Pep Hamilton lost Maryland football’s OC job. He’s still getting paid like he has it.
· Yahoo Sports
It’s a strange setup for Maryland football’s offense this season.
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Pep Hamilton is out as offensive coordinator. Clint Trickett is in. Hamilton is still in the building, just in a different role.
And Hamilton is still being paid far more than the coach now dictating the offense.
According to budget documents obtained by The Baltimore Sun, Hamilton, 51, is set to make $1.25 million this season as special assistant to coach Michael Locksley. Trickett, Maryland’s new 35-year-old offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, will make $450,000 in his first year with the Terps.
The math is hard to ignore: Maryland’s former offensive coordinator is making nearly three times as much as its current one.
Hamilton’s three-year deal, signed when he was hired as offensive coordinator last year, is far richer and more layered. It includes a $550,000 base salary plus supplemental income that started at $450,000 and increased by $250,000 on Jan. 1. It will increase by another $250,000 on Jan. 1, 2027. He also received a $250,000 longevity payment for remaining employed through Feb. 16, 2026, and is eligible for another $250,000 payment if he remains employed through Feb. 16, 2027.
Trickett’s deal is simpler. He will make $450,000 this year and $500,000 in 2027, putting the total base value of his two-year contract at $950,000 — less than Hamilton is scheduled to make this season alone.
So what exactly is Hamilton’s role?
On media day in March, Locksley framed Hamilton’s new position as a behind-the-scenes role focused on practice organization, football technology and advance scouting, while also easing some of Locksley’s workload as he becomes more involved with the offense.
It is not a play-calling role. But it remains a seven-figure one.
“Everybody that knows Pep knows Pep is like a lab rat. He’s one of those guys that stays on top of the efficiency of how to organize,” Locksley said. “He’ll offer a lot of advice. He’ll be able to work ahead of opponents, he’ll be able to be at a lot of places and take some pressure off of me.”
Hamilton’s experience helps explain why Maryland valued keeping him in the building. Before arriving in College Park, he spent more than two decades coaching in college and the NFL, including offensive coordinator stops with the Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts and Stanford. He also worked with quarterbacks for the Chargers, Bears, 49ers and Jets.
Hamilton’s $1.25 million in scheduled annual compensation ties him with defensive coordinator Ted Monachino as Maryland’s highest-paid assistant coach.
The new structure comes after Maryland’s second straight 4-8 season, one defined by offensive imbalance and inconsistency during quarterback Malik Washington’s first year as the starter.
The Terps could not run the ball. They ranked second-to-last in the Big Ten in rushing yards per game, scored 23.5 points per game and often left Washington to carry the offense through the air. His conference-high passing attempts said as much about Maryland’s limitations as they did about his workload.
So Maryland made a change.
But instead of moving on from Hamilton entirely, the Terps kept him on staff and hired Trickett to take over the offense. That leaves Maryland paying $1.25 million to the former play-caller and $450,000 to the new one.
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The arrangement comes as the university tightens spending elsewhere, with a hiring freeze, limited travel, paused long-term projects and plans to eliminate at least 150 positions amid a 10% reduction in state funding, according to an email sent to the campus community last week. Athletics spending has drawn added scrutiny, too.
In fiscal 2025, Maryland paid $439,271 to move on from former defensive coordinator Brian Williams, more than half of the $661,024 in severance paid to departing coaches across all sports. Locksley was Maryland’s highest-paid state employee in 2025 despite a 37-49 record with the Terps. Men’s basketball coach Buzz Williams and women’s basketball coach Brenda Frese followed as the next-highest earners.
For Locksley, entering the penultimate season of a contract worth more than $6 million annually, the move carries the feel of urgency. Trickett is Maryland’s fifth offensive coordinator in eight seasons. No play-caller has lasted more than two years during Locksley’s tenure — Dan Enos held the job from 2021 to 2022, Josh Gattis and Kevin Sumlin shared the role after that, and Hamilton lasted one season before being moved into a different role.
That makes Trickett less of a routine staff addition and more of the latest attempt to solve a problem Maryland has not been able to stabilize.
“This is [Locksley’s] offense, his show, it’s my job to come in and add some different variants to what he’s already done,” Trickett said at media day. “Tempo is going to be the biggest difference we’ll utilize. We want to get as many snaps as we can.”
His first task is obvious: restore balance.
At Jacksonville State in 2025, Trickett coordinated an offense that averaged more than 408 yards per game, second in Conference USA, and leaned heavily on one of the nation’s most productive rushing attacks at more than 240 yards per game.
For Maryland, that resume matters. After a season spent asking Washington to throw again and again, the Terps are paying their new coordinator far less than the man he replaced to fix the part of the offense that never gave its quarterback much help.
“College football — it’s win now. I mean, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing for, who your coach is for,” Trickett said. “It is always win now, and that’s what I’ve learned in this thing.”
Washington, for his part, said the transition has been manageable. He said Locksley first introduced him to Trickett before the new coordinator came to campus, and his early impression was positive.
“He’s a great person, and I’m looking forward to really working with him,” Washington said.
Learning another playbook after one season as Maryland’s starter will take time, Washington said, but he credited Trickett’s approach for making the process easier.
Hamilton’s contract does not appear to include a pay-reduction clause tied to a change in title or play-calling responsibilities, allowing Maryland to shift him into a special assistant role while keeping his compensation intact.
A similar pay inversion has surfaced elsewhere. At Nebraska, Marcus Satterfield remained on staff as tight ends coach after being demoted from offensive coordinator during the 2024 season, while Dana Holgorsen took over as offensive coordinator. Satterfield was still set to make about $1.4 million in 2025, more than Holgorsen’s $1.2 million annual salary.
With Maryland, Trickett gets the fix-it job. The bigger payday still belongs to Hamilton.
Have a news tip? Contact Michael Howes at [email protected], 410-332-6200 and x.com/Mikephowes.