The rumors hit social media like wildfire on Sunday. Mike Locksley was out at Maryland. A fake report claimed the Terrapins were parting ways with their head coach following a humiliating 55-10 homecoming loss to No. 2 Indiana. The defeat was so lopsided that fans at SECU Stadium started chanting “FIRE LOCKSLEY” for the first time in his tenure. 

While the firing turned out to be bogus, the sentiment behind it was very real. Locksley’s seat is scorching hot. The Terps are 4-4 this season after starting 4-0, losers of four straight games, and they’re now a staggering 0-17 against ranked Big Ten opponents under Locksley. 

Tim Brando, the longtime FOX Sports announcer who’s seen just about everything in college football, didn’t buy the firing report once he realized it was fake. But his initial reaction to it was telling. “Makes zero sense to me,” Brando said in response to the rumor. “Locksley loves that school and this team and its roster was about a year away.”

Brando’s defense of Mike Locksley speaks to something a lot of folks around the program feel. Despite the rough stretch, Maryland might be closer to turning the corner than it looks. Mike Locksley has genuine ties to the program, having served as interim head coach in 2015 before returning permanently in 2019, following a stint as offensive coordinator at Alabama. He’s not just another hired gun passing through College Park. This job holds personal significance for him. But sentiment and loyalty only get you so far when you’re getting boat-raced by Indiana on homecoming and your fan base is calling for your head.​

So let’s talk about the elephant in the room. There are two very different sides to the Mike Locksley argument, and both have merit. On one hand, Locksley himself admitted at Big Ten media days in July 2025 that he “lost my locker room” during the 2024 season, which ended 4-8 and 1-8 in conference play. He acknowledged that for the first time in his tenure, the team had a divide between the “haves and have-nots” when it came to NIL money, and that split poisoned the culture he’d spent years building. 

But there’s a flip side, and it’s why folks like Tim Brando are still in Locksley’s corner. The man can flat-out coach when things are right. From 2021 to 2023, Locksley led Maryland to three straight winning seasons and three consecutive bowl victories. That’s the first time Maryland won eight or more games in back-to-back seasons since 2002-03. 

The point is, Locksley has shown he can build a winner at Maryland when the locker room is united and the talent is there. He’s not some hack who stumbled into three straight bowl wins by accident. The problem is consistency. When things go south, they go really south, and he hasn’t figured out how to stop the bleeding once it starts.​

At the end of the day, the debate over Mike Locksley’s future at Maryland isn’t black and white. Yes, he lost the locker room in 2024. And yes, getting throttled 55-10 at home on homecoming is inexcusable. But he’s also the guy who took a program that had been dead in the water for years and made it respectable. With four games left and a bowl berth still mathematically possible at 4-4, Locksley has a chance to salvage this thing and quiet the doubters. Whether he can actually pull it off remains to be seen.

The recruiting wars aren’t helping matters

Just when things couldn’t get messier for Mike Locksley, his five-star commit Zion Elee, the No. 2 prospect in the entire 2026 class and Maryland’s most prized recruit in program history, decided to take an official visit to South Carolina for Gamecocks vs. Bama. Locksley tried to play it cool and reassure everyone his star defensive end wasn’t going anywhere. 

He went on The Sports Junkies radio show and threw accusations at Shane Beamer’s program of paying Elee to make the trip. “Why would I be mad for Zion to make five to ten grand to go down to South Carolina?” he said on air. “He’s been one of those guys that’s been really loyal to this area, he’s been loyal to me and the program that we’ve created.” Locksley then doubled down, suggesting that “some of these schools have the ability where they take kids to come take visits, and they hide it behind the NIL stuff.” It was a nuclear take on live radio, and it didn’t take long before it blew up in his face.​

Shane Beamer did not appreciate being basically called a cheater on statewide radio. The South Carolina head coach fired back hard, calling Locksley’s accusations “disappointing to see a fellow coach insinuate something like that,” and then pulled the ultimate reverse card. He demanded that Maryland’s compliance department investigate Locksley for committing an NCAA violation by publicly discussing an unsigned recruit.

Coaches can’t publicly talk about recruits who haven’t signed a letter of intent. And in making his accusations against Beamer, Locksley inadvertently broke that rule himself. So now, on top of getting boat-raced by Indiana at home, going 0-17 against ranked Big Ten opponents, and watching his team collapse down the stretch, Locksley’s also dealing with a potential NCAA violation hanging over his head.