Maryland Recruiting Gaining Momentum As Jermaine Carter Commits
Second year Head Coach Randy Edsall knows that to have a consistently strong program in College Park, he needs to lockdown the considerable amount of talent in the Maryland and DC areas. Both areas, historically, have produced an immense amount of talent. Recent notables like Cyrus and Arie Kouandjio (Alabama), Marvin Austin (UNC), Eddie Goldman (Florida State), Jelani Jenkins (Florida), and Ronald Darby (Florida State), all have two things in common. They all are from the Maryland/DC area, and they all chose to attend far more successful programs than their local school.
To help combat this, Edsall brought back longtime Maryland assistant Mike Locksley. Locksley, known nationally as a creative offensive mind and a ferocious recruiter, has been recruiting the Maryland/ DC area his entire career. Locksley lured future NFL players Arrelious Benn and Tavon Wilson, both of whom were elite recruits from DC, with him to Illinois. As Head Coach of New Mexico, Locksley brought in more than ten recruits in a two year span from the Maryland/DC area. If Locksley could convince the those kids to go to a non BCS school more than 1500 miles away, imagine how successful he can be convincing them to go to a BCS school less than 100 miles away.
One big key towards Edsall keeping the local recruits, besides getting Locksley, is building strong relationships with the big time schools in the area (Dunbar, Gilman, DeMatha, Good Cousel). Friendship Collegiate Academy, out of Washington D.C., is one of the local schools that consistently produce some of the top talent in the Northeast. Edsall knew it would be tough to get their top player last year (Eddie Goldman, the top DT nationally), but focused on strengthening ties with their junior crop of players. OT Derwin Gray (6’4’’ 291), LB’s Jermaine Carter (6’0’’ 220), Yannick Ngakoue (6’3’’ 240) and Cavon Walker (6’2’’ 210) were at the top of his list.
With subsequent verbal commitments from Gray, Ngakoue and Walker (all in June), the Terps recently made it a clean sweep with the addition of Carter on July 18th. Carter is a hard-nosed player, the kind Edsall craves. Holding offers from schools like Boston College, Colorado, Syracuse and Temple, Carter could have left his local area and never looked back. However, the chance to stay close to home and continue playing with some of his all star teammates proved too tempting to pass up.
The addition of Carter to a relatively thin Linebacker corps will be beneficial to the Terps. The real benefit, however, is that it’s readily apparent that Edsall, and Locksley, have set their eyes on their local recruiting turf, and that’s a move that should pay huge dividends.
