Locksley's hot seat gets hotter without Mathis
Maryland opens fall camp with its quarterback question finally settled and its defense down a piece, five days out from a Hampton opener that already means something to the other sideline.
For once, the QB room isn't the question
For the first time since Taulia Tagovailoa left College Park, Maryland went through fall camp without a quarterback competition. Malik Washington, who set the program's freshman records with 473 completions and 2,963 passing yards a year ago, is simply QB1, and new offensive coordinator Clint Trickett has built his 'multiple spread' system around him, per SI's Maryland training-camp briefing.
That stability is arriving right as everything else around it gets less stable. Yahoo Sports and The Big Lead both named Mike Locksley among the coaches under the most pressure entering the season, the product of back-to-back 4-8 finishes that ended almost identically. Washington has framed the whole camp around fixing that specifically: 'The finish… really that's all it's been about,' he said, per SI. 'We couldn't finish games, couldn't finish drives, couldn't finish quarters.'
Last season ended on a five-game skid
Maryland finished last season with a 28-38 loss at Michigan State on November 30, the last of five straight defeats to close the year — a 55-10 blowout loss to Indiana, a 35-20 loss at Rutgers, a 24-6 loss at Illinois, a 45-20 loss to Michigan, and then Michigan State. None of it was competitive down the stretch, which is exactly the stretch Washington keeps bringing up.
It's also exactly why Locksley's seat is where it is heading into 2026 — a program that has now finished consecutive seasons the same way, with the same collapse in the same months, opens fall camp with everyone watching whether anything about the finish actually changes.
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Zahir Mathis is done for the season. Per Covers' injury table, the EDGE is Out with a leg injury he suffered in camp, a real loss after he posted 8.5 tackles for loss and 6 sacks as a true freshman in 2025 — On3's Pete Nakos first reported it, with the injury logged by Covers last week.
On3 Preseason True Freshman All-American >> @D1zion26 #FearTheTurtle 🐢 t.co/PpkslmLYHM
Into that room walks Zion Elee, the highest-rated signee in program history, who was named to On3's Preseason True Freshman All-America team before he's played a college snap. Terps Football posted the honor with a photo, and it's the rare club-account post that's actually the story rather than the wallpaper around it.
It's a lot to ask a true freshman to replace a proven pass rusher immediately, but it's also the only real answer Maryland has for the hole Mathis leaves — and it's a big reason Locksley's staff sounded less panicked about the injury than the outside pressure narrative suggested.
Hampton is making history just by showing up
Maryland opens the season September 5 vs. Hampton at SECU Stadium, and for the Pirates this is uncharted ground — it's the first time in program history Hampton has faced a Power Four opponent, under new head coach Van Malone, who arrives from seven years on Kansas State's staff. Hampton was picked 13th in the CAA preseason poll and didn't get a single first-place vote, per HBCU Gameday.
The line opened at -45.5 with the total set at 56.5, both numbers that read like exactly what this is: a Power Four team using its opener to work out the kinks — at quarterback there aren't any left to work out, up front there's a five-star true freshman replacing an All-Big Ten name — before the schedule gets real.