Maryland's Mike Locksley could be on hot seat as tense exchange with reporter raises eyebrows

It certainly seems like Mike Locksley is heading in the wrong direction with the Maryland Terrapins.

Locksley came into this 2026 season, his eighth as head coach at Maryland, coming off consecutive 4-8 campaigns. 

He and his team had a chance to make a big statement in Week 3 and perhaps stave off some of the hot-seat talk with James Franklin and the Virginia Tech Hokies in town.

Maryland was Franklin's first Power Four opponent after the Hokies started the season with wins over the Virginia Military Institute and Old Dominion.

Franklin's team was relatively untested, while Maryland came into the game on a 20-game winning streak against nonconference opponents. 

The Hokies walked away with a 35-26 win, and on Tuesday, Locksley was asked a tough question by reporter Taylor Lyons of The Baltimore Sun.

“Hey, Mike, you said it after the game Saturday. You said it several times after losses over the years that you’re going to learn from it. You’re going to get things fixed, corrected,” Lyons said, per Awful Announcing. “Yet losses like Saturday continue to happen, where you get outcoached, you get outplayed, and then you come out afterward, and you make those same promises. Do you feel like you deserve more chances to keep saying you’re going to learn from losses, and I think everybody at this point expects more from you.”

Mike Locksley and Maryland Terrapins not allowing follow-up questions from reporters 

That's a tough question and almost borderline personal in its phrasing, but it is a fair question after Locksley dropped his ninth game in the past 11.

To Locksley's credit, he did answer the question, but he didn't seem happy about how it was asked. Lyons also said afterward that a Maryland PR staffer took away the microphone and didn't allow him to ask a follow-up question to the coach.

Follow-up questions are apparently no longer allowed at Locksley's news conferences, and Lyons said that he has had the microphone pulled from him multiple times in the last few weeks.