Former #1 overall recruit Byron Cowart to sign as a transfer from Auburn. He also signed a Top 15 class last year, and looks like a top 25 class this year. Wonder what he is selling? since it's not winning football.
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dont forget injuries at UMD.
Every team has injuries- and if anything, their inability to keep any one of a million QBs healthy should be a detriment to recruiting
Every team has injuries sure, but Maryland lost their top 2 QBs to ACL tears by the end of the first quarter of their third game. The first was not a contact play but the second was a play where the QB, a freshman, drifted out of the pocket and got sandwiched. They then lost their third QB to concussion on a play where the Ohio State Defensive Back eventually was ejected for Targeting for a blatant helmet to helmet hit where the QB had slid well before the hit. This was third quarter of their fifth game of the season. Imagine what Tech's season would have been like if they were on their fourth string QB before five games were over?
The two big things that Durkin and his staff have done is lock down recruiting for two major pipeline schools in Maryland. Those being Dematha and St Frances and as was mentioned elsewhere, his class are mostly close to home. 7 are from Maryland, 4 from VA, 3 from DC, 2 from PA, 1 from NJ. 17 commits from in state or border states. The rest are 3 from FL and 3 from GA. They are managing to do what we usually fault Tech for and that is keeping kids home.
That's why you go with a TE for at least one of your QB positions.
VT needs to get back in to that area, including Dematha.
I'm hoping the top Big 10 schools continue to crush them. I'd hate to see the "Maryland to B1G" pay off for them.
What is it with Maryland and QB injuries?
Wasn't it just a couple season ago where they wound up with a LB as their QB or something?
I'll never understand how Rutgers or Maryland, Indiana (which got a decent VA RB this year) or Purdue recruit in the BIG.
Indiana got said RB from Va with LOLUVA as their main competition :-)
To put it in perspective, I think the kid was fairly over valued.
Classic Good Guy/Bag Guy
I'm gonna drop some bags
Got a couple thousand in this duffel
I'm, I'm, I'm cruitin'
Looking for a 5 star
This is fucking awesome
Maryland hired a staff of good recruiters. Unfortunately for them, they didn't hire a staff of good coaches.
I like Durkin, but it remains to be seen if their staff will actually translate the talent they are getting to the field.
I get that, but you can't recruit- nobody can- to a losing team. I get the whole new coach, excitement, help us build- but once you start losing on the field, that is the product you have to sell. Look at Zook at Illinois and Fedora at UNC- hot shot "recruiters" until they start losing...then no "pitch" works. Wonder how Durkin is doing it.
Something, something, Mike London...
Sure you can (at least for a couple years). He's selling hope, he's selling kids an opportunity to be a part of something, to be someone who changes the direction of a program, and the possibility to start immediately. It's all about how it's pitched.
He's clearly pitching it really well.
So they hired Mike London's former staff?
I thought this was a really good hire for MD. Was happy that it happened after they left the ACC. MD is a tough job in a pro sports city.
Ironic considering how much DC sports fans lament all the DC sports teams and their playoff letdowns.
It certainly is a pro sports city but wouldn't be hard for a successful college team to gain popularity. The issue is that UMD is a basketball school. Don't get what attracts kids there for football
Eh it has a slight Ole Missy kind of smell to me.
Funny you mention Ole Miss, they flipped a 4 Star WR from UGA today somehow.
It's crazy how the benefits they reaped from breaking the rules have outweighed their punishment from the NCAA.
It's no secret that the risk/reward aspect of recruiting favors committing violations. Until that threat of a SMU-type punishment comes back, that's the way it'll be in the college football landscape.
See: UNC; Miami
You sell early playing time, being the big man on campus, taking the program to the next level and going and beating the big guns, for some its enticing
This makes too much sense.
So, KJ...like the way this sounds, pal?lol
Of course you do..and traditionally good players ignore all of the above when the coach wins 20% of his conference games. i fully understand Durkin is not out there "selling" the fact that his team is irrelevant in their own division or his campus is in a ghetto.
Also pay them handsomely
being the big man
on campusin the shitty ass suburbs and at the metro stop.Cold winters in a small town in the middle of nowhere doesn't appeal to every kid - particularly those from big cities, warmer locales or who have other options for a free ride.
It's not like College Park is all that great in the winter.
True, but the point was the small town also has cold winters to go along with it's isolated smallness.
The statement could apply to a lot of schools not named UMd and VT.
It makes sense if you don't think about it.
Cowart came on campus at Auburn and never truly competed for playing time on the DL, despite being a highly rated recruit and Auburn running a deep rotation along the DL (think 7-9 guys for all 3 years he was there). He was tried at DE and DT. Never looked like a 5* guy on the field.
I hope the best for him, because it didn't work out at Auburn and that sucks for him more than anyone.
Maryland was a dumpster fire and Durkin inherited it. I think he will get them turned around.
Turned around to what? In next three years 7 wins in a year is their ceiling.
That's better than the average 4 win seasons under Edsall. They also beat Texas in week 1 before they got decimated by injuries. I'm not saying they are going to the playoff but I can see why they're recruiting well just like I could see why Mike London was recruiting so well after his upswing season.
Crazy thing is Mike London's upswing year 2 was wayyy better than Bronco's upswing season haha.
Agree and the point of this thread is "dumpster fires" usually don't recruit in the top 20
Blue horseshoe says "Kevin Plank has cash."
Seriously, though, Durkin must be one heck of a sales manager, who can hire good salesmen. Mostly Maryland kids.
The emphsasis should be on FORMER #1 overall recruit...
Yeah. The guy isn't good enough to play at the D1 level which is why he left Auburn. Why Maryland is taking him is beyond me.
Sheesh how does a #1 overall recruit turn out not to be D1 level
girls, bad friends, diet, parties ... just off top of my head
sometimes a kid can lose his mind especially if on a depth chart for the first time
MD blows!
Under Armour perks.
Near the Nations capital.
Fox Sports national games.
Ability to step in and play.
Nobody expects anything and if you succeed you are the hero, if you fail others will claim it's the supporting cast that is lacking.
Also, for many of them, the closest school.
UMD is irrelevant.
I just got back from Maryland today. If I was a recruit, there would literally be nothing you could sell me to get me to play there and that includes free Chick-fil-A and Moe's for a lifetime. This does smell
fishycrabby.Lots of Hoo-baby crying for an also ran in a conference who came in and owned our state. Durkin did a hell of a lot this year. Maryland with their first two QBs looked to have a dynamic O. More than can be said of our offense this year. MD got a decent OL haul today. With the Carolina old boys running the ACC, it seems pretty precarious whether we can continue competing with the B1G, SEC, etc. from a revenue/funds perspective. As a reminder this is one reason we are worried about Bud (or JF for that matter) getting an outlandish offer(we can't match). We sure as hell don't want another B1G team coming in and stealing top 20 local talent. PSU and OHST are pretty much owning VA. James Franklin is looking like the man. Hoping, praying like a little hoo boy b***ch that Urban calls it quits. That our offense steps it up with the WRs we have coming back from injury and into the program. Cuz Durkin has a little upward trajectory we need to nip in the bud. Unfortunately getting RBs and QBs to the B1G boundary may be enough to keep him successful at Maryland for a few years. I respect Bud and Fuente more than Urban and Durkin but I feel like we are swimming upstream in the ACC and are very vulnerable / have to push hard to distance ourselves from our ACC brethren.
The "also ran" conference you mention includes the current national champions in football. The B1G aren't even in the playoffs this year, while the ACC has the #1 team.
I'm expecting some improvement in the VT offense next year, and the year after.
Durkin seems like a charismatic dude, and he's not far enough into his tenure where anyone can say what he is or isn't going to be. He can say, "This is what I want us to do, and you can play immediately help us get there." If in a couple years they are still mediocre, high school coaches and college coaches will be telling players to stay away from Durkin and UMD. If he makes the most of the talent and puts UMD on the map, good for him. He inherited a dumpster fire.
Fuck the University of Maryland.
There, I said it.