There is a real case that this team is better than 4-8. There is also a real case that the players most responsible for last season’s few strengths are the ones who left. Both cases are built from the same roster, which is what makes this an interesting season rather than an obvious one.

This is a long look at the whole roster: what we like, what we are still asking, and what the first month should answer.

The short version

What we like:

• Linebacker is the surest group on the roster, and Daniel Wingate may be the best player on the team.
• Sidney Stewart and Zion Elee give Maryland a real edge tandem even without Zahir Mathis.
• Michael Hershey is settled and genuinely good at center, and he is a developmental success story.
• The tight end room is deep, talented and about to be used more.
• Sean O’Haire and Bryce McFerson are plausibly the best kicker-punter tandem in the Big Ten.
• Jamare Glasker and Messiah Delhomme are two secondary pieces worth building around.

What we are asking:

• Can this offense score inside the twenty after finishing last in FBS in red zone touchdown rate?
• Does the run game move at all, and how much of Clint Trickett’s rushing résumé was scheme?
• Who catches the ball in a room that returns 37.8 percent of its production?
• Can the interior defensive line hold up after losing two starters from a unit that was already 99th against the run?
• Does the secondary survive losing an NFL third-round pick and an all-conference corner in the same year?
• Can Maryland finally win a close game, and hold up in the fourth quarter?

Setting the table

The 2025 season had two halves and no middle. Maryland started 4-0, beating Florida Atlantic, Towson, Northern Illinois and then Wisconsin on the road, 27-10. It then lost eight straight to finish 4-8 and 1-8 in the Big Ten. The first three of those losses came by a combined ten points: four to Washington, three to Nebraska, three to UCLA. The Terps went 0-3 in one-score games on the year.

Two numbers explain most of it. Maryland finished last in FBS in red zone touchdown rate at 37.8 percent, and it was outscored 102-34 in fourth quarters. That is an offense that could move the ball and not finish, attached to a defense and a roster that could not hold up late. The Terps also forced 21 interceptions and were still outscored on the season, which puts them in a group of three FBS teams that managed that particular trick.

Locksley responded with two significant hires. Clint Trickett arrives as offensive coordinator from Jacksonville State, replacing Pep Hamilton after one difficult year. Trickett comes out of the Dana Holgorsen tree, having played for him at West Virginia, and his Jacksonville State offense led Conference USA in total yards. Matt Barnes takes over special teams, hired in March on short notice after Chili Davis was promoted and then poached by the Minnesota Vikings. Barnes is a Frederick native and Urbana High graduate returning for a second Maryland stint, having previously run the Terps’ special teams from 2016 to 2018 before three seasons at Ohio State and coordinator jobs at Memphis and Mississippi State. Ted Monachino returns for year two as defensive coordinator, with Aazaar Abdul-Rahim as co-coordinator.

The roster churn cut both ways. Maryland kept Malik Washington, Stewart and most of its young core, which in the current era is its own kind of win. It lost Aliou Bah to LSU and Alan Herron to the NFL on the offensive line, Kevyn Humes to Rutgers and Dontay Joyner off the roster in the secondary, and Dillon Fontus to Syracuse up front. Safety Jalen Huskey went to Jacksonville in the third round of the draft. Zahir Mathis, a Freshman All-American, was lost for the season to an August injury.

The Offense

Quarterback

Malik Washington is the reason for most of the optimism around this team, and the reason is legitimate. He became Maryland’s first freshman to start a season opener since 2012, started all twelve games, and completed 273 of 473 passes for 2,963 yards with 17 touchdowns and nine interceptions. He also announced early that he was staying, which mattered.

The efficiency numbers are the other side. Washington completed 57.7 percent of his throws and posted a 118.4 passer rating that ranked 108th out of 117 qualifying FBS quarterbacks. ESPN put him in its eighth tier of quarterback situations. On The Solid Verbal, Ty Rubenstein’s critique was about touch: that Washington throws nearly everything at maximum velocity and needs to modulate on the five-yard out and the fifty-yard ball alike.

That critique deserves a large asterisk. Maryland’s receivers dropped 39 passes last season, more than any unit in the country. Some meaningful share of the completion percentage belonged to the room rather than the arm. The complication is that Maryland removed the drops and the production in the same transaction, so we will not know how much of the accuracy problem was his until he is throwing to people who catch it.

One underrated asset: Washington was Maryland’s second-leading rusher with 303 yards at 5.4 a carry. In a spread system that is a cheap way to add numbers to the run game, and Trickett’s offenses have historically used the quarterback.

Behind him the depth is unproven but interesting. Cardell Williams arrives from Sacramento State having thrown for 1,651 yards and ten touchdowns while also, per our earlier reporting, running for 382 yards and twelve scores. If that rushing line holds, he is an obvious short-yardage package waiting to be built, and Maryland was last in the country inside the twenty. Jack Capaldi, Max Lawrence and freshman Nathan Bernhard round out the room.

Running Back

This is the group most people have ranked last on the roster, and the production supports that. Maryland attempted 305 runs last season, fewer than any offense in Division I, and averaged 104.3 rushing yards a game, its lowest figure since joining the Big Ten in 2014. The per-carry average did climb from 3.6 to 4.1.

DeJuan Williams is better than his rushing line suggests. He led the team with 927 all-purpose yards, set a Maryland single-season record for receiving yards by a running back with 426 (breaking Bruce Perry’s 359 from 2001), and led all Big Ten backs with 45 receptions. He was named the team’s Freshman Offensive Player of the Year. He also ran for 501 yards on 128 carries at 3.9 a pop with two runs longer than 20 yards all season, which is the part that has to change.

Worth remembering who he is. Williams was a four-star out of Saint Frances who chose Maryland over Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State. A back with that profile averaging 3.9 is at least partly a blocking and play-calling story rather than a talent story.

The depth is where the questions live. Harry Dalton arrived from USC with real high school recognition in Virginia and has eight career carries for 44 yards. Terrez Worthy is the most explosive name on paper, having led all juco rushers with 1,492 yards and ten touchdowns at Lackawanna in 2023 and averaged 5.4 a carry at Temple in 2024 with a 75-yard touchdown against Tulane, but he left Temple four games into 2025 for personal reasons and finished with 71 yards on 23 carries. He also returns kicks. Iverson Howard, a three-star per 247 and an ESPN 300 four-star per ESPN, averaged 3.2 on 39 carries and handled kickoff returns.

Locksley said in camp that Williams, Howard and Dalton have all come along and given him hope the run game shows up. Inside MD Sports reports that nobody behind Williams has separated. When the coach and the people at practice every day see it differently, September settles it.

Wide Receiver

The honest answer here is that nobody knows, and anyone claiming otherwise is guessing.

Only 37.8 percent of Maryland’s receiving production returns. Shaleak Knotts, Jalil Farooq and Octavian Smith Jr. are all gone, and the nation-leading 39 drops went with them. The addition-by-subtraction argument has genuine merit. It is also true that the top returning receiver is Kaleb Webb with 22 catches for 318 yards, and that Maryland threw for 98 yards against Rutgers, its lowest total since 2022.

The reasons for optimism are real even if unproven. Chris Durr, in from Wyoming with 45 catches for 469 yards, won the Torrey Smith Wide Receiver Award in the spring and has reportedly built strong chemistry with Washington. One source described him as potentially the best after-catch runner Maryland has had in a while, which is the most useful trait a receiver can have in a spacing offense trying to manufacture easy yards. Jeff Ermann independently reported the same buzz in August. Na’eem Abdul-Rahim Gladding caught 51 passes for 667 yards and six touchdowns at Old Dominion with 100-yard games against Coastal Carolina and Appalachian State, earned All-Sun Belt honorable mention. Webb has reportedly moved to the top of the depth chart, and he was a top-200 four-star who was targeted oddly infrequently last season despite being more reliable than the players around him.

There is more talent in this room than the production suggests. Ryan Manning, who has three career catches, was a top-100 national receiver coming out of Saint Frances. Zymear Smith was a four-star ESPN 300 signee who picked Maryland over Alabama, Penn State and South Carolina, redshirted, spent a stretch at defensive back and is now back at receiver. Sean Williams was a top-five player in D.C. Ejani Shakir caught 43 passes for 724 yards at Independence C.C. Jordan Scott was the No. 2 juco receiver in his cycle and spent a season at Florida State, though he did not crack the rotation here last year.

One structural note that matters for the red zone. This is among the tallest receiver rooms in the Big Ten. Scott is 6-foot-7. Webb and freshman Josiah Teasley are 6-5. Jayden Kitchens is 6-3. Spacing does not solve the goal line, where the field shrinks, but catch radius might. If Maryland finds red zone touchdowns this fall, jump balls are a plausible mechanism that has nothing to do with the run game. The counter-question is the right one: whether these receivers separate at the top of a route against Big Ten corners, which is a different job than winning contested balls in the Sun Belt or Conference USA.

Tight End

This may be the most improved situation on the roster, and it is the clearest place to check whether the new scheme is real.

Dorian Fleming tied for second among Big Ten tight ends with 40 receptions for 351 yards and three touchdowns, earned honorable mention All-Big Ten, and is on the John Mackey Award watch list for a second straight year. His nine catches against Washington were the second-most by any FBS tight end in a game last season and the second-most by a Maryland tight end in thirty years. He shared the team’s spring leadership award with Mathis.

Preston Howard is back after three seasons at Maryland and a year at Auburn, where he started seven games. He has been candid that Auburn was not his best year or his best headspace, and he is reportedly in the best shape of his career. AJ Szymanski is a legitimate in-line blocker at 6-6 who played all twelve games with three starts. JT Taggart, Willie Taggart’s son, gives the room another body, and the freshman class adds three more.

Trickett developed Harrison Bryant into a Mackey Award winner at Florida Atlantic, and Maryland is expected to play a significant amount of two-tight-end personnel as a way to manufacture throws around a thin receiver room. Maryland’s tight ends caught 49 passes last season, under 18 percent of Washington’s completions. If that share does not climb, the scheme change is smaller than advertised.

The caveat comes from Fleming himself. Drops were a problem for him and his blocking was inconsistent, and he has said his own next step is being seen as a physical blocker rather than only a pass catcher. Two-tight-end sets only work if the second tight end can block. Otherwise it is an announcement to the defense.

Offensive Line

Start with the good number, because it is a very good number. Maryland allowed nine sacks last season, the fewest by any Big Ten team since 2020 and tied for third-fewest in the nation.

Now the complications. The same unit graded in the high 40s and low 50s as run blockers across most of its starters, and Inside MD Sports reports the sack total was aided by an inordinate number of screens under Hamilton. So the line’s best trait was partly a play-calling artifact, and Trickett is being asked to improve its weakest trait while running a scheme that may put its strongest at risk. Two starters are gone in Bah and Herron.

Michael Hershey anchors it and deserves more attention than he gets nationally. He came out of high school a three-star ranked the 213th defensive lineman in the country, choosing Maryland over Charlotte, Yale and Delaware. He started all twelve games at center, allowed zero sacks and ten pressures, posted an 83.5 PFF pass-blocking grade, and now sits on the Rimington Trophy watch list with Phil Steele rating him the eighth-best draft-eligible center in the country. The Athletic included him among the top interior linemen in a re-rank of the 2024 recruiting class.

Rahtrel Perry returns at left tackle after starting all twelve games, a Central Connecticut State transfer who was a first-team All-NEC pick and a top-ten portal tackle when he arrived, with two years of eligibility left. Isaiah Wright started all twelve at left guard and has 24 career Power Four starts across Rutgers, Buffalo and Maryland, and he is moving to tackle this fall. Tellek Lockette is the headline addition, a Texas State transfer with 28 career starts and 2,011 snaps whom Pro Football Network rated the top offensive lineman among small-school transfers to the Power Four. He allowed no sacks and no pressures in 131 snaps last season before a lower leg injury ended his year, which is excellent and a small sample at the same time.

The upside piece is Jaylen Gilchrist, an ESPN 300 signee who was the 80th overall recruit in his class and lost 2025 to an injury in the opener. He is the highest-rated lineman on the roster and is competing for a starting guard job as a redshirt freshman. Ryan Howerton, a 6-6, 332-pounder who moved in from tackle, and Amory Hills are in that competition too. The belief inside the building is that this group is nastier and more physical than a year ago. The running game will be the evidence either way.

The Defense

The returning production, read closely

Maryland brings back 74 percent of its defensive production and eight starters. It does not bring back the players who earned recognition.

Jalen Huskey was the team’s Defensive Player of the Year, a captain and a second-team All-Big Ten safety with 72 tackles and four interceptions, and he ranked sixth among Big Ten safeties in PFF total defense grade before Jacksonville took him 100th overall. Cam Rice was honorable mention All-Big Ten on the defensive line and graduated. Dontay Joyner was honorable mention All-Big Ten at corner with eight pass breakups and left the program in August. Dillon Fontus started inside and transferred to Syracuse. Zahir Mathis was a Freshman All-American with 8.5 tackles for loss and six sacks and is out for the year.

Stewart and Wingate are the returning honorees. That is not a prediction of collapse. It is a reason to hold the 74 percent lightly, because volume and quality are not the same thing.

One note on how the units get counted. Maryland lists Stewart and Elee at linebacker, our depth chart puts SAM with the defensive line, and Inside MD Sports grouped edges with the line for its rankings. Count the edges as line and the front looks good, because they are the two best young players on this defense. Count them as linebackers and the line looks thin while the linebacker room looks excellent. We are treating the edges as part of the front here.

Edge

Sidney Stewart’s freshman season was outstanding: 32 tackles, 10.5 for loss, seven sacks, seven quarterback hits, two pass breakups, a forced fumble and a forced safety. He arrived a three-star and a top-40 player in Maryland who chose the Terps over West Virginia, Boston College and Indiana. Keeping him was a real offseason win.

Zion Elee is the highest-rated prospect the program has ever signed, a five-star already named to the Shaun Alexander Freshman of the Year watch list. He is listed at SAM in an OR with Stewart, which means Monachino has a decision about how to get both on the field.

Mathis’s injury is the complication. He and Stewart combined for 13 sacks and 19 tackles for loss last season, and half of that is gone. The listed replacement at JACK, Nahsir Taylor, had 19 tackles, three tackles for loss and two sacks in eleven games. The underlying question is whether Stewart can be a primary rusher rather than a complementary one. At 6-2 and 255 he is built more like a base end than a prototypical edge, and being the player every Big Ten tackle game-plans for is a different job. Maryland On SI’s Jaden Golding is betting yes and projects double-digit sacks. That is the optimistic case and it is a fair one.

Interior DL

This is the group we are watching hardest.

Maryland allowed 175.6 rushing yards a game last season, 99th in FBS, with Rice and Fontus playing. Both are gone. Add up the 2025 tackles for every projected interior contributor, across four different programs, and the total is 82. Wingate had 102 by himself. Their combined tackles for loss come to nine. Stewart had 10.5 alone.

The counterweight is pedigree, and it is not nothing. Bryce Jenkins was a four-star ESPN 300 signee and the No. 2 recruit in D.C. in his class. DD Holmes was also a four-star ESPN 300 and the No. 2 player in D.C. in his. Derrick LeBlanc, in from UCF, was the 51st overall recruit in the country out of high school. JaMarcus Whyce is a four-star freshman who ranked 17th in Ohio. EJ Moore was a Phil Steele FCS Freshman All-American before he arrived. Eyan Thomas, a second-team All-NEC pick at Saint Francis, is the returning piece at 6-3 and 328. Lavon Johnson comes back from Texas, and Armon and Jayvon Parker arrive from Washington with size and 32 combined games.

Counting stats are a poor way to judge young rotational linemen, so we would not write this room off. Jenkins and Holmes are entering the years when interior linemen typically arrive. But this is the group Big Ten offenses will test first, and we will have to wait and see if there is improvement here or not. I like some of the depth that was added, but we have to see them perform.

Linebacker

It’s been argued by some that Wingate, not Washington, is currently the best player on the team. It is defensible.

Wingate had 102 tackles, sixth in the Big Ten and 35th nationally, with 6.5 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks and a pick six against Florida Atlantic. He is the first Terp to reach 100 tackles since Tre Watson in 2018, and he did it playing through a high ankle sprain for most of the season without missing a snap. His teammates voted him the Louis L. Goldstein Gold Helmet Award as the program’s most outstanding player. He is on the Butkus, Bronko Nagurski and Chuck Bednarik watch lists. Monachino called him the player who holds the whole thing together and said there can never be enough of him. Lavain Scruggs said a fully healthy Wingate is a complete monster.

Trey Reddick started ten of eleven games with 53 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss and two sacks, and he is a 6-4 athlete who was a three-time state champion at Phoebus and chose Maryland over Wake Forest, North Carolina and Penn State. The knock is that his length and his habit of launching at ball carriers produce some missed tackles. Carlton Smith finished fourth on the team with 64 tackles despite one start as a true freshman, tied for second in quarterback hurries, and picked Maryland over Alabama, Miami, Penn State and Notre Dame. He looks like the next one.

Stephen Dean III arrives from VMI, where he led the Southern Conference with 117 tackles as a captain and added 9.5 for loss. Locksley has pointed to his physicality and special teams value. Jordan Williams is the roster’s most unusual story, a grad transfer who spent four seasons playing college basketball at Texas A&M, Vanderbilt and Rice before returning to a sport he last played as a high school sophomore, when he was a Texas state MVP. His father played five NFL seasons at running back and his brother is on Tampa Bay’s roster.

The returners here combined for 23 starts, against one start for the group that came back a year ago. The depth thins after the top four, though Kaden Carter is a four-star freshman rated the seventh-best inside linebacker in his class and Travares Daniels II was a top-100 player in Florida. Unproven is not the same as untalented. How many snaps Wingate and Reddick hold up for will decide whether this is a strength or a thin strength.

Secondary

Maryland finished third-to-last in the Big Ten in passing yards allowed and last in the conference in passing touchdowns allowed. It gave up 43 percent on third down, and only Illinois and Northern Illinois were held under 215 yards through the air. Then it lost Huskey and Joyner. That is the case for worry, and it is a strong one.

The case for optimism starts with Jamare Glasker. The redshirt senior tied for the team lead and ranked fourth in the Big Ten with four interceptions, including three straight games with a pick, the longest such streak by a Terp since William Likely III in 2014, and he returned one for a touchdown against UCLA. He added six breakups and 32 tackles. The staff believes he is a quality No. 1 corner and that belief looks earned.

Amari Jackson gives Maryland experience opposite him, with 28 starts across four years at Boston College, two career interceptions including a pick six, and an ESPN ranking of 82nd overall and fourth among corners changing schools. Abdul-Rahim coached him at BC, so the install is not starting from zero. The caveat is durability: injuries have cost him significant time each of the last two seasons, including a torn ACL that ended 2024.

Jordan Scruggs was added in mid-August after a court granted him a sixth year of eligibility, and he raises the floor. He has 35 career games and 20 starts across Washburn, Central Missouri, Hutchinson C.C., South Alabama and West Virginia, and his best season came at South Alabama in 2024 with 69 tackles and a 96-yard interception return. He was rotational at West Virginia rather than a full-time starter, he is 5-11 and 166 pounds, and he arrived roughly two weeks before the opener. Floor-raiser, not a Joyner replacement.

The young corners are interesting. Sean Johnson comes from the Archbishop Spalding pipeline. Lloyd Irvin III and true freshman Hakim Satterwhite add depth. Judah Jenkins started as a true freshman in 2024, missed all of 2025, and moved back from safety for camp. Ricardo Cooper Jr., a converted receiver and former walk-on who was voted Maryland’s special teams player of the year, could see real defensive snaps.

At safety, Messiah Delhomme is the player we would bet on to take a leap. A four-star ESPN 300 signee who chose Maryland over Ohio State, Alabama and Florida State, he played all twelve games as a true freshman with 39 tackles, four pass breakups, an interception, a fumble recovery and a tackle for loss. He led the team with 12 tackles against Indiana, picked off his first pass against Nebraska, and was one of only eleven players nationally to block two kicks. He said in camp that the game has slowed down for him and credited extra film work with the assistants. That is standard camp fare, except the room just lost a third-round pick, so his development is load-bearing.

The spot next to him is a three-way question. Lavain Scruggs, a 6-3, 215-pound redshirt senior from Baltimore, started all twelve games and ranked third on the team with 64 tackles, adding two interceptions and three breakups, with a career-high eleven at Illinois. Across sixteen career starts the production has been steady and the coverage moments have not always been. Jayden Shipps, a sophomore from Spalding, played all twelve games as a freshman with eleven tackles and a sack, and coaches like what they have seen. Darrell Carey is the wild card, a DeMatha product and the class’s top-rated signee who flipped from Penn State after James Franklin’s firing and turned down Indiana and Oregon. He will play. Gavin Edwards adds depth, though the jump from Division II North Greenville and a spring at Austin Peay to the Big Ten is enormous.

One quieter thing to keep in mind across the whole defense. Maryland forced 21 interceptions and recovered two fumbles, a national low. The fumble number should improve. The interception rate is the least stable component of turnover margin and probably will not hold. The Terps were outscored even with that margin.

Special Teams

The specialists are excellent and the operation around them was not, and both halves need saying.

Sean O’Haire went 21-of-24 on field goals and 29-of-29 on extra points, earned first-team All-Big Ten as a redshirt freshman and led the conference with 1.75 made field goals per game, ninth nationally. His 87.5 percent conversion rate is the second-best single season in program history, and his 21 makes and 92 points set Maryland freshman records. He has never missed an extra point in college. He came from Richmond after going 12-for-12 in his first season ever playing football.

Bryce McFerson averaged 44.2 yards a punt, second in the Big Ten and the sixth-best single season in Maryland history, with 14 punts of 50-plus and 19 inside the 20. He was second-team All-Big Ten and earned a third career Ray Guy Award list selection. His 366 yards on eight punts at UCLA set a school record. He was the top-ranked punter in the country out of high school and averaged 45.1 at Notre Dame before transferring.

Everything else was bottom-third. Maryland ranked 92nd nationally in punt return average at seven yards, 14th of 18 in the Big Ten. It allowed 8.5 yards per punt return, fifth-worst in the conference. It averaged 18.4 yards per kickoff return, 15th. Net punting was 38.5, 13th, despite an elite leg. And a recurring short-kickoff problem handed opponents field position repeatedly.

That is why the Barnes hire matters as much as the returning talent. His Ohio State résumé includes three Big Ten titles and two College Football Playoff trips. The return jobs were still unsettled through camp, with Cooper, Howard, Durr, Gladding, Zymear Smith and Justin DeVaughn among the names. DeVaughn is worth watching for a specific reason: the redshirt freshman from Mervo recently ran the second-fastest 110-meter hurdles time in Maryland history and finished fourth at the Big Ten championships. Whether track speed becomes football speed is an open question, but Maryland needs somebody to be dangerous with the ball.

The bigger question underneath all of it

Read this roster by recruiting profile rather than last season’s box scores and a different team appears.

Locksley has recruited the DMV well. That is not in dispute, and it is why outsiders keep calling this roster underrated. Biff Poggi’s version was that Maryland has always had good skill players and now has a quarterback too. The talent has been arriving for several years, and the record over the last two seasons is 8-16.

So the question this fall is less about whether the talent is here and more about whether this staff converts it. That is a development and scheme question rather than a roster question, which makes Trickett, Barnes and Monachino’s second year the things to judge in September. Not the star ratings.

Worth saying in the other direction too, because recruiting rankings are a starting point rather than evidence. Hershey chose Maryland over Charlotte, Yale and Delaware and is now a Rimington candidate. Gladding was a zero-star recruit who led his team in catches and touchdowns. Development runs both ways, and this staff has a track record of finding players other people missed.

There is also a resource dimension worth naming. Poggi has described rosters at the top of the Big Ten running $40 to $50 million, and said a team spending $25 million is still shorthanded. Maryland is not in that business. Retention is the lever this program can actually pull, and it pulled it with Washington and Stewart; but when you are starting from an overall talent deficit to begin with – and you lose Mathis and Joyner before the first snap of the season – that obviously hurts.

The Schedule

Twelve games, with ESPN’s Match-Up Predictor win probability for each.

Three non-conference games, and each carries a different kind of test. Hampton is about installation and health. UConn is the one Maryland fans are most nervous about and, we would argue, the one where the fear is most out of date. This is not the 9-4 team people remember. Jim Mora left for Colorado State, Jason Candle arrived from Toledo with an almost entirely new staff, the offensive coordinator behind a 36.9-point offense left for TCU, and a wave of players hit the portal. That said, Candle went 81-44 at Toledo with two MAC titles and no losing season in ten years, and a brand-new staff in Week 2 is a variance game. The failure mode is treating a road opener like a walkover.

Virginia Tech at home in primetime is the game most likely to define how this season gets remembered. ESPN has Maryland at 36.9 percent, which says the model believes James Franklin’s first-year reload took. Maryland On SI’s staff mostly disagreed and picked this as the signature win. That is a wide gap between local sentiment and the numbers. Watch Penn State transfer Ethan Grunkemeyer at quarterback and Brent Pry running the Hokie defense. This is also the last meeting for a while, with Virginia Tech having bought out the 2027 and 2028 games and Maryland replacing them with Baylor. Franklin now recruits the same DMV players Locksley does, and Darrell Carey is on Maryland’s roster because Franklin got fired at Penn State.

What the math actually says about a bowl

The popular route to six wins goes like this: bank Hampton and UConn, take care of Rutgers at home and Purdue on the road, then find two among Virginia Tech, UCLA, Illinois and Wisconsin.

Maryland’s overall bowl probability is 44 percent.

ESPN has Maryland at 56.7 percent against Rutgers and 48.7 percent at Purdue, so those are coin flips rather than banked wins, and sweeping all four so-called must-wins is a one-in-five proposition. Maryland is projected at 20.9 percent at Nebraska and 20.9 percent against Penn State at home, and those add up. Most realistic six-win seasons include a game nobody has penciled in, which is a more forgiving picture than a checklist implies.

The schedule’s shape still matters. ESPN’s numbers give Maryland 2.78 expected wins across the first four games and 2.52 across the last eight. The Terps have gone 1-14 after September across two seasons, so the front-loading is not a small detail. A 3-1 start keeps everything open. A 4-0 start, which is an 18 percent proposition, would change the season entirely. A 2-0 start is a 77 percent proposition, which is to say it should happen and would not tell us much on its own.

What we will be watching in September

• Rushing attempts against Hampton. Maryland ran the ball more than 30 times in exactly two games all of last season. A number comfortably north of 35 against an FCS opponent would signal a real philosophical change. The box score will not tell us much. The play-calling will.
• Tight end target share. The cleanest early read on whether the two-tight-end plan is real, and whether Fleming’s blocking has come along enough to run it.
• Whether a goal-line package exists, and who is in it. Maryland was last in FBS inside the twenty. If Cardell Williams is part of the answer, we should see it in Week 1.
• Snap counts up front. Specifically Elee, Nahsir Taylor, and how the interior rotation sorts out among Jenkins, Holmes, LeBlanc and Thomas.
• Where Jordan Scruggs lines up. He has had roughly two weeks in the system, and Hampton is his only live audition before Virginia Tech.
• The safety next to Delhomme. Lavain Scruggs, Shipps or Carey. This is the most open competition on the roster.
• The return game and the short kickoffs. The least glamorous item here and the one that quietly cost field position all last year.
• Fourth quarters. Opponents outscored Maryland 102-34 in the fourth last season. Nothing in the offseason obviously addressed depth or conditioning. If that flips, a lot of coin-flip games flip with it.

Projection

Our projection is 5-7, with 6-6 well within reach and 4-8 in play if September goes badly. We would take the over on a 4.5-win total and we would not be surprised by a bowl. ESPN’s per-game numbers produce 5.30 expected wins and make five the single most likely outcome, which is close to where the roster review landed independently.

That is a notch below most published previews. College Football News says 6-6. Both Solid Verbal hosts said 6-6, with Rubenstein saying he sees a step forward here. Maryland On SI’s staff went 6-6, 6-6 and 7-5. Poggi predicted eight or more. CBS called the Terps the most underrated team in the Big Ten, though that label came from the one panelist who ranked them sixth while three others had them 16th, and the unofficial Big Ten media poll had Maryland 15th.

We may well be too low. The gap between our number and theirs is mostly about how much credit to give returning production that does not include last year’s best defenders. Reasonable people are weighing that differently.

What would move us is specific and it arrives quickly. If Maryland converts in short yardage, if the tight ends get used the way the scheme suggests they will, and if two of those young interior linemen show up, this is a bowl team. All three are answerable by the end of September. Beat Virginia Tech and the conversation changes on the spot.

I feel teams are built from the lines out, and it seems like MD has more size and strength on both sides of the ball this year.
That’s encouraging, but like everything with MD; you want to see talent and projection translate to production.

MD Football can be a frustrating watch year-to-year, because the roster often has a number of talented pieces, but their depth will get pressed and limitations get exploited over the course of a season.

This roster again has some legitimate talent and but also questions everywhere.

It’s hard not to bring everything back to Locksley and Washington though.

The fanbase in-general feels burned.  Lots of seasons of irrelevance do that.
Locksley is appreciated as a recruiter, but people want results.
He’s especially under-the-gun due to the magical turn-around experienced at Indiana.
The Hoosiers story aside, I think we can universally agree that this is a difficult job.
You aren’t spending at the levels of the Conference Powers, nor do you have their history.
If you bring in quality talent, you aren’t always in a position to then keep those players from being poached by programs with more spending power.
You can have recruiting and portal success overall, but still not have the same roster depth that an additional $25M buys.

Those are all valid thoughts, but no MD fan wants to hear that in Year 8 of Locksley’s tenure.
Especially with Washington back under center for Year2.
There is a genuine feeling amongst MD fans, “If we can’t make a leap now, when can we?” 
There is also the wonder of, “If Washington is really strong this year, will MD be able to keep him?” 

The possibility of retaining Washington for 2027 is a question for another day.
Right now, you are hoping that Washington takes all of the Freshman year experience, and is ready to pull everyone up a notch.
If he’s excellent week-to-week, the questions at RB and WR decrease.
If he’s regularly putting points on the board, then the Defensive Front 7 can be in position to pin their ears back and get after QB’s – which would of course make life easier for the Secondary.

Maryland finishing 4-8, 5-7, or 6-6 with a bowl shouldn’t be good enough for Locksley to keep his job.
At 7-5, there is at-least an argument to be made.
Really, the schedule is about as kind as MD is going to get.
A real breakthrough season would be beating Hampton, UConn, Rutgers, and Purdue – and then winning 4 of 6 vs. Virginia Tech, UCLA, Nebraska, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Penn State.
That’s really the year MD needs to get more fans to buy in, and for the program to be better positioned going forward.
It’s also a very tall order when it feels like MD could lose any of the non Hampton games.
What will hold my interest this Fall is that with Washington on-board, MD should have a viable chance to win every game that isn’t in Columbus, Ohio.
We will see how it shakes out.
Lot of pressure on the 20 year old Washington to lead this group But it’s fun entering the year knowing he has the potential to be great.

The post 2026 Terps Football Preview: What We Like, and What We Need to See appeared first on Baltimore Sports and Life.

The first three of those eight straight losses being by a combined 10 points against Washington, Nebraska, and UCLA.

Once the wheels came off, MD wasn’t able to get back on-track, and the losing snowballed.

Now here in June, we’re a couple of months out from the 2026 season.

The seat is hot for Head Coach Mike Locksley as he enters Year 8 at the helm.

If expectations were rising after three straight bowl years in ’21-’23, current expectations for MD are minimal after back-to-back 4-8 seasons.

There is some legitimate talent on the roster.

If Coach Locksley is going to continue to lead the program; it’s imperative that the roster talent translates into results this year.

Let’s take a look at the roster that exists, and review some of the questions we have for this program as the season nears.

OFFENSE
QB: 1. Malik Washington, 2. Cardell Williams, 3. Cal Wither, 4. Nathan Bernhard
RB: 1. DeJuan Williams, 2. Iverson Howard, 3. Henry Dalton II, 4. Terrez Worthy, 5. Liam Wilson
WR-X: 1. Kaleb Webb, 2. Jordan Scott
WR-Z: 1. Na’eem Abdul-Rahim Gladding, 2. Ryan Manning
WR-H: 1. Chris Durr Jr., 2. Zymear Smith
TE: 1. Dorian Fleming, 2. Preston Howard
LT: 1. Rahtrel Perry, 2. Michael McMonigle
LG: 1. Jaylen Gilchrist, 2. Ryan Howerton
C: 1. Michael Hershey, 2. Trevor Szymanski
RG: 1. Tellek Lockette, 2. Amory Hills
RT: 1. Isaiah Wright, 2. Carlos Moore

DEFENSE
SAM: 1. Sidney Stewart OR Zion Elee
DT: 1. Eyan Thomas, 2. Lavon Johnson, 3. Armon Parker
NT: 1. Bryce Jenkins, 2. Joel Starlings, 3. Jayvon Parker
JACK: 1. Zahir Mathis, 2. Nahsir Taylor
MIKE: 1. Trey Reddick, 2. Stephen Dean III
WILL: 1. Daniel Wingate, 2. Carlton Smith
FCB: 1. Jamare Glasker, 2. Lloyd Irvin III
BCB: 1. Dontay Joyner, 2. Sean Johnson
NICKEL: 1. Amari Jackson, 2. Jayden Shipps
FS: 1. Gavin Edwards, 2. Darrell Carey
SS: 1. Lavain Scruggs, 2. Messiah Delhomme

SPECIAL TEAMS
K: 1. Sean O’Haire
P: 1. Bryce McFerson, 2. Philip Noyes
LS: 1. Luke O’Hare
KR: 1. Iverson Howard, 2. Ricardo Cooper Jr.

QB:
Malik Washington: Sophomore, Completed 273 passes, 2,963 yards, 17 td’s.
Cardell Williams: Senior, Sacramento State transfer, threw for 1,651 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2025 while also rushing for 382 yards and 12 touchdowns.
Cal Wither: Laurier (Canada) transfer. 1st team All-Canada last season. He threw for 2,472 yards for the Golden Hawks in 2025, with 26 touchdowns and just 4 interceptions.
Nathan Bernhard: Freshman, 3 star, Class of ’26.

RB: 
DeJuan Williams: RS Sophomore, In ’25, 9 starts, led MD with 927 all-purpose yards. 4 star. Saint Frances.  Chose MD over Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State.
Iverson Howard: Sophomore, 3 star, ESPN 300, 4 star per ESPN,  led MD in kickoffs in ’25.
Henry Dalton III: RS Freshman, 3 star, USC transfer.
Terrez Worthy: Senior, 3 star, Temple transfer. Known for big speed, had a JUCO season before joining Temple.
Liam Wilson: Junior, Started 23 games for Maryland’s Baseball team in 2025.

WR:
X: 1. Kaleb Webb, 2. Jordan Scott
Z: 1. Na’eem Abdul-Rahim Gladding, 2. Ryan Manning
H: 1. Chris Durr Jr., 2. Zymear Smith

Webb: RS Senior, Tennessee transfer before ’25, 4 star.  Played all 12 games in ’25.
Scott: Senior, FSU transfer before ’25, 3 star  Was #2 JUCO per 247. 6’7, 220.

Abdul-Rahim Gladding: Junior, ODU transfer, 3 star.
Manning: RS Jr, 3 star, Saint Frances, Top 100 WR in the Nation.

Durr: Junior, Wyoming transfer, 3 star.
Z. Smith: RS Freshman, 4 star, ESPN 300, chose MD over Bama, Penn State, and South Carolina.

Ejani Shakir: Junior, Independence CC transfer, 43 catches, 724 yards, 6 TD’s last year.
Jayden Kitchens: Freshman, 3 star, 24th overall player in MD.
Sean Williams: RS Junior, was a Top 5 player in DC in HS.
Josiah Teasley: Freshman, 3 star, 23rd overall player in VA.

TE: 
Dorian Fleming: RS Jr, 25 HM Big Ten. Georgia State transfer before ’25, 2024 All Sun Belt Conference,
Preston Howard: RS Senior, Auburn transfer (former Terp), 3 star.
AJ Szymanski: Senior, was in all 12 games last year, with 3 starts.
JT Taggart: Sophomore, was in 11 of 12 games last year. Out of HS was a 3 star, ranked 31st amongst all TE’s. Son of Willie Taggart.
Damon Hall Jr: Freshman, 3 star, ranked 31st amongst all TE’s. Recruited by Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, and Michigan.

O-Line:
LT: 1. Rahtrel Perry, 2. Michael McMonigle
LG: 1. Jaylen Gilchrist, 2. Ryan Howerton
C: 1. Michael Hershey, 2. Trevor Szymanski
RG: 1. Tellek Lockette, 2. Amory Hills
RT: 1. Isaiah Wright, 2. Carlos Moore

Perry: RS Senior, Central Connecticut State transfer before ’25, 2024 All NEC 1st Team, started all 12 games for MD in ’25.
Gilchrist: RS Freshman, 4 star, ESPN 300, 80th overall, injured in the ’25 Opener.
Hershey: Junior, Started all 12 games in ’25. Academic All Big Ten.3 star, Chose MD over Charlotte, Yale, Delaware.
Lockette: RS Senior, Phil Steele had him 1st team All Sun Belt entering last year. Finished the 25 season as the top graded OL in the Group of 5, according to PFF.
Wright: Graduate, Started all 12 games for MD in ’25.

Moore: RS Senior, 3 star, Elon transfer before ’25, started 10 games in ’24 with Elon.
Howerton: RS Soph, 3 star per 247, 4 star per Rivals, UA All-American Game invite.
Watkins: RS Soph, 3 star, 24th overall player in MD.
Hills: Soph, 3 star, 26th overall player in MD.
Bennett: RS Soph, 3 star, action in 2 games last year. Academic All-Big Ten.
McMonigle: RS Freshman, 3 star.
Beymer: RS Freshman, 3 star.
Szymankski: RS Soph, 3 star, Chose MD over Pitt, VaTech, Syracuse.
Robsock: RS Soph, 3 star, 33rd overall player in PA.
Folivi: RS Senior.

D-Line:
SAM: Sidney Stewart OR Zion Elee
DT:  Eyan Thomas, Lavon Johnson, Armon Parker
NT: Bryce Jenkins, Joel Starlings, Jayvon Parker

Stewart: Sophomore, was Freshman All-American in ’25, out of HS 3 star, Top 40 player in MD, Chose MD over WVU, Boston College, Indiana
Elee: Freshman, 5 star

Thomas: RS Jr, Saint Francis (PA) transfer before ’25, 2nd Team All NEC.
Johnson: Senior, Texas transfer, former Terp, 3 star.
A. Parker: R-Senior, Washington transfer, played in 8 games last year. 6’3, 320.

Jenkins: Sophomore, 4 star, ESPN 300, 2nd ranked player in DC.
Starlings: RS Jr, 3 star, saw action in 11 games in 2025.
J. Parker: R-Senior, 24 games across 4 years with Washington. 2024 Academic All-American. 6’3, 330.

Derrick LeBlanc: RS Jr, UCF transfer, out of HS was a 4 star, Nation’s 51st overall recruit.
DD Holmes: RS Sophomore, saw action in 9 games, including 1 start in ’25.  Out of HS was ESPN 300, 4 star, and rated 2nd best player in DC.
EJ Moore: Junior, saw action in 11 of 12 games. Before MD was a Phil Steele 2024 FCS Freshman All-American.
Joshua Simmons: RS Sophomore, 2025 Academic All-Big Ten.
Delmar White: RS Freshman, 3 star, Top 40 player in Maryland.
JaMarcus Whyce: Freshman, 4 star, 17th ranked player in Ohio.
Cam Brickle: Freshman, 3 star, IMG Academy.
Jianni Davis: Freshman, 3 star, 31st overall player in Maryland, son of Vernon Davis.

LB:
JACK: Zahir Mathis, Nahsir Taylor
MIKE: Trey Reddick, Stephen Dean III
WILL: Daniel Wingate, Carlton Smith

Mathis: Sophomore, Freshman All-American in ’25, out of HS 4 star, ESPN 300, # 1 player in Pennsylvania, 2025 UA All-American, Choose MD over OSU, FSU
Taylor: Sophomore, saw action in 11 games, and had 2 sacks. Was 3 stars out of HS, 32nd rated player in Maryland.

Reddick: Junior, 3 star, 5th on team in tackles and TFL’s in ’25. 14th ranked player in VA, Chose MD over Wake, UNC, Penn State. .
Dean III: R Senior, 3 star, VMI transfer. Had 117 tackles (including 9.5 for loss) last season.

Wingate: Senior, 2025 HM Big Ten. Top 25 player in MD, Top 100 LB in the Nation, Choose MD over BC, WVU, Penn State.
C.Smith: Sophomore, 3 star, 3rd on team for tackles in ’25.

Darius Grimes, RS Jr, saw action in all 12 games in 2025.
Travares Daniels, RS Freshman, 3 star, Top 100 player in Florida.
Kaden Carter, Freshman, 4 star, rated as 7th best ILB in the ’26 Class.
Kellen McConnell, RS Sophomore, Academic All-Big Ten.
Keyari James, RS Sophomore, Academic All-Big Ten. 3 star.

Secondary:
FCB:  Jamare Glasker, Lloyd Irvin III
BCB: Dontay Joyner, Sean Johnson
NICKEL: Amari Jackson, Jayden Shipps
FS: Gavin Edwards, Darrell Carey
SS: Lavain Scruggs, Messiah Delhomme

Glasker: RS Senior, Wake Forest transfer before ’25, started 9 games in ’24.  3 picks in ’25.
Irvin III:  RS Sophomore, 3 star, 26th overall player in MD, Chose MD over BC, VaTech, West Virginia

Joyner: Senior, HM Big Ten in ’25. Arkansas State transfer before ’25, played in 24 games, 3rd highest grade at CB in Sun Belt in ’24 via PFF.
Johnson: Freshman, 3 star

Jackson: RS Senior, Boston College transfer, 3 star
Shipps: Sophomore, 3 star

Edwards: RS Jr, 3 star transfer before ’25
Carey: Freshman, 3 star

Scruggs: 3 star, 21st overall player in MD, played in 12 games last year, started 4 in ’24. 4th on team in tackles in ’25
Delhomme: Sophomore, 4 star, ESPN 300, 2nd ranked player in Virginia. 2 blocked kicks, 6th on team in tackles in ’25.

Mekhai White: RS Sophomore, was in 11 games. Was a 4 star recruit out of HS, made switch from WR to CB in ’25.
Ricardo Cooper: RS Jr, was in all 12 games, had a pick, named MD’s Special Teams Player of the Year.
Judah Jenkins: RS Sophomore, Academic All-Big Ten. Appeared in all 12 games in ’24, and zero games in ’25.
Alex Moore: RS Jr, was in 11 games in ’25.

Special Teams
K: Sean O’Haire: RS Sophomore, 21 of 24 on FGs.
P: 1. Bryce McFerson: RS Senior, 2025 2nd team Big Ten

What Do We Like?

Washington is back for a second year, and he gained extensive experience as a Freshman.
ESPN looked at the QB situations for all 138 FBS schools, and has Washington in their Tier 8. 

Talent and experience under center is a good starting point.

I liked the addition of Lockette in the portal.
The starting O-Line looks capable, with some upside capability if Gilchrist is productive.
There would be a noticeable drop off if any starters were lost to injury, but there does appear to be growing usable OL depth.

I like Fleming at TE, and was happy to see Howard return.

The RB depth seems like it was solidified in the portal.
I like Williams, and Worthy seems like he has the speed to really factor.
MD hasn’t done enough in the running game the last few years, I’m hoping we see a tick up here.

I like the starting Secondary, and Delhomme.

The kicking and punting game is in excellent shape.

As excited as I am about having Washington back; what I like best about this team is the defensive Front 7.
Stewart, Mathis, and Wingate were excellent last year.  Looking forward to seeing how Elee is added to the mix.
Also excited about Jenkins, LeBlanc, Reddick. Dean was a late addition, and moving up a level; but a lot of experience and production.

What Questions Do We Have?

I like a lot of the experience of the WR’s, but we will have to wait and see both how electric that room is, and who shows up consistently.

Clint Trickett is the new OC, and I’m looking forward seeing what that offense looks like.
BSL Terps Analyst Zack Kiesel said on our message board that, “Trickett is an Air Raid guy, from the Dana Holgorsen tree after playing for him at West Virginia. That offense has evolved a lot from what it was initially under Hal Mumme and Mike Leach, and incorporates a lot more of the run game without the traditional wide offensive line splits. But it’s certainly very different from the pro-style scheme that Maryland ran last season. His Jacksonville State team put up the most yards in Conference-USA last season.”

It’s a new system for Washington, and it will be interesting to see how he adjusts.
I’ll be happy if there is plenty of play-action, and quick reads to get the ball out of Washington’s hands.

I was disappointed that CB Kevyn Humes left the program for Rutgers, and OG Alliou Bah left for LSU.

The primary questions are what would constitute a good year, and what’s realistic?

Maryland’s 2026 schedule is:

Hampton (FCS)
@ UConn
Virginia Tech
UCLA
@ Nebraska
@ Ohio State
Rutgers
Illinois
@ Purdue
Wisconsin
@ USC
Penn State

Clearly they’ll beat Hampton in the opener.

UConn has been improving under Jim Mora Jr, going 9-4 last year, and didn’t lose at home.
I think MD fans have been counting this as an automatic W, and it’s not.
When ESPN’s Match-Up Predictor goes up for the game, I’d guess MD is given a 55-60% chance of winning.
It might not be an auto-win, but it’s a game MD has to win.

Virginia Tech at home vs. James Franklin will be interesting.
These schools were scheduled to also play in ’27 and ’28, but VaTech bought out those games. (Maryland replaced the Hokies with Baylor in ’27 and ’28.)
Franklin’s direct history with MD, coupled with his time at Penn State doesn’t have him particularly popular in College Park.
These programs will compete for lots of the same players going forward.
Franklin hit the ground running and brought in a strong recruiting class.
Virginia Tech was a proud program under Frank Beamer; it’s not difficult to see them emerging again under Franklin.
This will probably be a pick’em type game; but again – it’s a game MD needs to win, particularly because it’s at home.
Probably plenty of Virginia Tech fans there.

There will be varying odds, but the home games vs. UCLA, Rutgers, Illinois, and Wisconsin are winnable.
The Badgers might come to College Park as 10 point favorites, but MD winning any of those games would not be some astronomical upset.
The road game at Purdue also feels winnable to me.

It would be surprising (but not impossible) if they won at Nebraska, or at USC.
It would be pretty shocking if MD beat Penn State.  New Nittany Lions HC Matt Campbell has something like 50 transfers, so who knows what they’ll look like – but he’s a quality HC, and I’m going to assume PSU will again have plenty of talent. The Nittany Lions will also travel well, and fill a good portion of the stands.

Ohio State is 9-0 vs. MD, and only 2-3 games have been competitive.  It’s a pretty easy guess that the Buckeyes will be too much for the Terps.

So, 1 (Hampton) automatic win, and 2 (Ohio State, Penn State) automatic losses.  7 games (@UConn, VaTech, UCLA, Rutgers, Illinois, @Purdue, Wisconsin) where ESPN’s Match-Up Predictor will likely give them anywhere been a 41 to 60% chance to win.  2 games (@Nebraska, and @USC) where they’ll probably be given a 30-40% chance to win.

How good are they in those pick’em games?
Are they able to pull an upset anywhere?

A high quality year would be 8 wins, and a decent bowl.
The young players (Washington, and the Defensive Lineman) all have big years; feel good about their progression as a team in ’26, and decide to run it back 1 more year.
There are a lot of upper classman in the 2 Deep.  Another part of a quality year would be further emergence of other Freshman and Sophomores.
MD is probably not in a position where they can beat Ohio State; but you can’t get run off the field at this point of Locksley’s tenure either.
MD has some real ability on the DL, and experience on the O-Line. They should not be getting manhandled in the trenches vs. their fellow Big Ten teams.

What’s a good year? A good year would be not letting the talent on the roster go to waste.
Play solid complimentary football, with a strong defensive Front 7, and excellent Special Teams.
Get a ground game going.  Keep Washington up-right and available.

Locksley is fighting for his job, and his players should be playing with a chip on their collective shoulders.
They all have something to prove.

The post An Early Summer Look At 2026 Maryland Football appeared first on Baltimore Sports and Life.

We’ll spend plenty of time between now and then looking at Coach Mike Locksley’s roster.

Here, we’re just thinking about logical steps MD could take to boost their attendance and the game day experience.

I expect the number one response from most will be, “They could win more!”

And that’s understandable, and their is plenty of validity there.

The fanbase as a whole will be in a prove-it-to-me mode, wanting the Terps to show they can win games after September.

And of course Maryland competes for the attention of sports fans in D.C. and Baltimore. And if you want more of those fans to be thinking about attending games in College Park; you’ve got to give them reasons to pay attention to the program.

Maryland Football’s home attendance percentage is 78.5% over the past three seasons. This mark is 8th-worst among all Power Four programs.

Maryland football has a stadium atmosphere problem as much as a product problem, and the two are self-reinforcing.
A quiet, half-empty stadium makes the experience worse, which suppresses future attendance, which makes recruiting harder, and so on.

Maryland has talent on their roster, but expectations will be minimal for the Terps season. They’ll be picked to finish near the bottom of the Big Ten by most prognosticators.

The post Boosting Maryland’s Football Attendance and Game Day Experience appeared first on Baltimore Sports and Life.

The Offensive Problem: Maryland averaged just 101.3 rushing yards per game, which ranked 124th-best in the nation and second-worst in the conference behind only Minnesota.

The Terrapins have struggled to run the ball consistently for the majority of the last decade or more, and are regularly dominated up front by bigger and more talented defensive lines. Last season, offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton threw nearly every formation, personnel grouping, and run scheme into his gameplans to no avail. Towards the beginning of the year, he used multiple tight ends and even a fullback at times with quarterback Malik Washington under center in an attempt to help the running game. When that didn’t work, he utilized more spread formations with Washington in the shotgun and three or more wide receivers on the field. Maryland also mixed together both zone and gap schemes, but failed to gain any sort of traction on the ground.

The Offensive Solution: Maryland is replacing two of their starting offensive linemen from last season (Aliou Bah, Alan Herron). They added Texas State transfer Tellek Lockette, who’s expected to likely take up a starting role on the interior of the line. Former four-star recruit Jaylen Gilchrist, who missed the majority of last year due to injury, is also expected to compete for a starting job. Otherwise, returnees Michael Hershey, Rahtrel Perry, and Isaiah Wright will likely take up starting roles again in 2026.

DeJuan Williams returns as the Terrapins’ starting running back, following a season where he impressed with his pass-catching abilities but rarely saw holes he could exploit in the running game. They also added USC transfer Harry Dalton III to the roster, and will get Bud Coombs back after he suffered a season-ending injury during camp prior to last year. With a signal-caller like Washington behind center, Maryland’s rushing attack doesn’t need to be one of the best in the conference. But it does need to keep the offense ahead of the chains consistently so that they aren’t constantly forced into obvious passing situations.

The Defensive Problem: Maryland’s defense allowed opposing offenses to convert 45.22% of their third-down attempts, which ranked 119th-best in the country and second-worst in the conference behind only Illinois.

While defensive coordinator Ted Monachino’s unit performed well in certain aspects (sacks and takeaways), they were one of the worst in the nation at getting off the field on third downs. One of the primary reasons for this was their performance against the run, allowing an average of 186.9 rushing yards per game which ranked 107th-best in the country. They consistently allowed opposing offenses to stay ahead of the chains and convert manageable third downs.

The Defensive Solution: Maryland is replacing four of their interior defensive linemen from last season (Dillan Fontus, Dimitry Nicolas, Cam Rice, Sedrick Smith). They added four in the transfer portal (Lavon Johnson, Derrick LeBlanc, Armon Parker, Jayvon Parker) and two more in their incoming freshman class (Cam Brickle II, Jamarcus Whyce). These players will need to step up, along with returnees Bryce Jenkins, Joel Starlings, and Eyan Thomas to improve their lackluster run defense and keep opposing offenses behind the chains on a more consistent basis.

The Terrapins ought to have one of the best young pass-rushing corps in the country, featuring returnees Zahir Mathis and Sidney Stewart alongside incoming five-star freshman Zion Elee. But a pass rush’s effectiveness will be greatly handicapped if the offense isn’t forced into obvious passing situations with more regularity. If you want to win on third down, you have to win on first and second downs, where Maryland will need to show vast improvement in 2026.

The post How Has Maryland Addressed Two Biggest Weaknesses From Last Season? appeared first on Baltimore Sports and Life.

The Departures

Maryland officially lost 17 players to the transfer portal during this cycle, with an additional seven departing due to an exhaustion of their eligibility.

Transfer Portal Entries

• QB Roman Jensen (Shippensburg)
• QB Justyn Martin (Ohio State)
• QB Khristian Martin (Fresno State)
• RB Nolan Ray (Boston College)
• WR Josiah McLaurin (unsigned)
• WR Jahmari Powell-Wonson (Florida Atlantic)
• TE Leon Haughton Jr. (Old Dominion)
• OL Aliou Bah (LSU)
• DL Dillan Fontus (Syracuse)
• DL Dimitry Nicolas (Sam Houston)
• DL Sedrick Smith (Colorado)
• LB Neeo Avery (South Dakota)
• LB Michael Harris (unsigned)
• DB Kevyn Humes (Boston College)
• DB Braydon Lee (Arkansas)
• DB Shamar McIntosh (Charlotte)
• DB La’Khi Roland (Arkansas)
  

No Eligibility Remaining

• WR Jalil Farooq
• WR Shaleak Knotts
• WR Octavian Smith Jr.
• OL Alan Herron
• DL Cam Rice
• DB Jalen Huskey
• LS Ethan Gough

Through these departures, Maryland lost five offensive starters (Bah, Farooq, Herron, Knotts, Smith Jr.), four defensive starters (Fontus, Humes, Huskey, Rice), and their starting long snapper (Gough) from last season.

The Arrivals

Locksley and his coaching staff have been able to add seven players of their own through the transfer portal to date, adding to their 19-member incoming freshman recruiting class.

Transfer Portal Additions

• RB Harry Dalton III (USC)
• WR Chris Durr Jr. (Wyoming)
• WR Na’eem Abdul-Rahim Gladding (Old Dominion)
• TE Preston Howard (Auburn)
• DL Lavon Johnson (Texas)
• DL Derrick LeBlanc (UCF)
• DB Amari Jackson (Boston College)
• OL Tellek Lockette (Texas State)

Incoming Freshman Class

• QB Nathan Bernhard
• WR Jayden Kitchens
• WR Josiah Teasley
• TE Damon Hall Jr.
• TE Brayden Marko
• TE Javonte Williams
• OL Jesse Moody
• OL Day’jon Moore
• DL Cam Brickle II
• DL Jianni Davis
• DL Zion Elee
• DL Jamarcus Whyce
• LB Kayden Carter
• DB Darrell Carey
• DB Zahir Cobb
• DB Sean Johnson
• DB Hakim Satterwhite
• K Eli Fulcher
• LS Rory Knipp

If Howard and Johnson’s names look familiar, it’s because they began their collegiate careers at Maryland before transferring elsewhere before last season. They’ll both provide critical depth at their respective positions. Durr Jr. and Gladding will likely step into starting wide receiver roles following the departure of all three starters at that position. Jackson has a chance to start immediately at the nickel position, with talented returnees Jamare Glasker and Dontay Joyner manning the outside cornerback roles. 247Sports currently ranks the team’s transfer class as the 71st-best in the country.

The Terrapins’ freshman class is led by 5-star pass-rusher Elee, the program’s best recruit in the rankings era. He joins returnees Zahir Mathis and Sidney Stewart to create one of the country’s best young edge-rushing groups this year. As a whole, 247Sports ranks the class as the 43rd-best in the nation. Combined with their transfer class, the incoming group is currently ranked 52nd-best nationally.

The Roster

By rough calculation Maryland’s roster currently sits at 103 players, two shy of the NCAA’s current limit of 105. While there could be a few openings created by late departures which aren’t related to the portal, the team’s roster is just about full. My expectation is that one of the remaining spots will be taken by a quarterback, given that Bernhard and Jackson Hamilton are the only two signal-callers currently on the roster behind Malik Washington. With any remaining openings, look for the staff to target offensive linemen as they’ve yet to add any experienced players at the position after losing two starters.

Projected Depth Chart

Offense
QB: 1. Malik Washington, 2. Nathan Bernhard
RB: 1. DeJuan Williams, 2. Iverson Howard OR Bud Coombs
WR-X: 1. Kaleb Webb, 2. Jordan Scott OR Josiah Teasley
WR-Z: 1. Na’eem Abdul-Rahim Gladding, 2. Ryan Manning
WR-H: 1. Chris Durr Jr., 2. Zymear Smith
TE: 1. Dorian Fleming, 2. Preston Howard
LT: 1. Rahtrel Perry, 2. Michael McMonigle
LG: 1. Jaylen Gilchrist, 2. Ryan Howerton
C: 1. Michael Hershey, 2. Trevor Szymanski
RG: 1. Tellek Lockette, 2. Amory Hills
RT: 1. Isaiah Wright, 2. Carlos Moore

Defense
SAM: 1. Sidney Stewart OR Zion Elee
DT: 1. Eyan Thomas, 2. Lavon Johnson
NT: 1. Bryce Jenkins, 2. Joel Starlings
JACK: 1. Zahir Mathis, 2. Nahsir Taylor
MIKE: 1. Trey Reddick, 2. Keyshawn Flowers
WILL: 1. Daniel Wingate, 2. Carlton Smith
FCB: 1. Jamare Glasker, 2. Lloyd Irvin III OR Hakim Satterwhite
BCB: 1. Dontay Joyner, 2. Sean Johnson
NICKEL: 1. Amari Jackson, 2. Jayden Shipps
FS: 1. Lavain Scruggs, 2. Gavin Edwards
SS: 1. Messiah Delhomme, 2. Darrell Carey

Special Teams
K: 1. Sean O’Haire, 2. Eli Fulcher
P: 1. Bryce McFerson, 2. Philip Noyes
LS: 1. Luke O’Hare OR Rory Knipp
KR: 1. Iverson Howard, 2. Ricardo Cooper Jr.
PR: 1. Ricardo Cooper Jr., 2. Messiah Delhomme

Offensively, as has been the case for a number of years, the biggest question mark is the offensive line. Maryland returns three starters from last season’s unit, which was typically solid in pass protection but failed to open up many holes at all in the running game. (EDIT, Maryland added Tellek Lockette today, and I now project him to start at RG.) The wide receiver position is also very uncertain, and will rely heavily on two transfer portal additions who are moving up a level in competition from lower-level Group of Five programs. The presence of Fleming and Howard, along with a number of other talented tight ends, may help to offset a lack of experience at the wide receiver position as offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton used plenty of two and three-tight end formations last season.

On the defensive side of the ball, there are depth questions to be asked of both the interior of the defensive line and cornerback. Maryland’s run defense ranked 107th-best nationally, so ensuring better play from their defensive tackles will be a priority for defensive coordinator Ted Monachino. While Glasker and Joyner return at cornerback, the losses of Humes, Lee, and Roland aren’t insignificant as quality depth pieces.

Both specialist positions are excellent, with McFerson and O’Haire serving as two of the best at their respective spots in the conference. Punt coverage (72nd-best nationally) and kickoff coverage (110th-best nationally) were poor however, which ought to be a point of emphasis for special teams coordinator Andre Powell.

The post Where Maryland Stands as Transfer Portal Closes For Entry appeared first on Baltimore Sports and Life.

Athletic Director Jim Smith pledged a commitment to Locksley in early December, cementing the head coach’s place in College Park for at least one more season. Locksley rewarded the University by being arguably one of the early signing period’s biggest winners after he flipped five commitments during the early signing period (six flips total in the class), as well as sealed the deal with local five-star EDGE Zion Elee.

The Flips

Locksley’s sprint to the signing day finish line was not only impressive because of the caliber of players he hauled in, but also because of where some of these players were previously committed.

Safety Darrell Carey was formerly a Penn State pledge, but was part of the mass exodus from State College after the departure of Head Coach James Franklin. College Park provides him with a nice landing spot close to home. But he wasn’t the only recruit committed to a fellow Big Ten team that Locksley poached. IMG Academy (FL) three-star Defensive Lineman Cam Brickle announced his flip from Ohio State to Maryland shortly after visiting campus for the Terps’ home finale against Michigan. Three-star quarterback Nathan Bernhard announced that he would be flipping from Appalachian State to Maryland the next day. So far, Bernhard is the lone QB in this year’s class, adding some needed depth to the position.

The Michigan game proved to be crucial for Locksley’s recruiting efforts, as local (Spalding) Defensive Back Sean Johnson also used it as a catalyst to reconnect with the Terps coaching staff and solidify his decision. Previously committed to Florida State, Johnson decided to stay closer to home and flip to Maryland — first verbally on Nov. 24 and then officially on Signing Day.

Getting the signing day flips started early that morning was Wide Receiver Josiah Teasley, who changed his pledge from Virginia to Maryland. He will join fellow wide receiver and St. James (VA) teammate Jayden Kitchens in the Terps’ 2026 recruiting class. Teasley also mentioned to various sources that his official visit during the Michigan game solidified his intention to flip.

Signing Day’s fifth and final flip was Trotwood-Madison (OH) Defensive Lineman Jamarcus Whyce, who happens to be the older brother of 2028 five-star recruit Jameer Whyce. However, unlike the aforementioned flips, Whyce was not present at the Michigan game. He took his official visit to College Park in June and maintained a close relationship with the Maryland coaching staff throughout his recruitment while being verbally committed to Purdue.

The Rest of the Class

With a total of 16 high school players signed to Maryland on early national signing day, the class can be considered small but mighty. Ranked 42nd nationally, mostly because of the smaller class size, Maryland’s recruiting class still brought in a strong crop of talent.

The clear gem is Elee, who supplanted Stefon Diggs as the highest-rated player to ever sign with the Terps. But four-stars Kaden Carter, Day’jon Moore and Whyce add some flair to the class, while Johnson, Bernhard, Carey, tight ends Javonte Williams and Damon Hall Jr., as well as defensive backs Hakim Satterwhite and Zahir Cobb all rank in the top 60 nationally at their positions.

The small class also opens up the possibility for more transfer portal additions. The Terps can conceivably add 10-15 more players to the class via the portal, which officially opens on January 2, 2026.

Who’s Next?

While the early signing period provided Maryland with a decent start, there are still glaring needs at certain positions.

Offensive line, defensive back, and wide receiver are still priorities for the Terps. Locksley and his staff will surely scour conferences such as the AAC, CUSA, MAC, and the Mountain West for talented players looking to take a step up in competition/national spotlight. Locksley also has a knack for maintaining relationships with top DMV recruits who went elsewhere. Don’t be surprised if a few who fit that mold make their way back to their old stomping grounds and find a home in College Park. And then there’s always the Blue Blood backups searching for more playing time. Who’s unhappy at schools like Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State, especially with turmoil occurring at the latter two schools?

Here are some names to keep an eye on:

DeAndre Moore Jr. – WR
One of the highest-rated wideouts in the transfer portal, Moore could go from being productive in the SEC (500+ receiving yards and 7 TDs) to thriving in a WR corps that needs experience and playmaking ability.

Elijah Moore – WR
A Good Counsel (Olney, MD) grad and former Florida State Seminole is in the portal and could bring his 6-foot-4, 204-pound frame back home to immediately be an alpha dog in the Maryland WR corps.

Tank Hawkins – WR
Previously committed to Florida after taking a close look at Penn State, Hawkins may want to revert back to the Big Ten and join a few IMG teammates in College Park. At 5-9, 178-pounds, he could address Maryland’s need in the slot.

Christian Richter – OL
A Baltimore native, Richter will be leaving Marshall to find a new home. His 6-foot-6, 300-pound frame would be a welcomed addition to Maryland’s stock of offensive tackles.

Anwar O’Neal – OL
Hailing from Middletown, DE, O’Neal enrolled in the University of Delaware after high school. This could mean he prefers to stay relatively close to home, and College Park could check that box. Massive frame at 6-foot-5, 309 pounds.

Ja’Son Prevard – CB
At great size for a CB (6-2, 199 pounds), Prevard is originally from New Jersey but initially enrolled at Morgan State before transferring to Virginia. He clearly favors the Mid-Atlantic. Perhaps he’ll favor the Big Ten now as an upgrade over the his stop in the ACC.

Elliott Washington II – CB
A Penn State transfer from Venice, FL, Washington decommitted from Alabama to join the Nittany Lions 2023 recruiting class. He has pro potential if he can land in a place that will get him on the field consistently.

Bo Mascoe & Renick Dorilas – CB
Both Mascoe and Dorilas are transferring from Rutgers and if either or both would like to stay in the Big Ten and/or relatively close to the Northeast, Maryland might be on their radar. Mascoe is originally from Florida so he might opt to return to the South, but Dorilas hails from New Jersey and could be looking to stay in the conference but not too far from since he decided to stay close to home in the first place

The post Maryland Football Building Off Recruiting Class, Returning QB, Coach appeared first on Baltimore Sports and Life.

The Orioles and Ravens both entered their respective seasons with strong expectations, which were not met.

Both teams had a myriad of reasons – some more legitimate than others – for their respective failures, but failure is the apt descriptor for their 2025 seasons.

Watching the Orioles over 162 games was frustrating.
The O’s used 70 different players over the course of the season.
There were injuries, and non-performance.
The off-season entering ’25 was not good enough, and the vibe felt off immediately.
By mid-May, Manager Brandon Hyde had already been fired.
By Memorial Day, they were 15 games under .500, and the season was over even with 105 games left on the schedule.

When the Ravens season kicked off September 7th in Buffalo, they were the prohibitive Super Bowl favorite.
After last night’s loss vs. the Patriots, the Ravens have an 11% chance of making the playoffs.
While technically mathematically alive*, Baltimore is a shell of the team we expected, and effectively their season has ended before Christmas Day officially arrived.

(*Pittsburgh is 9-6, with the Ravens now 7-8. The Steelers travel to Cleveland this week. The Ravens would need to upset the Packers in Green Bay, and have the Browns upset Pittsburgh, to make the Week 18 game in Pittsburgh matter.)

Watching a team with expectations stumble and bumble, and fail over 15+ weeks is excruciating.
It’s particularly grating when factoring in the state of the AFC.
There are a group of solid teams. There are no world-beaters.
The implosion this year is the definition of wasted opportunity.

I’m not going to spend excessive time speaking about Terps Basketball, or Terps Football here; but go ahead and add them to the mix of this horrible 2025 Punch Bowl.
To be fair, Terps Basketball was a fun watch in their ’24-’25 regular season. But the Sweet 16 run was hard to enjoy with the background Kevin Willard drama.
That was followed by the departure of the entire roster, and Buzz Williams having to pick up the pieces while swimming up-stream.
Williams has already put together a strong recruiting class for 2026, and I think he’s going to have success at MD quickly; but this ’25-’26 season has been tough.
Too many injuries in camp, which carried over into the season. At best, this current group was going to be hopeful of being on the right side of the NCAAT bubble.
As things have played out, it looks like it could be a very long remaining 18 games in Big Ten Conference play.

Terps Football? The ’25 team had one of the easier schedules they’ll face in a given year, but weren’t able to capitalize.
After starting 4-0, MD ends the year on an 8 game losing streak.
That eight game losing streak, started with a particularly painful to watch three game stretch against Washington, Nebraska, and UCLA.
Maryland lost each of those games by a combined 10 points, and things fell apart.
Coach Locksley has again added a talented recruiting class led by Baltimore’s Zion Elee, and received good news that QB Malik Washington is returning.
But all eyes are pointed to the 15 day portal window which opens January 2nd.
Will Maryland be able to keep their other best players like Sidney Stewart, and Zahir Mathis?
Can Locksley keep his core talent, and add enough in the portal for MD to take a step towards relevancy in ’26?

We will get back to Maryland Basketball & Football another day.

Let’s focus more on the Orioles and Ravens.

If there is one positive for the Baltimore sports fan as ’25 ends, it’s that the Orioles have been aggressive in addressing their limitations in the closing weeks of this year.
Pete Alonso, and Taylor Ward add power and depth to the lineup.
Ryan Helsey, and Andrew Kittredge add legitimacy to the bullpen.
The acquisition of Shane Baz gives the rotation a young power arm with team control.

Clearly Orioles Owner David Rubenstein does not want his second full year of Ownership to look like his first.
And Orioles President of Baseball Operations Mike Elias clearly feels emboldened to add, and give his existing core group every opportunity to maximize their window.

That’s exciting, and something to look forward to.
Pitchers and Catchers arrive in Sarasota February 11th.
So just around the corner we have baseball returning, and growing hopes for this coming year.
With the aforementioned additions here before Christmas, there is further anticipation that Elias will obtain the additional Starting Pitcher the roster still needs.
So, kudos to the O’s for turning the page. People were pretty down on where things were heading for the O’s when their season ended September 28th.
Now here we are in late December, and I think Oriole fans are collectively optimistic about 2026 possibilities.

Hopefully the Ravens will similarly be able to shake off a lost 2025, and retool for 2026.
The starting point is identifying what went wrong.

Lamar Jackson had an off-year, which I think is nearly completely attributable to the various injuries he suffered from the end of Training Camp onwards.
If your highly paid MVP QB is not playing like an MVP, or isn’t even available sometimes; you aren’t going to meet expectations as a team.
There is no way around that in a Salary Cap sport.
A lot of Ravens fans this morning aren’t happy that Jackson left the game last night.
They would have liked to have seen him be more of a warrior and reenter.
I don’t like making those proclamations myself from my couch.
I don’t know what Jackson has been dealing with each week, and how hurt he was last night.
I do see that he’s listed as day-to-day and hopes to play Saturday in Green Bay. So, I do think it’s correct to say he was more hurt vs. injured last night.
I do know that Jackson has rarely looked like Jackson this year, and I think the various injuries explain that more than a belief he had a rapid deterioration of ability.
The 2x MVP was 1st Team All Pro last year.
The team is built around him.
If he isn’t playing like an All-Pro, there is no escaping that.
Him not having his caliber of year in ’25 doesn’t mean he can’t rebound in ’26.
2021 and 2022 saw Jackson limited to 12 games each year.
That was followed up by fantastic 2023 and 2024 seasons.
Yes, he’s now that much older, but I see no reason to believe he can’t again be excellent in ’26.

Getting past the Jackson discussion, it will be interesting to see if Ravens Owner Steve Bisciotti tells his GM Eric DeCosta, that it’s time for a change with Head Coach John Harbaugh.
If Harbaugh were to leave, what’s the move?
The Ringer listed their Top 30 Head Coaching candidates, who excites you?  (Joe Brady, and Marcus Freeman would be my early favorites.)

If Harbaugh is gone, I think you’d also anticipate a change from OC Todd Monken, and DC Zach Orr.    (Note, on that Ringer listing, Monken was 7th!)
Neither are particularly popular in Baltimore right now.
Monken has had major success previously of course, and that has to weigh more than my annoyance that Derrick Henry didn’t get a touch on the Ravens second to last series last night.
Orr is apparently well liked in the Castle and amongst his players, but the fanbase has been nearly universally out on him.
The Ravens Defense did finish the ’24 season ranked 6th overall in Defensive DVOA, but that didn’t buy Orr any fans.
Losing Nnamdi Madubuike was a real blow. Not having pass rushers that can win at the point of attack without scheming pressure, is a glaring issue, that doesn’t fall on Orr.
Still, there is a feeling the Ravens Defense underachieved this year vs. what they should have done with the talent which existed.
Either the talent wasn’t as good as advertised, or Orr didn’t put what existed in the best positions for success. Pick one.

So, again we start with hoping (expecting) Jackson returns to better health and performance in ’26.
We will then see what happens with the Coaching staff.

After that we get back to the rest of the roster, and salary cap realities.
Improving both the Offensive and Defensive Lines would be my focus.

Rubenstein and Elias are clearly motivated to shake off ’25, and give their core a chance to rebound in a major way in ’26.
Bisciotti and DeCosta should feel similar pressures and desires.

2025 was not good enough.
2026 has to be better.

DeCosta has to maximize the remainder of Jackson’s prime.
That means when Training Camp comes around next July; we’re going to want to collectively believe the Ravens have a chance to win a Lombardi in February 2027.
Will he decide to largely run it back in ’26 with the team which entered ’25 as the Super Bowl favorite?
Or will he figure more wholesale changes are needed?

Next Wednesday is the last day of 2025.
It was a bitterly disappointing year.
Here’s to turning the page to 2026 and looking forward.

The post 2025 Was A Brutally Frustrating Year For A Baltimore Sports Fan appeared first on Baltimore Sports and Life.

Smith’s vote of confidence came with a pledge to increase funding for the program, which despite decent efforts over the course of the last few years is still one of the worst-funded among power conference teams. Former athletic director Damon Evans’ lack of urgency when the Name-Image-Likeness (NIL) floodgates opened in 2021 left the athletic department with a significant amount of catch-up work to do, something that Smith is still dealing with. The situation isn’t too dissimilar from Indiana’s, as athletic director Scott Dolson worked hard to increase funding for their football program in the years leading up to Curt Cignetti’s arrival.

Locksley and his coaching staff completed the first part of their offseason last week, when they signed 17 players as part of their 2026 recruiting class. He’s never had a class this small as Maryland’s head coach, which speaks to the youth that currently exists on the team. 5-star EDGE Zion Elee headlines the incoming group, and represents the program’s best recruit in the rankings era. As a whole they added six of the Top 25 recruits from the state of Maryland, and four of their five best additions hail from the Old Line State. Keeping Elee away from deep-pocketed suitors such as Oregon and South Carolina speaks to the boosters’ desire to increase funding. According to 247Sports, the class ranked #43 nationally and #11 in the conference.

Three important parts of the offseason still remain: player retention, coaching staff decisions, and the transfer portal. With so much young talent currently on the roster, Maryland will be a prime target to be picked clean by programs with more money. Players like Malik Washington, Zahir Mathis, Daniel Wingate, and Sidney Stewart will almost certainly be offered significant sums to play elsewhere next year. Retaining all or most of these players is crucial for Locksley, but likely comes down to the boosters’ willingness to keep them in College Park.

Maryland’s coaching staff saw significant turnover before last season, with Locksley replacing all three coordinators and a handful of position coaches. With such a young team, it can likely be expected that most of these coaches return in 2026. One coach who wasn’t replaced after last year was Kevin Sumlin, who’d served as the team’s associate head coach, co-offensive coordinator, and tight ends coach from 2023-24. Locksley could elect to add an experienced coach to the staff to fill that void.

The NCAA made some changes to the transfer portal before this season, most notably being that there’s just one window for player movement which opens on January 2nd and closes on January 16th. To date, Maryland has had just two players announce that they’ll enter the portal (WR Jahmari Powell-Wonson and DB Shamar McIntosh) but things should begin to ramp up over the course of the next few weeks. With just seven players being without eligibility for next season, Locksley and his coaching staff can be selective with which positions they target. Three of those players without eligibility are wide receivers (Jalil Farooq, Shaleak Knotts, and Octavian Smith Jr.) so you can expect replacing them to be a priority. The offensive and defensive lines are always prime spots to add transfers, considering how important experience is at those positions. And assuming that they’re able to keep Washington, it can be reasonably expected that a number of the quarterbacks on the roster elect to transfer. Adding to the quarterback room in the portal will be important, especially considering that they added just one in this season’s recruiting class (Nathan Bernhard).

Be sure to keep an eye on our message board, as that’s where I’ll be keeping track of every move that’s made during this crucial offseason for the program.

The post Crucial Offseason Begins Ahead of Make-Or-Break 2026 appeared first on Baltimore Sports and Life.

It’s important to remember the climate in which Locksley was hired as the football team’s head coach in 2019, because things weren’t great. Former head coach D.J. Durkin was placed on administrative leave just weeks before the 2018 season began following allegations of a toxic culture which resulted in the death of offensive lineman Jordan McNair. After a months-long investigation the USM Board of Regents elected to reinstate him, a decision that was met by intense backlash both by people inside the building and across the country. He was fired one day later. Locksley was one of just three people to accept interview requests for the open job, the others being then-interim head coach Matt Canada and Pep Hamilton, Maryland’s current offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

There were serious questions about how Maryland would rebuild trust not only with the players on their roster at the time, but with all future recruits and their parents. Locksley was easily the best person for this job at the time, as he likely has deeper and more meaningful relationships within the DMV region than any football coach in the country. His hire allowed the program to rebuild that trust with the community more quickly than would have been otherwise possible.

In just his third season at the helm in 2021, Maryland reached their first bowl game in five years. This began a string of three straight bowl wins from 2021-23, a first in program history. Quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa shattered many program records, and still stands as the Big Ten Conference’s all-time leading passer. Despite that success though, each of those teams finished their seasons with what often felt like meat still on the bone. They were 1-10 against ranked teams during that time, with their only win coming against #23 North Carolina State in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. Additionally, they finished with losing conference records in each of those seasons.

Since those relatively successful years though, the program has taken another step back. Following a 4-8 (1-8) record in 2024, they’re on pace for a similar (or even identical) record in 2025. A 4-0 start to the season was followed by three straight blown fourth-quarter leads against Washington, Nebraska, and UCLA, and has most recently featured a 45-point loss to #2 Indiana and a 15-point loss to Rutgers. These are simply not acceptable results in consecutive seasons for a head coach in his seventh year in charge.

Locksley has pointed to what he calls “progress” in recent press conferences, saying that his team has cleaned up many of the penalties and other issues which have plagued the program in the past. But if that “progress” doesn’t lend itself to wins, doesn’t that mean you’ve just solved certain problems while creating new ones? Maryland has won just 27.4% of their conference games under his leadership, and is now 12-36 during the months of October and November. They’re 1-18 against ranked teams during the regular season, and have had a losing record in conference play every single year.

I like Locksley, he’s a good man and a titan of football in the DMV region. He’s had some good moments as Maryland’s head coach, and led the program through its darkest era with impeccable stability. It certainly seems as though it’s time for new leadership however, and for Smith to earn his salary as he leads the search for his first head coach as Maryland’s athletic director.

The post Time Is Running Out For Michael Locksley appeared first on Baltimore Sports and Life.

Maryland enjoys their second bye week of the year this week before #2 Indiana comes to College Park for the Terrapins’ Homecoming game. Locksley has yet to win a game coming off of a bye, including the team’s loss to Washington earlier this month. The Hoosiers represent what will be their toughest test of the season, as they’re off to another red hot start under second-year head coach Curt Cignetti and led by a leading Heisman Trophy candidate in quarterback Fernando Mendoza.

Despite all of their poor performances on the field so far this month, Maryland still leads the entire country in turnover margin (+11). They lead the nation in interceptions (14) and have also recovered two fumbles. Meanwhile, they’ve only turned the ball over five times (three interceptions and two fumbles). While defensive coordinator Ted Monachino’s unit has allowed some yards to opposing offenses, they’ve proven to be extremely good at taking the ball away. They’ve also continued to rack up sacks, ranking 10th in the country with 22 of them.

Unfortunately, this is Locksley’s seventh season at the helm and his team continues to struggle to finish games in the fourth quarter. Since 2019, they’ve blown eight fourth quarter leads (2019 vs. Temple, 2019 vs. Michigan State, 2020 vs. Rutgers, 2022 vs. Purdue, 2024 vs. Michigan State, 2025 vs. Washington, 2025 vs. Nebraska, and 2025 vs. UCLA). It’s not something that has improved during his tenure, in fact it’s become more frequent in recent years. With a new athletic director in charge of the athletic department, Locksley’s job security is likely in more jeopardy than it would have been under Damon Evans. While his buyout will be approximately $17 million if fired after this season, does Jim Smith look to make a move?

This article courtesy of the The Womb Room – “The Womb Room supports growing families in person and online with expert doulas, therapists, yoga, groups, and classes for every stage of parenthood.”

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