West Orange (Winter Garden, Fla.) 2020 safety Tyler Jones already held more than 25 offers from the likes of Cincinnati, Duke, Minnesota, Missouri, NC State, Rutgers, Syracuse, and Vanderbilt, but the 5-foot-11, 181-pound Sunshine State native’s most recent looks have come from Purdue and Maryland, that latter of which anted up May 22 and has the advantage of being close to some of Jones’ family.

Jones’ mother’s cousin is a Maryland resident and principal at a high school near College Park. Jones said it was ironic that the Terps offer came when it did because it was on the coattails of a conversation about Maryland’s football recruiting with that relative.

“It was just weird how he was talking about how there’s a lot of talk about me and Maryland coming down to see me and how maybe they’ll offer me,” Jones told TSR. “And I was like, ‘Yeah, hopefully.’ And then they came the next day and that’s when they offered me.”

The Maryland offer was extended by Terps wide receivers coach Joker Phillips, who traveled down to West Orange to deliver the verbal in person and tell the rangy safety more about College Park.

“We talked about Maryland and stuff and he was asking me what I like about Maryland,” Jones said of his interaction with Phillips. “Obviously the jerseys are real nice and I told him I have some family up there. He just loves the way I play, how competitive I am and how physical I am. He seemed like he was a real good person and a good coach too.”

Jones admits that since Maryland has come to the table a little later than some of the other programs recruiting him the Terps have some ground to make up, but he is intrigued by what he has heard about them and has taken notice to how heavily they mine Florida for its football talent.

“Maryland is probably in my top 10 but I still haven’t 100 percent gotten the ‘I want to get up there feeling,’” Jones said. “I might take an unofficial there just because I could see some of my family up there. But they recruit Florida because they love the Florida speed up there. And I’m a real fast player as well. They want to recruit fast players and they know Florida is a hotbed for it.”

The leader in the clubhouse for Jones’ services is likely Missouri, which will host him on an official visit June 14. Jones said he is probably closer with the Tigers’ staff than any other that’s recruiting him, but maintains that his recruitment is still wide open.

Jones has taken an unofficial visit to Duke already and said he is considering taking officials to Vanderbilt and Colorado State. His father’s family is from Tennessee, which is where he said the majority of his intrigued about the Commodores stems from.

Jones added that there’s also a good chance he takes unofficial visits at some point this summer to some of the local schools that are recruiting him such as Florida Atlantic and Florida International.