A young, dynamic quarterback with a year of experience under his belt and a new offensive coordinator to better suit his talents. An elite defensive front that should be one of the best in college football. And a pair of All-Big Ten honorees leading the special teams unit. Mike Locksley believes he finally has all the right pieces in place. If he is wrong, his eighth season as Maryland coach may be his last — and he’s aware of the stakes.
“Not here to do a lot of talking,” Locksley said during training camp. “The message for us is our work needs to be louder than our words.”
The choir of voices calling for Maryland to move on from the District native grew after a 4-0 start gave way to eight-straight losses last season. The voice that didn’t was the most important: Athletic Director Jim Smith, who, just months into his tenure, publicly backed Locksley amid the losing streak. Instead he pledged increased support and resources after a second-straight 4-8 result.
“We knew that after going to three straight bowls and graduating a lot of guys to the NFL, that there was a rebuild, and it kind of happened right at the the time that [name, image and likeness money] really kicked in, because we didn’t necessarily have a plan for that at that time,” Locksley said.
For a Maryland program that had been behind the eight ball in that department, those resources helped keep star quarterback Malik Washington, edge rushers Sidney Stewart and Zahir Mathis, and nab the highest-rated recruit in program history, fellow edge Zion Elee. The five-star and No. 2 prospect in the 2026 class according to ESPN will likely see a bump in playing time after Mathis went down in the middle of training camp with a reported season-ending injury.
“It’s kind of easier when there’s less gray area about the team and about your position. Like we knew coming into the off season, I’m staying here and ready to run it back for another year. So it just made it a lot easier to get guys along the same path that I’m on,” Washington said.
Their retention is part of an oft-cited Locksley statistic this summer: 71% of Maryland’s 2025 roster returns this season. The fact it was a tailspinning, losing season isn’t the important part, he says.
“We’ve had two different 4-8 seasons, and yeah, at the end of the day, it’s 4-8, and I’m not diminishing that I am a 4-8 coach the last two years,” Locksley said. “But the 4-8 last year was a lot different than the 4-8 a year before, and because of that, it was the leadership I saw out of this group. There was not one game last year that I didn’t feel we weren’t competing.”
Maryland’s inability to close out games was a direct byproduct of not being able to move the ball when it mattered. Enter Clint Trickett, Locksley’s fifth different offensive coordinator and third in the last three seasons, who will try and utilize Washington’s multidimensional abilities in a way that former OC Pep Hamilton did not — something Trickett calls making the defense “defend every blade of grass.”
“Last year’s offense didn’t look like what Coach Locksley’s offense traditionally looks like. Quarterbacks under center. Quarterbacks in multiple condensed formations. This year, you’ll see us be multi, where we’ll open up formations, which then clears the box, which then allows speed to be a little more effective,” Locksley said. “Now that [Washington] has that understanding — operating out of a spread where the picture becomes a little more consistent — things become a little clearer because of the formations and the personnel groupings.”
Trickett, a 35-year-old former West Virginia and Florida State quarterback, was most recently OC at Jacksonville State, where his offense last season produced the fifth-best ground game in the country and the nation’s leading rusher in Cam Cook. Maryland only averaged 104 yards rushing per game in 2025, second-worst in the Big Ten and 124th out of 136 schools nationally.
“Don’t get me wrong, we are going to have a point of emphasis on the running attack. I do like to throw the ball, though. I was a quarterback. I’m also the son of an offensive line coach, so there is that back and forth,” Trickett said. “There is a point of emphasis on the run game. We’ve been able to do that in my past, and we’ve focused on that this spring, this summer.”
Under second-year coordinator Ted Monachino, the defense has an elite sensibility in the front seven, even without Mathis. And a secondary that had questions entering August has found answers. First, Maryland added WVU cornerback Jordan Scruggs after he received an extra year of eligibility following a class-wide ruling against the NCAA this summer.
Scruggs would’ve helped fill the void left by Dontay Joyner, who mutually agreed to leave the team after a guilty plea in a harassment case over the summer involving his girlfriend. But in a surprising reversal, the CB has rejoined the team, with Locksley telling Inside MD Sports that the team’s leadership had petitioned him to bring Joyner back.
The season opens Saturday night at home against Hampton. “September Maryland,” as the Terrapins-early season success has been known, will get its strongest test in recent years in a Sept. 19 home, primetime showdown with Virginia Tech, whom the Terrapins haven’t played in the regular season since they were ACC members 13 years ago.
The next measuring stick comes Oct. 10 at top-ranked Ohio State, one of three preseason-ranked Big Ten teams on Maryland’s schedule. The other two come back-to-back to close the year: Nov. 21 at No. 14 Southern California and Nov. 28 versus Penn State.
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