Maryland Football: Top 5 candidates for Terps’ new head coach

1. Ken Niumatalolo

If Maryland cares about rebuilding their reputation and chemistry, Ken Niumatalolo is the perfect choice for its next head football coach at Maryland. Coach Ken, as he’s known around football, looked at both the BYU and Arizona jobs over the past few seasons before staying put at Navy. The Naval Academy is located in Annapolis, Maryland less than an hour from the University of Maryland.

Coach Niumatalolo’s current base salary sits at $2.1 Million. He has the obvious ties to the area via Navy where he has been employed for 20 of the past 23 seasons. He spent 1999-2001 at UNLV before returning to Navy in 2002. As head football coach, Niumatalolo’s Midshipmen have finished 86-54 with his lone losing season coming in 2011. The Midshipmen are currently 2-6 with five games remaining on their 2018 regular season schedule.

While Coach Ken is familiar with the Maryland and D.C. area, Navy is a national recruiter with strange circumstances for enrollment at the academy. In spite of difficult admissions requirements, his Navy teams have won five bowl games and have upset Notre Dame three times since he became head coach and four total since his return to Annapolis.

Coach Ken will more than likely stick to the flexbone triple option but Navy has also dabbled in the shotgun in recent seasons while trying to get Malcolm Perry more explosive plays in the offense. When Ken or Paul Johnson have had the right quarterback Navy has had brilliant seasons. Just think about Keenan Reynolds, Aaron Polanco, or even the hard nosed running of Will Worth.