Maryland football draws intrigue as Big Ten sleeper in 2026

Ahmed Ghafir
2 days ago
2 min read

Wednesday will mark the halfway point of fall camp for Maryland football with local media and the BTN crew set to take in practice ahead of the Big Ten Network airing the preview show at 8 PM ET tonight. Though Luke Fickell and Lincoln Riley face similar pressure, arguably no Big Ten coach faces more than Mike Locksley ahead of his eighth season as head coach. Yet Locksley and his two coordinators expressed confidence in the makeup of the current team, whether through retention efforts or through the portal.

Whether it's enough to secure the program's first-ever winning record in Big Ten play, or if the Terps can return to postseason play for the first time in three years, remains the question that will play out during the upcoming 2026 season, but the program has drawn optimism for a bounceback because of the returning pieces.

Dan Wetzel of ESPN pointed to "a bunch of depth and a bunch of guys coming back" as reason for why Maryland can materialize into the sleeper pick in the Big Ten.

"They did a good job. Maryland often gets raided in the portal. They did a good job keeping their guys and filling in some spots," he added. Wetzel also pointed to the trio of one score losses through October that flipped the script on the 2025 season as the margin that Maryland has closed this offseason due to its retention and improved depth. Though Maryland is 6-8 in one score games since the start of the 2021 season, a favorable schedule with multiple toss-up games adds intrigue whether Maryland can now flip some of those to wins after an offseason that quarterback Malik Washington and others made clear headbutting the finish is a point of emphasis.

"If Maryland flipped that and ended up 8-4 or even 9-3, I would not be totally stunned. I think there's an awful lot there for the Terps to be a sleeper here," Wetzel added.

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