The Next Maryland Head Coach: My Top 10 Candidates Ranked!

Who should Maryland hire to replace Mike Locksley? I rank the top 10 Maryland football head coach candidates for 2026, including two dark horses nobody is talking about, and break down what the Maryland Terrapins need to finally win in the Big Ten. Maryland fired Mike Locksley after a 2-5 start and 12 straight Big Ten losses, and interim head coach Aazaar Abdul-Rahim takes over for the rest of the 2026 season. Now athletic director Jim Smith is leading a national coaching search for the first Power Four job to open in the 2026 college football coaching carousel. In this video I go through every serious candidate: Wake Forest head coach Jake Dickert, New Mexico head coach Jason Eck, Indiana defensive coordinator Bryant Haines, Memphis head coach Charles Huff, USF head coach Brian Hartline, James Madison head coach Billy Napier, UNLV head coach Dan Mullen, Western Michigan head coach Lance Taylor, Penn State defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn, and interim coach Aazaar Abdul-Rahim. I also cover the four things the next Maryland coach has to fix (the trenches, roster retention, winning in November, and recruiting beyond the DMV), why Maryland’s best teams from Randy White to Boomer Esiason, Frank Reich, Shaun Hill and Taulia Tagovailoa were built with talent from outside the state, and which Terps players, commits and assistant coaches the new staff has to keep, including Malik Washington, Zion Elee, Sidney Stewart, Daniel Wingate, Chris Durr Jr., Zahir Mathis and D-line coach Randy Starks. 💬 Who should be Maryland’s next head coach? Drop your pick in the comments. Dickert, Eck, Haines, Huff, or someone else? 🔔 Subscribe for more Maryland Terrapins football coverage from a fan’s perspective: coaching search updates, game breakdowns, and the State of the Terps series. All rankings and opinions are my own as a Maryland fan. Records and stats are current as of October 25, 2026. 0:00 The Search for Maryland's Next Head Coach 0:37 What Maryland Needs in a New Leader 1:55 Ranking the Top 10 Coaching Candidates 7:59 Retaining Key Talent and Staff #MarylandFootball #Terps #CoachingCarousel