Buzz Williams leaves Texas A&M for Maryland

The king of vests and playing tackle football on the hardwood is leaving the SEC. Texas A&M head coach Buzz Williams is no longer the Texas A&M head coach. Instead, he’s taking his quirkiness and minute-by-minute schedule with him to Maryland, replacing new Villanova head coach Kevin Willard in College Park.

Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports was the first to break the news. According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, it’s a six-year deal for Williams at Maryland.

The 52-year-old is coming off three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, advancing to the Round of 32 in each of the last two seasons. The Aggies finished their 2024-25 campaign with a 23-11 record while going 11-7 in the SEC to finish fifth in the league. He closes out his time in College Station with a 120-73 overall record and a 56-44 finish in the SEC.

Kentucky is 5-2 against Williams dating back to his time at Virginia Tech, the Wildcats taking back-to-back losses in 2023-24 with all wins in five other meetings in 2017, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2025. It was an 81-69 win for the blue and white this past season inside Rupp Arena.

For one reason or another, Williams is in the business of making lateral moves after a half-decade on the job. He got his first high-major gig at Marquette (2008-14) and followed it up with stints at Virginia Tech (2014-19) and Texas A&M (2019-25) — six years, five years and six years, respectively. He’s hitting all of the conferences, too, going from the Big East to the ACC to the SEC, and now, to the Big Ten.

By our math, that means someone in the Big 12 is getting a very solid coach in 2030. Texas Tech? Iowa State? West Virginia? The countdown begins now.

Until then, Lamont Butler is somewhere smiling knowing his replacement won’t be getting the hell beaten out of him the same way he did against the Aggies this year.

We’ll miss your weirdness, won’t miss your style of play, Buzz.