The recruiting class Maryland collects tomorrow will spawn any number of storylines. And you can bet I'll vet a bunch of them in the coming days.
But one of the more interesting subplots is the Terrapins' return to Florida to find recruits.
Remember, it was less than a year and a half ago when Ralph Friedgen all but swore off dealing with the battles in the Sunshine State.
“I think it’s going to be a factor,” Friedgen said back in August 2008. “Gas prices keep rising, and it’s not easy for those kids to get back and forth. They have to go by a lot of schools to get to us. I think it’s expensive recruiting down there. I think you have to look at ‘What’s the productivity of it?’”
Well, that depends on strategy. And it appears, with the help of defensive coordinator Don Brown and his contacts in Florida, that Maryland's approach is a little different.
Of the 21 players committed to join the program, three --- defensive end Clarence Murphy, defensive back Desmond Kearse and offensive lineman Jake Wheeler --- are from Florida.
None are considered top-shelf talents by the recruiting services that attempt to guess these sorts of things. But it is notable that the Terps are trying to poach some unheralded guys and see where it takes them rather than ignoring the state altogether.
"It's happened to Virginia Tech, Virginia, Boston College --- a lot of ACC schools have spot recruited in Florida and wound up throwing up their hands saying 'I quit, we're not going down there,'" said Mike Farrell, a recruiting analyst for Rivals.com. "They always get drawn back in because if you can get a three-star kid who doesn't have an from an SEC school or from the Big Three, he can turn out to be a good player. It's too attractive and alluring to give up on."
Farrell views Wheeler as a bit of a project, and Maryland's been known to take its share of those on the offensive line. But the addition of Kearse is interesting, since Brown presumably was recruiting talent he felt would fit well in his scheme.
It remains foolhardy to try to beat SEC powerhouses for talent in their own backyard, and both Florida State and Miami still carry quite a bit of cachet in their respective spheres of influence.
But Maryland has acquired some players from that area under Friedgen --- notably D'Qwell Jackson and Donnie Woods, and later Terrell Skinner and Nolan Carroll.
Now, it appears the Terps are back in the game.
"That's the top per square mile talent-producing state in the country," Farrell said. "It's only a flight away, and you can't ignore it."
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