Here are five candidates Maryland should target for its head coach vacancy after moving early to open the job.
Maryland made the first move to get the annual college football coaching carousel spinning, firing head coach Mike Locksley last week midway through his eighth season.
It remains to be seen if any coach can make the Terrapins competitive in the NIL/revenue-sharing era of college football, but it was at least clear by this point that Locksley couldn’t.
(Photo by Chad Hamilton/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Locksley, a Washington, D.C., native who spent six years as Maryland’s running backs coach from 1997-2002, then returned as offensive coordinator from 2012-15 while finishing that stint as interim head coach for six games, returned for a third tenure in 2019 to take over the program at a time when it needed a trusted and steady hand.
But he went 39-54 overall and just 17-52 in the Big Ten. That included three straight winning seasons with bowl victories, albeit modest finishes of 7-6, 8-5 and 8-5 from 2021-23, but he never posted a winning conference record and it all went off a cliff in recent years.
After back-to-back 4-8 finishes, Maryland was off to a 2-5 start this fall. Since the start of the 2024 season, the Terps are 2-20 in Big Ten play.
Locksley told ESPN’s Heath Dinich that he wasn’t surprised by his firing.
“Just didn’t know when,” he said. “I’m not mad about leaving. I’m not. I’m at peace with it because I know it’s better than what it was when I got here. A player died right before I got here, and this place was burnt to the ground. Stabilized it, went to three bowls, NIL kicks in and wasn’t prepared for it.”
Sources: Maryland coach Mike Locksley has been dismissed. Maryland dropped to 2-5 on Saturday after a last-second loss to Rutgers. Locksley is 39-54 overall at Maryland, including his interim stint in 2015. Maryland is on a bye this week. pic.twitter.com/WkVgkh0xKv
Maryland’s last great flurry of sustained success came when alum Ralph Friedgen took over in 2001 and immediately led the program to finishes of 10-2 with an ACC championship, 11-3 and 10-3. The results were up-and-down from there, but Friedgen delivered two more 9-win finishes, including in his final season in 2010.
He was named ACC Coach of the Year that last season and was still fired, because his bosses didn’t think he was active enough with boosters and fundraising and everything aside from coaching.
It was a bad decision. Just like it’s proven to be a catastrophic decision for Maryland to leave the ACC for the Big Ten in 2014.
While it’s true the program has yet to show it can compete in this new era of college football, it’s also yet to show it can compete in the Big Ten period.
Since making the move, the Terps have never won more than four conference games in a season or been remotely relevant in the standings.
That could complicate how attractive this job actually is for targets, even those at the Group of 6 level, but Maryland needs to at least be aggressive in its coaching search.
Now more than ever, the right head coach hire can transform even a reeling program immediately (see Bob Chesney at UCLA, Will Stein at Kentucky, Eric Morris at Oklahoma State, obviously Curt Cignetti at Indiana the last few years, etc.)
Here are five coaches the Terps should prioritize in their coaching search and at least make them say no …
5 Coaches Maryland Should Target
New Mexico HC Jason Eck
Jason Eck is going to be on a lot of target lists for open jobs this cycle — he’s earned his shot at a Power 4 job after his work at Idaho and now New Mexico.
Eck, a Wisconsin alum who is from that state, may be keeping a close eye on what happens with the Badgers and coach Luke Fickell, though their big win over USC last weekend may have cooled Fickell’s seat a bit.
Eck might also have much better offers than Maryland in the end, but the Terps should absolutely start the standard backchanneling with his agent now and put together a strong pitch to make when the season is over (or when the opportunity comes).
Eck has worked his way up every rung of the ladder the last 20 years, breaking through as an offensive coordinator first at Minnesota State (2013-14) and then at South Dakota State (2019-21) before landing his first head coaching job at FCS-level Idaho in 2022.
There, he took over a program coming off five straight losing seasons and went 7-5, 9-4 and 10-4 in three years, posting identical 6-2 Big Sky Conference records each season while making the FCS playoffs each year.
New Mexico then hired him to take over a program coming off eight straight losing seasons. Eck immediately delivered a 9-4 mark in his debut last year, with the Lobos earning their first bowl game invite since 2016.
This season, New Mexico is 6-1 and 3-0 in the Mountain West after a huge win over North Dakota State last week. The Lobos’ lone loss was 14-6 to SEC foe Oklahoma.
Eck is the real deal and might just be able to work his magic in College Park, Maryland, too … if the Terps can get him there.
New Mexico head coach Jason Eck, certified ball knower: 🎮
"Like in Madden football, a guy gets injured on Madden, you got to make a substitution. And it comes up on the screen, your starter is usually like a 90, and your backup's an 80. But because of the injury, the 90 guy is… pic.twitter.com/regIGNGdnH
For a long, long time, the Maryland job was absolutely better than the Wake Forest job, but now that’s debatable.
The Demon Deacons are competitive in the ACC, off to a 6-1 start in coach Jake Dickert’s second season after going 9-4 last year.
Dickert has made proactive career moves before, though, leaving Washington State after three full seasons as head coach (plus an initial six-game interim stint) because he saw more stability at Wake Forest in the midst of the Pac-12’s collapse. But he might decide he’s better off sticking it out in Winston-Salem until a truly big job comes along that he can’t pass up.
Dickert also signed a long-term contract extension, securing notable extensions for his staff as well, just last December. (Terms of the contract have not been disclosed). So it would take a lot to pry him away.
Still, Maryland needs to kick the tires here.
What Dickert did in a tough situation at Washington State, including an 8-4 finish his final season there, was commendable. What he’s done at Wake Forest has been undeniably impressive.
He’s a former defensive coordinator, and if Maryland wants to go that direction after firing the offensive-minded Locksley, then Dickert makes all the more sense for the job.
Ohio HC Mike Jacobs
As athletic directors study the career ascension of Cignetti and Chesney, two coaches who got their first head coaching jobs at the lower rungs of college football before simply winning at every stop along their climb, they might see some parallels to Mike Jacobs.
He got his first shot at Division II Notre Dame (Ohio) while going 42-8 from 2016-19, followed by Division II Lenoir-Rhyne where he went 32-9 from 2020-23, then FCS-level Mercer the last two seasons (20-6 record) and now Ohio, of the MAC.
Jacobs has the Bobcats off to a 6-2 start and in sole possession of first place in the MAC. One their two losses came to Big Ten foe Nebraska.
It may take more proof of concept, so to speak, before bigger Power 4 programs come calling for Jacobs. But if Maryland is struggling to attract the interest of top candidates, they may have to roll the dice and gamble a bit.
Hiring Jacobs, a proven winner at every level so far with a 100-25 record, five conference coach of the year awards and five conference championships, is a lot more appealing than a desperate P4 retread. Well, most desperate P4 retreads. More on that in a moment …
Former Notre Dame and LSU HC Brian Kelly
It’s pretty clear Brian Kelly wants at least one more chapter to his coaching career after his disappointing LSU tenure and unceremonious firing there last season.
He’s presently out of coaching and doing TV work this fall, and given his bristling personality and that he just turned 65 years old, he’s probably not going to get the kind of offers or interest his overall resume deserves.
After all, he’s 297-109-2 in his career spanning Division II Grand Valley State, Central Michigan, Cincinnati, Notre Dame (where he holds the program record for wins at 92-39 and LSU.
He and Maryland might find some mutual benefit in a pairing. The Terps could be desperate enough to give him the shot some of the better P4 jobs won’t, and Kelly could in turn bring his credentials to the job and perhaps elevate Maryland football to some degree from the basement of the Big Ten.
Memphis HC Charles Huff
Charles Huff’s name is on a lot of these lists attached to the Maryland opening because it’s easy to connect the dots.
He’s from Denton, Maryland, was on staff with the Terps in 2009 as an assistant offensive line coach, has Big Ten experience to a degree having served as Penn State’s RBs and special teams coach from 2014-17 before going on to Mississippi State and Alabama in the SEC, and he’s proven both successful as a head coach and willing to bolt for the next job.
Huff got his first head coaching opportunity at Marshall, going 32-20 from 2021-24 with a 10-win season his last year there. He then moved within the Sun Belt to Southern Miss, went 7-5 in a tough situation and left after a year to take a better job at Memphis, where he is 6-2 in his first season.
There’s no reason to think he wouldn’t grab the next rung of the ladder for a Power 4 job — especially one from his home state — if it came calling.
