Biff Poggi lobbies for the Maryland head coaching job

Usually a coach who wants a job says nothing and lets his agent do the work. Biff Poggi went the other way.

Pete Nakos

@PeteNakos

Biff Poggi is lobbying for the Maryland job.

On3

@On3

NEW: Biff Poggi says he wants the Maryland head football coach job, calling it "one of the great honors of my lifetime"🐢 "If Indiana can win, we can win." (via @Mikephowes) t.co/2wcHPml0EP

He isn't being coy about it either. In a phone interview with The Baltimore Sun, Poggi said: "Yeah, I really would like the job." That's a Baltimore guy pitching himself, on the record, for the Power 4 job closest to home, before Maryland has even named a search firm.

On paper, the local ties are the strongest part of the case. Poggi ran Gilman from 1996 to 2015, won 13 conference championships there and left as the winningest coach in school history. Later he coached Saint Frances Academy, also in Baltimore. Few people know Maryland high school football better, and Maryland's big problem for years has been watching the best players in the DMV leave the state.

The college résumé is where it gets harder to sell. Poggi went 6-16 in 2 seasons at Charlotte before being fired during the 2024 season. He then went to Michigan, where he was interim head coach for 2 games during the head coach's suspension early in 2025 and again for the Citrus Bowl after the head coach was fired. He finished 2-1 as an interim. He's been working as a Big Ten Network analyst since then, so he's coming from a TV chair, not a sideline.

The opening exists because Maryland finally pulled the plug on Locksley after 5 straight losses and a 2-5 start. He finishes with a 39-54 record in College Park. Defensive coordinator Aazaar Abdul-Rahim is the interim coach the rest of the way, starting Oct. 31 against Illinois. How he handles that audition, and whether the roster sticks around for it, is now its own subplot.

Jeff Ermann

@Jeff_Ermann

The latest on where Malik Washington stands on returning, how Abdul-Rahim's staff is shaking out, what a good finish could mean for his future, his effect on the roster and the two coaches who could be at the top of Maryland's search list: t.co/GGDouIMAcL (VIP/50% OFF)

That's where the real stakes are. Whether Malik Washington stays, how Abdul-Rahim's staff comes together and which names end up at the top of the athletic department's list matter a lot more than any one candidate's public campaign. Poggi is the loudest name in the conversation, but nobody has said he's on that shortlist.

Our take: you have to respect the honesty. Poggi has the recruiting ties and clearly wants the job, but his only stretch as a full-time college head coach went 6-16. Maryland is the first Power 4 job open this cycle and can aim higher. Expect Poggi to keep making his case in public while the Terps play out the season under Abdul-Rahim.