Maryland fires coach Mike Locksley after 2-5 start, dismal 3-season stretch

Maryland has made the first coaching move of the 2026 season.

The Terrapins fired coach Mike Locksley on Wednesday , four days after his team lost 37-30 at home to Rutgers and fell to 2-5, including 0-4 in Big Ten play.

A meeting was reportedly called for 11:30 a.m. ET in College Park, where the team was to be informed of the change. Longtime defensive assistant Aazaar Abdul-Rahim is being named interim head coach, according to On3's Pete Nakos and ESPN's Pete Thamel .

Abdul-Rahim was already promoted once in the wake of the Terps' loss to the Scarlet Knights. Maryland fired defensive coordinator Ted Monachino in the fallout of its fifth straight defeat with 35-plus points allowed. Abdul-Rahim, then the Terps' co-DC, was tabbed the program's primary DC going forward, and inside linebackers coach Zac Spavital slid into the co-DC role.

Now, less than a week later, Abdul-Rahim has reportedly been elevated again.

Abdul-Rahim, a soon-to-be 50-year-old who, like Locksley, has extensive DMV ties, is in his second stint coaching the Terps. He came back to the program in 2024 after working under now-Miami Dolphins head coach Jeff Hafley for four seasons at Boston College.

Locksley was in his eighth season of this tenure at Maryland and was retained for 2026 after back-to-back 4-8 seasons. After Maryland went 8-5 in each of the 2022 and 2023 seasons, the program has stumbled in the expanded Big Ten.

The Terps have won just two Big Ten games since the start of the 2024 season, and each year has been defined by late-season swoons. Maryland started 3-1 in 2024 and 4-0 in 2025. Following a 27-10 win at Wisconsin on Sept. 20, 2025, the Terrapins lost their last eight games of the season. And the final five of those games were all by at least 10 points.

After serving as Maryland's interim coach in 2015, following Randy Edsall's firing, Locksley returned before the 2019 season after a stint on Alabama's coaching staff. Locksley was the Crimson Tide's offensive coordinator in 2018 and spent three years with Alabama between his times at Maryland.

The Washington, D.C., native was a Maryland assistant from 1997 through 2002 and was the head coach at New Mexico for two-plus seasons. After back-to-back 1-11 seasons in 2009 and 2010, Locksley was fired by New Mexico after an 0-4 start in 2011.

Maryland parting ways with Locksley on Wednesday marks the beginning of this year's coaching carousel. Notably, by this time last year, there were seven head-coaching departures.

Locksley is owed $9.75 million, per Thamel , who cited Locksley's Maryland contract, which reportedly doesn't include offset or mitigation on the deal. In other words, Maryland is responsible for paying all of the buyout even if Locksley lands another job.

Plus, according to Nakos , the school will have to pay half of that buyout — so, approximately $4.9 million — in a lump sum within 60 days of his firing.