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. And yet, when Maryland fired the football coach, the timing caught people off guard. A Wednesday firing isn't exactly common in college football.
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