Welcome to the College Football Newsletter, where we found out about Mike Locksley’s firing in the middle of recording a podcast episode.
That actually happened. While Richard and Alex were recording this week’s Tasting Menu, Richard stopped podcasting for a minute to take a call where he learned that the Terps would dismiss Locksley from his head coaching duties. Because content is king, we clipped that moment and put it on social already, so please do go check that out. It’s even funnier since Alex pondered a season where zero coaches get fired just moments before. So much for that scenario. The dream of 138 returning FBS coaches must wait for another year.
But that leaves us with the Maryland job to talk about. Yes, it’s odd that Locksley was let go on a Wednesday as opposed to right before Maryland’s 30-37 loss to Rutgers. But the firing itself isn’t surprising. Now Maryland has what Penn State had last season when it fired James Franklin—the most amount of time. The university can get first pick at any prospective coaches for the role before anyone else. This is generally a good position to be in, because you can get an early start on the formal work of a coaching search. But it’s also not guaranteed to get you the pick of the litter. Penn State learned that in 2025, when it took 58 days, a handful of names, and one very public rejection to land on Matt Campbell.
And that’s a great move given their position in the sport. The Maryland role isn’t particularly exciting, but it is an open role in the Power 2. Why not increase interest in the job while every other school with coaches in shaky positions figure their situation out? If they waited to be the fourth or fifth team with a vacancy, the market would probably include positions as equal if not better than the Terps. Maryland needed to be first. Otherwise, it would be potentially competing with a Wisconsin—or an Arkansas (I don’t know if I’m kidding about that one or not).
How important is this first-mover edge for Maryland? Here’s Alex:
Pretty useful, I think, but I don’t wanna overstate it. Plenty of coaches will still want to wait to see what’s available. Still, there is something to be said for being able to mount a search without insulting a sitting coach who everyone knows is getting fired. Maryland’s roster is now at slightly more risk of getting picked over while the season is still going on, but that’s eventually going to happen anyway when a coach needs to be fired. I tend to think it’s better for everyone to dispense with the formalities early when a tenure is clearly finished. Get on with it, start planning a search, and give every stakeholder in the program a chance to think about what’s next instead of mourning what’s still spiraling.
Let’s continue with the week here at SZD.
Here’s what we dropped into your podcast feeds this week
Our Team of the Week is the Utah Utes. Remember when the school pushed Kyle Whittingham out of the job and we were somewhat low on them in the offseason? Well, they’re one of six undefeated teams left in college football. We also noticed that us recognizing these teams may have inadvertently created a Team of the Week curse. (Sorry, UMass and Mississippi State.) We hope the good vibes continue in Utah. But if they don’t, we’re sorry.
The Tasting Menu for the week is out now. We already mentioned learning about the Locksley firing in this episode but Richard also predicts that Arch Manning will be on a short leash this week against Ole Miss. Texas has to figure this all out at some point, right? Right?
This season’s first coaching carousel episode is out now. Alex and Richard talk extensively about what didn’t work for Mike Locksley and what won’t work at Maryland in the future. Alex in particular has some great insight as a Terp.
Some recommended reading
For Slate, Alex wrote about Donald Trump forcing the closure of the beloved East Potomac Golf Course in D.C.and what it means for the accessibility of the sport in Washington.
We’re talking about the FIU Panthers this week! For CBS Sports, Richard wrote how the program’s top-10 defense came to be and how it is thriving based on the mentality that the unit is “no-name” and “faceless”.
If you want more analysis about the Maryland job, read Barry Svrluga at The Athletic where he wonders if anyone can be a successful Terps coach.
Julian Sayin is potentially out for the season. CBS Sports still has the Buckeyes as the top team in the Big Ten for now, and UCLA is ranked second. Check out their full power rankings.
More realignment coming? Ross Dellenger reports for Yahoo from Miami.
The 24-team College Football Playoff is basically here already and we unfortunately know that the last spots will be reserved for middling power conference teams. But Jason Kirk knows the fix for that and he wrote about it in the Until Saturday newsletter: include the small schools!
Thanks for reading, enjoy the games, and we’ll see you on Sunday for the Hurry-Up.