Maryland head coach Mike Locksley took the time out of his day on National Signing Day Feb. 5 to chat with Rivals national analysts Woody Woomack and Adam Gorney and discuss the Terps’ 2020 class as well as what lies ahead for his squad in regard to recruiting.

With pretty much its entire 2020 class signed, sealed, and delivered, Maryland is looking at adding 27 players to next year’s roster. Currently, verbal commit, Oxon Hill (Md.) Potomac three-star wide receiver is the only member of the Terps’ 2020 class that has not yet signed his Letter of Intent. However, Dyches is eventually expected to sign at a later date.

With most of Maryland’s recruiting class this year signing during the early signing period back in December, the late signing period that started Wednesday was relatively uneventful for the Terps.

Locksley and his staff signed three players earlier today: New Berlin (N.Y.) three-star safety Osita Smith, Scranton (Pa.) Lackawanna C.C. three-star offensive guard Amelio Moran, and Council Bluffs (Iowa) Iowa Western C.C. three-star defensive tackle Almosse Titi.

With a need to get bigger and more athletic in the trenches quickly, Locksley and his staff have targeted junior college players like Moran and Titi during the current cycle. They are two of seven JUCO players to sign with the Terps for the 2020 class.

In his conversation with Rivals, Locksley spoke about Maryland’s emphasis on bringing in players that can immediately contribute to what the Terps are building in College Park.

“I’m feeling good,” Locksley said. “It was a pretty uneventful day for us in the sense that we did a lot of the heavy lifting early. We added three guys to the class today: Osita Smith, an early enrollee from Milford Academy, as well as two junior college guys in Almossee Titi and Amelio Moran from Lackawanna. So again, continuing to build our depth and athleticism on our O-line and D-line, and then adding a guy of Osita’s caliber to the backend of our secondary. A big, long, hard-hitting, rangy safety. Kind of finishes the class off for right now. Three really strong additions to an already strong class.”

Maryland’s 2020 class currently ranks 29th nationally and is comprised of players from 12 different states.

“We feel really good about this class from top to bottom with the different playmakers,” Locksley said. “And we’ve shown we can go nationally and recruit some of the best players if you look at the way our class was put together.”

With 13 of Maryland’s 27 commits being linemen from the offensive and defensive sides of the ball, Locksley feels as though the Terps are beginning to formulate a roster that is built to compete in the Big Ten.

“It’s really important for us because when you play in the Big Ten your ability to run the football and stop the run are going to be paramount to your success,” Locksley said. “And so for us coming in we didn’t have the depth we needed on both sides of the line of scrimmage, and we definitely made that a priority in recruiting, and especially being able to get some guys that can immediately help. We also signed some JUCO guys that are not your traditional two-for-two junior college guys. I think two of the guys are three-for-three prospects that we’ll have around here for at least three years.”

With the 2020 class now all but finalized, Locksley and his staff have turned their attention to the 2021 class, in which they currently rank 10th nationally.

Seven of Maryland’s eight verbal commits to its 2021 class are from the DMV, with the most recent coming on Wednesday from Baltimore (Md.) St. Frances tight end Joe Bearns.

Locksley said that an emphasis on bringing in the top local talent in next year’s class is by design, as is making the Terps’ next recruiting class the true “catalyst” of bringing back competitive football to College Park.

“When we got hired a year ago, almost to the day, we really put an onus on this 2021 class that we’ve started out pretty fast with,” Locksley said. “As you guys know, recruiting is a two-year cycle in terms of just the relationship building. So we were behind, obviously, in the 2019 class and we made up a lot of ground in three weeks with the class we signed last year. And then if you look at this 2020 class, especially here in this area, there were two or three guys that had already committed at the previous place I worked and we were behind there, but from day one when we walked in the door, we targeted this 2021 class as the catalyst and the foundation for where this program needs to be. And if we’re going to have any chance to build this program the right way, it’s going to start with this 2021 class.”