Randy Starks back home, ready to coach Maryland football's 2026 defensive line

Ahmed Ghafir
19 hours ago
2 min read

Updated: 1 hour ago

The start of spring football means the next chapter for Maryland football as head coach Mike Locksley looks to put together his 2026 roster fueled by offseason retention. But it also marks the start of a new chapter for a handful of assistant coaches, including a former NFL defensive lineman.

Randy Starks is now back in College Park, but not playing. The Westlake High School graduate who starred at Maryland for three seasons beginning in 2001 is now back with the program where he steps in taking over a deep defensive line. But he’ll have experience to lean on, similar to former defensive line coach Corey Liuget. Starks, a former third round pick in the 2004 NFL Draft, spent 12 seasons in the NFL across stints with the Tennessee Titans and Cleveland Browns while he became a two-time Pro Bowl selection with the Miami Dolphins in both 2010 and 2012.

But transitioning to a coach wasn’t new to him either. After hanging up the cleats following his season with the Browns in 2015, Starks was named an assistant coach at Lackey High School (MD) before eventually being named head coach at Manassas (VA) and most recently serving as the head coach at DIII Eureka before a short stint at USF. But the move to College Park was one that was “in the works for a while,” as Starks noted.

“I was just doing my own thing, working, just trying to get it from the ground up. And opportunity came. I was at South Florida and I jumped right on it,” Starks said.

"Just happy to be back, bringing back old memories, just trying to turn things around and get back to the winnings ways."

Now, Starks inherits a unit that retained both Eyan Thomas and Bryce Jenkins while adding Lavon Johnson, Derrick LeBlanc and the Parker twins to the interior depth, while former blue-chip edge rusher Zion Elee joins the star tandem of Zahir Mathis and Sidney Stewart.

“Coaching in this Big Ten, as I said, big men in the Big Ten, and being able to add the [Parker] twins and some of these bigger bodies a year ago,” head coach Mike Locksley said. “One of the things that happened hurt us more than anything is the like a depth we had and the size because when you play young interior guys, it usually takes two to three years for those guys to develop the develop the tenacity and the strength and the what I call grown man strength, to hold up in this league.”

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