For the 2026 season, Mike Locksley will remain in place as the head coach at Maryland. Yet the last season was touch-and-go, with poor results and no visible changes tarnishing his tenure. With expectations mounting from the college and a new athletic director, could one of them be a possible change in leadership, or will Locksley remain?
Locksley’s Current Situation
Locksley has done eight seasons with the Terps and is now going into his ninth. His achievements are strong, with three consecutive bowl game wins. This was the longest streak in the program’s history.
Yet the results of the last season were tepid. Runs of six straight losses stacked on the pressure. Statistics leading into the season also made some worried. At the start, he had a winning percentage that was the second-lowest among Power Four coaches who had been working in positions since 2019. Only Justin Wilcox had a worse record.
Part of the reason he was not fired may have been that his contract would have cost the college $13 million to terminate. Rumors were that his contract paid $6,100,000 and was a deal that would run through to the 2027 season. He was the 41st best-paid coach in college football.
Criticism within the season was that he shifted to a style that favored short-term wins. This has been in place of a long-term strategy, which has developed younger up-and-coming players.
Many of the prediction markets are placing odds of around 53% that Mike Locksley will be out as Maryland HC in 2026. This is according to major books like Kalshi and Polymarket. Scanning the top prediction markets to compare is now easier than ever, with many third-party sites providing detailed breakdowns on predictions such as these.
Factors That Could Keep Locksley In
Despite the poor results, the team also has a promising future with some fantastic players. Last season, Malik Washington, Sidney Stewart, and Zahiur Mathis all shone or showed vast amounts of potential.
A new athletic director also arrived at the college last year. The media immediately made the assumption that his first move would be to fire the struggling Locksley. Yet Jim Smith told ESPN that funding for football will increase drastically, rather than blaming his head coach. He had previously picked out this as one of the top priorities, noting that they need to catch up in the finance area to stay competitive with the teams in the top ten. This investment is meant to be considerably more than Locksley was given in the last season. Smith has said that other priorities are also in place, one of which is retaining the key players.
It seems that Locksley still has the respect, and that behind the scenes, a lack of financial backing is no secret. If this can rectify one poor season and reignite the passion in the current crop of stars, then Locksley’s team may be a very different one from those seen in previous iterations.
