With the right next coach, Maryland believes it has the necessary resources not only to be more competitive in the Big Ten but also to have a better chance of making the College Football Playoff, which is expected to expand to 24 teams.

That much was clear in Maryland athletic director Jim Smith's first interview since firing eighth-year coach Mike Locksley last Wednesday. Smith told CBS Sports that the school has already received significant outreach from agents and others regarding the vacant position. 

"I know there's a lot of interest in it," Smith said. "People want to understand in every job today what the resources are going to be, and I feel confident we are going to be resourced at the level to be very competitive in the Big Ten. I think, from that perspective, people are really excited. This is a really good job in a great market that has the ability to put a quality roster together through the portal, through retaining our best talent and through recruiting."

CBS Sports and 247Sports previously reported that two Big Ten schools (Oregon, Ohio State) spent more than $40 million on their 2026 rosters and five schools (Indiana, Michigan, Nebraska, USC and Wisconsin) spent more than $30 million. Maryland was in the $20 million-or-more range -- a clear step below the top Big Ten spenders but still above programs such as Minnesota, Purdue and Northwestern. 

It has been a whirlwind last week for Smith, who is in his second year as Maryland's AD. Smith's background is primarily in professional sports -- before Maryland, he most recently served as a senior vice president for the Atlanta Braves -- and this is his first time running a football coaching search. The Maryland AD took a pragmatic approach to evaluating the football program, hoping that injecting more resources into it would lead to better on-field results. Locksley needed to have a winning record after consecutive 4-8 seasons in 2024 and 2025. 

When it became clear that wasn't happening, the noise got louder and louder that Maryland needed to make a move on Locksley. A 54-3 loss to UCLA felt like the point of no return for Locksley, especially with a fan base upset over how the program had slipped. Smith was aware of the fan base's displeasure and sensed frustration was setting in within the football building, too. It increasingly felt like a matter of when, not if, Maryland would move on from Locksley. 

Maryland coaching candidates: Jake Dickert, Billy Napier among options to replace Mike Locksley

John Talty

And yet, when Maryland fired the football coach, the timing caught people off guard. A Wednesday firing isn't exactly common in college football. Especially after Locksley fired defensive coordinator Ted Monachino on Sunday. In a span of a few days, Aazaar Abdul-Rahim went from co-defensive coordinator to interim defensive coordinator to interim head coach. 

Smith explained that the Monachino and Locksley decisions were separate. He was on board with Locksley's desire to make a move on defense after the unit's recent struggles in losses to UCLA and Rutgers. Maryland's defense ranked 101st in total defense, 75th in scoring defense, 107th in run defense and 72nd in pass defense. But as Smith continued to evaluate where the program stood during its bye week, he ultimately concluded that firing the defensive coordinator wasn't enough for the 2-5 Terrapins. 

"I didn't want to make an emotional decision, and I wanted to think through how to best go about the evaluation," he said. "By Tuesday night, I had gotten to the point where I thought we needed to make the change, and we did on Wednesday morning." 

Smith liked Locksley on a personal level, which made it hard to deliver the finality of his decision. They had a good working relationship, and Smith wanted it to work. Locksley has since told ESPN he was "at peace" with the decision and doesn't expect to be a head coach again. "But I'm done with the heavy laboring of building," Locksley said, "and taking a job that's going to wear me out. I can't do it anymore."

After talking to Locksley, they agreed to part ways and pay the outgoing coach an approximately $9.75 million buyout; it was tough conversations with the team, coaches and other staff members who had come to College Park to work or play for Locksley. It was an emotional day for a lot of them, Smith says. 

As those conversations were unfolding, two student journalists working for Testudo Times attempted to interview football players outside the football building. A Maryland football staffer called campus police over alleged suspicious activity. A video of the student journalists' interaction with a police officer elicited considerable negative attention on social media. In a statement that day, Maryland athletics attributed it, in part, to "Due to heightened concerns for staff and player safety around the football program in recent weeks, there has been increased security around athletic facilities."

Maryland athletics has since agreed to undergo First Amendment training with The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). 

"We value the media and value the importance that student journalists play in covering Maryland athletics," Smith said. "I think the situation that transpired last week made us recognize that a little extra training from some experts will make us all better. There was no malicious intent in any way that occurred. I think it was just a really stressful time. But we all need to be able to manage through those things, so if we can have an organization come in and take us through some best practices to make sure that if we're ever back into that situation that we don't allow that to happen again."

Since Maryland kicked off the coaching carousel, two more schools, Baylor and North Carolina State, have joined the fray. It is expected to be a quieter cycle than a year ago, when blue-blood programs Florida, LSU and Penn State were all looking for new coaches. There are at least a few big-name programs -- namely Florida State and USC -- that could still make a coaching change and dramatically shake up the market. 

This cycle, the early hot candidates who could come up for every job include Wake Forest's Jake Dickert and New Mexico's Jason Eck. Then there are the job-specific ones, like former NC State quarterback great Philip Rivers for the Wolfpack, and Texas-specific options, such as UTSA's Jeff Traylor and Texas State's G.J. Kinne for Baylor. 

Smith, who is expected to hire a search firm to assist in his pursuit, knows what he wants in his next football coach. Reading between the lines of his answer, he prefers an experienced program builder-type head coach but won't rule out a successful coordinator who has been instrumental at the most successful programs. 

"We're looking for an exceptional leader who has been a part of building a successful program where they have seen success or been a part of success," Smith said. "I think that's really important for our next head coach. Someone who understands what the current landscape of collegiate athletics looks like, the financial implications of that and how to be able to develop a roster in today's collegiate environment. They clearly need to be able to assemble a high-quality staff and have done that in different situations.

"I think there are a lot of candidates out there that I think will see Maryland as an exceptional job. It is an exceptional job. I think the candidate pool will be deep."