Twenty-one new players, including five four-star recruits and eight offensive linemen, are set to join the Maryland football roster in 2024 after signing their letters of intent on National Signing Day.
The early signing period opened Wednesday, with the Terrapins adding 13 players on offense and eight on defense in a class ranked No. 34 overall by Rivals.com.
Three of the four-star players hail from Maryland and an overwhelming two-thirds of the 21 come from Maryland or Virginia, complementing Maryland coach Mike Locksley’s desire to build a proverbial wall around the region and keep more high-level recruits at home.
“As we’ve found, there’s enough good players right here at home, and we’ll always start here first,” Locksley said. “Everybody in the country comes to the DMV, and I think it’s a testament to the type of high school football players we have in this area and to the high school coaches and the way they develop their players.”
Bolstering the offensive line, a unit that returned only one starter entering the 2023 season and a reason Maryland enjoyed less success in the run game, was a point of emphasis.
“If you want to win in the Big Ten, you’ve got to have your O-line and D-line set,” Locksley said. “We were able to address the D-line a year ago, and this year, there has been a premium and a point of emphasis on creating the depth and developing the offensive line to be able to compete and win.”
Locksley believes two of those recruits have the potential, at least size-wise, to be starters in their freshman season, and both are Prince George’s County natives: 6-foot-5, 290-pounder Terez Davis of DeMatha and 6-foot-4, 295-pounder Ryan Howerton of St. Vincent Pallotti.
“Those guys have the physical size to be able to do it, whereas some of the guys we signed up are guys that we plan on growing over the next couple of years,” Locksley said. “When you’re in the 280-pound mold, coming to the Big Ten the goal is to get them over to 300 and develop size and strength and mass, because this is a big man’s league.”
Besides Howerton, the other four stars in the class from Maryland include running back DeJuan Williams, a St. Frances product and the No. 2-rated running back in the state, and defensive back Braydon Lee, the No. 6 overall prospect in the state.
An Upper Marlboro native, Lee originally committed to South Carolina on April 19, but Locksley was able to get the Flowers grad to flip.
“From the time he committed, he always said, ‘Hey, you know, I’m willing to keep some options open,’” Locksley said, “and we were respectful of his decision, but we continued to show him why Maryland could help him reach the goals that he has for himself. And today, he made the decision that he trusted the process that we put in place for him.”
It’s similar to another former Gamecocks commit, linebacker Jaishawn Barham, who Maryland was able to sway in the 2022 class. Locksley would probably like the similarities to stop there — Barham entered the transfer portal after the end of the regular season and announced his commitment to Michigan on Wednesday.
The recruiting dynamic has changed drastically in the last few years, with name, image and likeness money along with player movement in the transfer portal meaning the guys who are recruited now might not be on the roster in four years, let alone one.
“You also have to recruit your current team, because these guys are are being talked to and they’re being poached and portaled,” Locksley said. And so [you] work [on] maintaining your current roster as much as you can, while also babysitting guys that are committed, that continue to be recruited.”
In years past, when one person was responsible for recruiting a specific geographic area, Locksley said it now “takes a village” of staffers and coordinators to keep tabs on multiple regions and recruits, often circling back until the final moments before a decision is made.
“Everybody has different approaches to recruiting, but most people when they know who to attack, they try to find any weakness and every weakness they can to create the angst in the decision,” Locksley said. “I mean, not crying over the amount of work that it takes, but I can tell you it takes a lot of manpower, a lot of hours to continue to recruit the guys once they are on board. Because now all the targets are pointing at you.”
The early signing period extends until Friday, with the remaining members of the class to be announced in February.
Maryland’s 2024 National Signing Day Early-Signee Class:
OL Logan Bennett, Baltimore, Maryland
OL Terez Davis, Hyattsville, Maryland
LB Keyshawn Flowers, Severn, Maryland
OL Michael Hershey, Spring Grove, Pennsylvania
OL Ryan Howerton, Laurel, Maryland
DB Lloyd Irvin III, Upper Marlboro, Maryland
DB Brandon Jacob, Orlando, Florida
LB Keyari James, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
DB Judah Jenkins, Olney, Maryland
DB Braydon Lee, Upper Marlboro, Maryland
QB Khristian Martin, Highland Springs, Virginia
RB Josiah McLaurin, Clinton, North Carolina
OL Michael McMonigle, York, Pennsylvania
WR Jahmari Powell-Wonson, Baltimore, Maryland
DL Anthony Reddick, Hampton, Virginia
OL Anthony Robsock, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
DB La’Khi Roland, Ellenwood, Georgia
OL Trevor Szymanski, Towson, Maryland
OL Davon Watkins, Baltimore, Maryland
WR Mekhai White, King George, Virginia
RB DeJuan Williams, Baltimore, Maryland
• George Gerbo can be reached at ggerbo@washingtontimes.com.
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