing another dismal season in 2026.

“Maryland football and this community mean a great deal to me,” Locksley said in a statement. “I am grateful for the opportunity to have been a part of this program for so many years, and for the relationships I have built with our players, staff, alumni and supporters.”

Locksley added that he is “proud of the work we have done together and remain deeply invested in the success and well-being of the young men in this program. They deserve our continued support, and I will always want the best for them and Maryland football.”

According to Locksley’s most recent contract, Maryland would owe him 65% of his remaining contract, or about $10 million, if he was fired before its completion. A spokesperson for the university told The Banner Locksley would receive the full buyout.

On Sunday, Maryland also fired defensive coordinator Ted Monachino. Aazaar Abdul-Rahim, the associate head coach for defense, will become the interim head coach.

In a statement, athletic director Jim Smith said the decision to part ways with Locksley came after “thoughtful conversations with Coach Locksley,” which concluded with the agreement “that a coaching change was in the best interest of Coach Locksley and the Maryland football program.”

Smith announced the immediate start of a national coaching search.

“President Darryll J. Pines and I are fully aligned in our commitment to providing the investment, infrastructure and resources required for Maryland Football to succeed,” Smith said.

In the interim, Smith said the “immediate responsibility is to provide stability for our players and ensure they have the resources, guidance and support they need. They have continued to represent Maryland with determination, and our entire department will stand behind them as we begin this next chapter.”

The move to the Big Ten in 2014 has not been kind to Maryland, which is 0-40 when facing ranked conference foes.

“I’ve been here for 18 seasons,” Locksley said in October, referencing his earlier stints as an assistant and interim head coach. “Through 18 seasons here, finding how to consistently win is not just a Coach Locks problem, it’s a problem that I think any coach that’s worked here [has had].”

Maryland hired Locksley to lift it out of the darkest period in its recent history. In June 2018, offensive lineman Jordan McNair died after he suffered heatstroke in an organized team workout. The fallout included an investigation into an alleged toxic culture under coach DJ Durkin, and while Durkin was reinstated for about a day, he was promptly fired one day later, on Oct. 31, 2018.

Matt Canada, the offensive coordinator, continued on as interim head coach the remainder of that season. Then Locksley joined from Alabama, where he served as offensive coordinator.

Pines, Maryland’s president, said in a statement that Locksley “rebuilt Maryland football and brought together the community and fan base during a difficult time period in the history of the university. We wish Michael and his family well as they enter their next chapter.”

Locksley’s hiring was met with support from high school coaches around Maryland and the region. Locksley is seen as a talented recruiter, and he vowed to “keep the gates around the DMV” during his introductory press conference. Locksley made an immediate splash by landing five-star wide receiver Rakim Jarrett from St. John’s College High School in 2019.

Locksley hoped to make that a habit.

“I’m hoping, again, that they understand that they can come to Maryland and earn a strong degree and have opportunities to go on to play at the next level,” Locksley said. “We’ve had a ton of players that have done it. I’m hoping that we can continue to take some ownership here in the DMV and get some of these top players to believe in the vision that we’ve set.”

Other players have followed, including St. Frances edge rusher Zion Elee, whom 247Sports ranked as the No. 10-ranked player in the country. Elee, from St. Frances Academy in Baltimore, became one of Maryland’s highest-ranked recruits in history. Quarterback Malik Washington from Archbishop Spalding is another program building block.

But it hasn’t converted to wins. In eight seasons at the helm, the Terps have only been ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 poll once, when they were No. 21 entering the third game of Locksley’s first season. Maryland’s loss to unranked Temple ended that stint, and a 59-0 loss to Penn State on a Friday night in College Park was the sort of humbling dismantling that reinforced how challenging a turnaround of the Terps would be.

Locksley never managed it, fully. When he was hired, Locksley called Maryland a “dream job.”

It turned into a nightmare in some ways — at least for those on the outside looking in at a program incapable of taking the next step.