COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) — Michael Locksley is out as Maryland football coach, the university announced Wednesday, four days after the Terrapins lost at home to Rutgers for their fifth straight defeat.
Locksley was seven games into his eighth season at the helm. He led the Terps to three straight bowl victories — a first for the program — from 2021-23, but since then Maryland is 10-21 in two-plus seasons. Locksley already was under pressure to reverse that decline. Then he dropped back-to-back home games to teams with first-year coaches — Virginia Tech and UCLA — before falling to Nebraska and Ohio State on the road.
On Saturday, Maryland hosted the Scarlet Knights for homecoming — with plenty of empty seats — and blew a 10-point halftime lead in a 37-30 loss. It was Rutgers' first win of the season over an Football Bowl Subdivision team.
Maryland, which has an open date this week, announced Wednesday on X that the school and Locksley “mutually agreed to part ways.”
Locksley went 38-49 during this stint at Maryland and just 16-47 in Big Ten play. The Terps had a 20-game winning streak against nonconference opponents snapped when they lost to Virginia Tech.
Maryland hired Locksley in December 2018, about a month after coach DJ Durkin was fired in the aftermath of offensive lineman Jordan McNair's death of heatstroke in an offseason workout.
In his second game, Locksley’s Terps beat a ranked Syracuse team 63-20. Then they finished 3-9. That’s been the pattern for Maryland – showing promise early in the season but falling flat against Big Ten opposition.
Locksley, who was Alabama’s offensive coordinator before coming to Maryland, began turning the Terps around after quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa made the same move from the Crimson Tide to the Terrapins. Tagovailoa put up big passing numbers, and Maryland had three straight winning seasons.
The Terps never did much to threaten the really elite teams in the league, though, and once Tagovailoa’s stint was done, Maryland went 1-8 in league play in back-to-back seasons.
Locksley, who is from the District of Columbia area, was able to land local quarterback Malik Washington, who showed plenty of promise as a freshman last season. But that didn’t translate to many wins, and the team’s lack of progress early this season means another coach will work with Washington at Maryland — if the Terps can keep him.
Locksley’s replacement will be the first major hire for athletic director Jim Smith, who took over last year.