New OC Clint Trickett looking to add "tempo" to Maryland football's 2026 offense

Ahmed Ghafir
3 hours ago
3 min read

Maryland football’s 2026 coaching staff features a trio of boomerangs with a pair of former players in Randy Starks and Kyle Schmitt now serving as position coaches, while Urbana High School and Salisbury University graduate Matt Barnes is back in College Park for his second stint as special teams coordinator. But it also features a familiar name for Maryland fans with Clint Trickett, who started at quarterback in West Virginia’s 40-37 win over Maryland back in 2014, stepping in as the offensive coordinator.

He’ll do so after coaching under several respected offensive minds, while playing for both Jimbo Fisher and Dana Holgorsen at Florida State then West Virginia. Trickett began his coaching career as the quarterbacks coach at East Mississippi on the Netflix series ‘Last Chance U’ before serving as the tight ends coach at Florida Atlantic under Lane Kiffin. He also spent time under Charlie Weiss Jr. and Kendall Briles at FAU, while he noted the ability to return to his “air raid roots” while working under Clay Helton at Georgia Southern in 2024.

Trickett also overlapped with head coach Mike Locksley while at Alabama. “Tremendous football knowledge with the quarterback and the type of coaches he’s played under in Dana Holgorsen and some of these other guys that have done a great job with quarterbacks,” Locksley said of Trickett.

But Trickett pointed to Arkansas offensive coordinator Trim Ramsey as maybe the most influential coach.

“He’s a name that doesn’t get probably as much credit as some of those other ones but should. And I left calling plays at Jacksonville State to go work with him [at] Arkansas because of how much I believe in what he does,” Trickett added.

2026 will mark Trickett’s first season calling plays at the Power Four level, though he has experience doing so at both Marshall and Jacksonville State where he led the offense to finish within the top three in the conference in rushing yards per game in two of his three seasons as coordinator, including a nation’s best 246.8 yards in 2025. That’s an element he’s looking to bring to College Park, an understandable desire for the son of Rick Trickett, one of most respected offensive line coaches in the industry.

But Trickett also knows he has an “elite quarterback” as Malik Washington prepares for his second season as the starter.

“In years past, our running backs have been that best player. Fortunately, our quarterback is our best player here and so we're going to let him do what he does very well still and distribute the ball.”

Trickett and Washington also spent time ahead of spring ball in meetings to get up to speed.

"Just understanding, not just us as player-coach, but us as people. What he believes in, his core values are, what mine are, how I respond to coaching as a player, what motivates me, things like that. We sat down and had those conversations," Washington said.

There will be expected changes with Trickett now leading the offense with the former quarterback expecting Maryland to be “a little faster.”

“Tempo is probably going to be the biggest difference that you'll see. So, long story short, tempo is going to be the biggest difference. We want to get as many snaps as we can. We're not just going to over emphasize on tempo because it's - we're going to use it to our strength. And we are going to dictate what the defense does. We don't care necessarily what they do. We use the dictating on offense and we do the attacking. And that's kind of our mindset. That's the first thing we're starting off today in day one is talking about we do the attacking. Doesn't necessarily matter what the defense does. We have checks built in, installed for it. No matter what they do, we can get to it with the quarterback with the [coach-to-player communications] now and that's kind of the biggest change with the technology that's happened over the last few years.”

Trickett admitted that he and head coach Mike Locksley are “on the same page” ahead of spring ball.

“It's about, how do we get the best players the ball in space? And utilizing every blade of grass. That's one thing - I watched tape last year, we're really condensed in there. We're Maryland. We're fast. Let's be fast. And so that's what we're going to do. We're going to spread them out a little bit more. We're going to use every blade of grass. We're going to make the defense defend every blade of grass, and it's really hard to do unless you got a quarterback that can put the ball everywhere on the field, and we got that. So I'm really excited about it.”

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