Former Arizona football coach Kevin Sumlin hired as Maryland’s co-offensive coordinator, tight ends coach

The least successful head coach in Arizona history is back in college football.

Kevin Sumlin has been hired by Maryland to be its co-offensive coordinator and tight ends coach, according to Jeff Erman of InsideMDSports.com.

Sumlin, 58, returns to college after spending the 2022 season as head coach and general manager of the USFL’s Houston Gamblers, where he went 3-7 last spring. He was out of football in 2021 after coaching the UA from 2018-20.

Arizona was 9-20 under Sumlin, who was hired in January 2018 after Rich Rodriguez was led go despite five bowl appearances in six seasons. The UA was 5-7 in Sumlin’s first season, blowing a 19-point fourth-quarter lead in the Territorial Cup to miss out on a bowl bid, then started 4-1 in 2019 before dropping it final seven games.

The COVID-delayed and shortened 2020 campaign saw the Wildcats go 0-5, the first winless season in school history, culminating in a 70-7 home loss to ASU. Sumlin was fired the next day, replaced by Jedd Fisch a few weeks later.

It will be Sumlin’s first assistant coaching position since 2007, when he was Oklahoma’s co-offensive coordinator/wide receivers coach. He was Houston’s head coach from 2008-11, going 35-17, then spent 2012-17 at Texas A&M where he went 51-26.

Maryland, coached by Mike Locksley, is coming off an 8-5 season in 2022 that included a win over North Carolina State in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl.