It looks like the seat of Maryland head coach Mike Locksley is heating up again. After back-to-back 4-8 seasons which saw the Terrapins go 1-8 in conference play each season, he is being mentioned as a candidate to be the first head coach fired this season.
Frankly, I was really surprised that he was retained after his second straight 4-8 season, but that may be the result of the expectations of Maryland football have fallen so low. The Terps have had just three winning seasons in the past decade and they haven’t had a winning record in conference play since 2010.
Despite finishing 9-4 overall and 5-3 in the ACC that season, Ralph Friedgen was fired. Locksley is the Terps’ third permanent head coach and fifth overall since Friedgen was fired.
On Tuesday, Baltimore Sun sports reporter Taylor Lyons asked Locksley if he continues to deserve more chances to fix the Terrapins. Not surprisigly, Locksley tried to dodge the question.
Last season, Locksley’s offensive coordinator was Pep Hamilton. Of course, Hamilton is most known for being Andrew Luck’s offensive coordinator at Stanford and with the Indianapolis Colts, but after the Maryland rushing attack was ranked 124th last season, he was moved into a “senior advisor” role and he’s now listed on the Maryland website as a “special assistant to the head coach.” In May, the Baltimore Sun reported that he was still getting paid $1.25M for this season despite being replaced.
In Hamilton’s place, Locksley hired former Jacksonville State OC Clint Trickett, but Trickett is being paid about a third of what Hamilton is making.
Trickett was actually hired away from Arkansas, where he was hired as the Razorbacks’ new quarterbacks coach last December. This is just the fourth season where Trickett has been an offensive coordinator. In addition to spending last season as the OC for Jacksonville State, he spent 2022 and 2023 as the offensive coordinator for Marshall. He was fired by the Thundering Herd after 2023.
While Maryland has a new offensive coordinator, Ted Monachino is back for his second season as the Terps’ defensive coordinator, and so is his 4-2-5 defense. Even last year with the Bruins lackluster offense, UCLA put up 414 total yards including 212 passing yards and 193 rushing yards. Last week, Virginia Tech torched the Terps’ defense for 314 passing yards and 131 rushing yards. After UCLA’s offensive performance last week, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Bruins have another 600-yard game.
Maryland Terrapins’ Special Teams
Redshirt sophomore Sean O’Haire is back as the Terrapins’ kicker this season. So far, he’s 3-for-4 on field goal attempts with a long of 36. His only miss was a 37-yard attempt against UConn. Last season against the Bruins, O’Haire made a 24-yard field goal but he didn’t try either of Maryland’s extra points. Those were handled by Ryan Capriotti, but Capriotti is no longer with the Terps. So, O’Haire will be handling both field goal and PAT duties.
Redshirt senior Bryce McFerson will handle the punting duties for Maryland. He has six of the Terrapins’ seven punts this season. Last week, quarterback Malik Washington did punt once with the ball on the Virginia Tech 34-yard line which landed in the end zone for a touchback. Four of McFerson’s punts were fair catches while the other two landed inside the 20-yard line.
McFerson has also kicked off twice, both of which came in the season opener against Hampton, but hasn’t kicked off since. Freshman kicker Eli Fulcher has kicked off 16 times this season, but he didn’t kickoff at all last week against Virginia Tech. Instead, freshman Daniel Leary kicked off all five times with three touchbacks and two kicks which went out of bounds. If I had to guess, I would expect Leary to be the guy kicking off on Saturday because he was the guy last weekend, but I could be wrong.
Through three games, Maryland has not returned a single kickoff yet. Instead, every kickoff opposing teams have had have either gone into the end zone for a touchback, gone out of bounds or been fair caught. Either way, Maryland has started every drive following an opposing kickoff at the 25-yard line this season.
That doesn’t mean we can’t guess who might return kickoffs on Saturday. Junior receiver Na’eem Abdul-Rahim Gladding did fair catch the opening kickoff of the second half last week against Virginia Tech. So, it’s fair to assume that he will be lined up deep for the Terrapins.
Speaking of Abdul-Rahim Gladding, he has returned two of Maryland’s three punt returns this season. His longest was a 34-yard return while there was no gain on his other punt return. Redshirt freshman receiver Zymear Smith returned the Terps’ other punt for 24 yards.
Go Bruins!!!
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Locksley admitting he keeps "saying" he will learn from losses while rarely doing so is the most honest sentence he has produced all year, because the record says the rest: back-to-back 4-8, no winning conference season since 2010. And now he walks into Saturday with a defense that just let Virginia Tech throw for 314 on it, facing a UCLA team that hung 52 on Purdue and is 3-0. Joe, this is not a preview. It is an obituary with a kickoff time. Go Bruins.