Football Recruiting Update

Well, this has been quite a month for football recruiting.  This week we've landed 3 star qb/db Milan Collins, who is a local MD recruit who will play Safety.  Then yesterday Malik Jones, a 3 star (247 sports) OT from Dunbar committed to MD to play DL (most likely NT).  Top that off with the official announcement that Deon Long and Ricardo Young are transferring to MD and it has been a big week so far, and it is only Thursday.

Collins was a dual threat QB for the 1st three years of his HS career but realized if he wanted to make it at the next level it would be on defense.  He switched to corner last year and has used his athleticism to excel on the defensive side of the ball.  At MD, the 6-1, 210lb Collins will play safety, which better fits his build.  But the best part about Collins is that he is already recruiting locally.  ESPN interviewed Collins after his commitment and a little tidbit from it:  He has already started recruiting Tabor and Fuller to come to MD to play too.  I'm not sure how great of friends they are, but it definitely can't hurt that local guys are advocating for them to stay.

Jones has tremendous size at 6'5, 261lb and the frame to add more.  He could easily put on another 40-50lb without issue, which would be ideal in a 3-4 as a NT.  Jones plays for local high school Dunbar on both sides of the ball, but has been rated as a OT by 247.  Of course, he was recruited to play defense so we'll see if that affects anyones ranking, as rivals and espn have yet to rank him.  Mike Farrell at Rivals, FWIW, did say that Jones was a solid get for MD, and 247 puts him ahead of Ritchie Anderson, who committed last week as a 3 star RB from Frederick.

I think many of us know the story on Young and long so I won't go too in depth, but Long is an awesome get.  He was very productive at New Mexico last year as there top WR threat.  He won't be eligible until 2013, but expect him to compete his way into the lineup at one of the two outside WR spots.  As for when Young is eligible, I'm really not sure.  He committed to VT in 2010, went for a semester, and transferred to New Mexico.  This last season he sat out per NCAA guidelines and then transferred to an Iowa CC with Long and Adams when Locksley was fired.  He never played last year, so I'm not sure if he still sits this year or not.

This local recruiting is nuts, and not to get into an Edsall debate here, but he's sure as hell done his job here.  He came here with the intent on locking down the local area, and he is sure as hell doing that so far.  He went out and got Locksley, who by all means is the most connected man in DC when it comes to football recruiting.  Edsall gets out to schools and sells the MD brand while Locksley gets these relationships going too.  As odd as it sounds, it appears that Edsall has *gasp* put together a great staff in terms of recruiting.  Lets hope they can translate this talent to the field too.