Messiah Delhomme finalizes return to Maryland in 2026

Ahmed Ghafir
Dec 30, 2025
2 min read

The good news keeps rolling for Maryland football to start the offseason.

Safety Messiah Delhomme is now officially set to return for year two, the program announced on Tuesday morning, where he will be able to step into a starting role in 2026.

Delhomme’s decision was previously reported by IBG, just like Sidney Stewart, Zahir Mathis, Malik Washington, Jalen Huskey and Dontay Joyner among others.

Delhomme was a key win for Maryland out of high school after assistant Latrell Scott spearheaded efforts to help Maryland beat Virginia Tech on the recruiting trail with Ohio State lurking and involved throughout. Delhomme also battled to get back to full strength after an injury derailed his senior season, sidelining him for much of the season before returning to full strength during spring ball.

“When I first got here, I was definitely leaning on my freshmen, the ones that came in with me because we had a pretty big class that came in. Later on a little more down the road, I started getting closer with my seniors and the rest of the team.”

Delhomme would become a mainstay in the Terps’ safety rotation as a freshman, playing all 12 games as he posted 39 total tackles, one TFL and one fumble recovery. But his biggest impact came on special teams early on after blocking a punt in the week three vs. Towson, becoming the first Terp to do so since Jesse Aniebonam in 2017. Delhomme followed it up with a blocked punt in the Big Ten opener at Wisconsin, becoming one of 11 players in the country with two blocked kicks in 2025, while also recording his first career interception vs. Nebraska.

“We saw enough of his junior tape and he was a guy that was recruited by every guy in the country,” head coach Mike Locksley said of Delhomme during the season. “It was a great steal to be able to get him out of Virginia. Coach Scott, Latrell, has done a tremendous job for us down in that 757 area bringing guys out of Richmond. If you look across our roster, we never in my opinion - maybe since the Bobby Ross era where the Covington boys and other guys that had the opportunity to come from Virginia to Maryland. Coach Scott has really given us an imprint there in that Tidewater, Richmond area that we haven’t had in years. Lot of talented players down there and we’re excited. Messiah was one of those guys that we saw a lot on junior film. Most people still recruited him coming off of the injury. We were able to hold him through a tough four-win season a year ago. Yeah, I think I’ve said in here, he’s one of those freshman who I thought could help us early. He’s doing it on special teams but he’s also doing it on the backend where in practice, he was one of those guys always around the ball. The ball finds him”

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