Matt Barnes returns for second stint as Maryland football assistant

Ahmed Ghafir
Mar 1
1 min read

Maryland football has now finalized its on-field staff for the 2026 season.

Maryland is expected to hire former assistant Matt Barnes as the new special teams coordinator, replacing the vacancy left by Chili Davis, who took a position with the Minnesota Vikings days after officially being named to the position.

This also marks the second stint for Barnes, who previously served as the special teams coordinator and linebacker coach in the program from 2016 to 2018 during the DJ Durkin era.

Barnes left Maryland for Ohio State in 2019 where he spent three years before moving to Memphis as the defensive coordinator for two seasons beginning 2022. He served as the co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach at Mississippi State since 2024, becoming the final piece of the puzzle for head coach Mike Locksley's staff ahead of the 2026 season.

Barnes also played at Salisbury from 2006 to 2008 before shifting to coaching.

In his second stint with the program, Barnes inherits a strong specialist group with Bryce McFerson and Sean O'Haire among the best in the Big Ten, though he'll be tasked with finding a way to generate explosives in the return game with Maryland struggling to do so under the Locksley era.

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