Buzz Williams Perfectly Encapsulates Maryland Athletics

LAS VEGAS — Holy hell, Maryland Athletics has become the circus-that-lost-its-big-top act. And if you’ve been watching closely — or just watching at all — it’s obvious: this isn’t just underperformance. It’s institutional dysfunction, rooted in red, white and gold.

Let’s call it like it is: Maryland has quietly turned itself into a national punch line outside of lacrosse. It’s not just bad hires. It’s a steady drip of bad hires, bad decisions, and bad faith in everything from the gridiron to the hardwood to every other corner of its athletic department.

The Coaching Joke

Start with what should be the crown jewel: men’s basketball. Maryland let Kevin Willard walk for Villanova. Yes, Villanova — the move was messy and public; Willard aired grievances about NIL funding, travel budgets, and a sense that College Park just doesn’t care. The smoldering piles of Terp fans’ resentment didn’t even get a moment to cool before they were left watching another “hire” play out.

Enter Buzz Williams, the A&M joker with a reputation for never staying put. Maryland poached him like he was their big swinging-ticket move, but if history is the teacher, he probably won’t be around when things go south — which, given Maryland’s track record, is likely sooner than later.

Athletic Department Gone AWOL

Maryland’s AD, Damon Evans, hit the eject button for SMU — again. It’s the kind of mid-air switch that screams, “I gave it a shot, but I’d rather not be here when the ship sinks.” And yes, his departure leaves Maryland scrambling yet again, with an interim in place — a recurring theme for a program that markets stability but delivers crises.

Sure, the school eventually named Jim Smith, a former MLB/MLS exec, as the new AD. But slapping a shiny hire on a fundamentally rotten system doesn’t hide decades of neglect and dysfunction.

Football? More Like Foreshadowing

You don’t need to squint to see how dire Terps football has gotten. The team just endured its seventh straight loss, falling 45-20 to Michigan, after losing 24–6 to Illinois the week prior. That’s not competitive; it’s embarrassing. And when you look at the fourth quarter, the Terps have been absolutely whelmed. They’ve been outscored, blundered in clutch moments, and proven that closing out games is beyond them.

Head coach Mike Locksley, who’s somehow been given another chance, looks like a man reading the same losing speech year after year. It’s not coaching, it’s spinning in place — and Maryland fans deserve better than reruns of failure.

Fan Support? What Fan Support?

What’s more depressing than losing? Watching no one show up for it. Fan energy around Maryland’s major sports has cratered. There’s no buzz, no roar, no expectation. Instead, you get irony-laced clapping and the kind of apathy that makes you wonder: Why do we still care?

When coaching changes come and go — when ADs bail — when seasons mostly end in mediocrity, the fans fade. And Maryland, to its shame, has built a machine that not only performs poorly but demoralizes the people who are supposed to believe in it.

All This, and No Investment

Here’s a fun fact: Maryland took the Big Ten money, sure. But where did it go? Not into sustained, serious investment in its flagship programs. Not in NIL, not in recruiting, not in building things that last. There’s been spending, but no backbone. Ambition, but no follow-through.

Meanwhile, the major sports — football, basketball, baseball — keep stumbling through seasons like they’re auditioning for a bad reality show. The Terrapins should aim higher than just staying afloat. They should aim to matter.

A State of Sporting Failure

Let’s be blunt: Maryland is a state of sporting failure. Not because the Ravens don’t rule (they do). Not because lacrosse is world-class (it is). But because the rest of the athletic department has become a slow-motion dumpster fire and every pro team not carried by Lamar Jackson is pathetic.

With Buzz Williams executing the two-step out the door once again, with Locksley clinging on just to keep the postgame press conferences painfully predictable, and with boosters and fans left shaking their heads — this isn’t a renaissance. It’s a long decline wrapped up in bad decisions.

Terrapin Fans Deserve Better

If you’re still in College Park, if you still bleed red, gold and black — you deserve better than this. You deserve real leadership, stability, and people who treat Maryland not as a stepping stone, but as a home.

Because right now? Maryland Athletics is a joke. A poorly run circus. And until someone in that department decides to throw out the clowns and bring in real people, they’ll stay right where they are: an underwhelming afterthought outside the lacrosse field.

Bottom line: Buzz Williams may be the face of this mess, but he’s not the cause. The cause is decades of mismanagement, half-measures, and a culture that seems comfortable being second-rate. And until that changes — until the school goes all-in — all that big-money talk is just noise. And Terrapins Nation deserves more than empty promises and reruns of failure.

*Context: This column piece was written at halftime of the Player’s Era Festival game against UNLV, where the Terps trailed. Maryland barely showed up in a half-empty corporate slop show, after a full day of lethargic crowds*

Even if the Terps do come back, they are clearly not a very good basketball team or program at the moment. What a mess in College Park.