COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Taking over as Maryland’s head coach two months prior, Mike Locksley had little time before National Signing Day Feb. 6 to recruit and build his 2019 class. But after tapping into all of his resources and working diligently with this staff over the last few months, Locksley signed 11 student-athletes to national letters of intent Wednesday and now has a 2019 recruiting class that includes 17 members.
After bringing aboard six players during the early signing period back in December, the Terps coaching staff continued to recruit to fill holes within the roster and did so by adding talent that includes a four-star quarterback, two JUCO standouts, and a several DMV area products.
“We felt like our football family got stronger today, as with most programs on signing day,” Locksley said at his National Signing Day press conference. “I’m thrilled with the quality of the young men we were able to recruit. When we took over this job, it was a priority for us to build on a really great team. We felt we already had a strong foundation of current players, but we needed to build on it. We think we’ve been able to do that with this recruiting class. What a tremendous job by the staff. We started out a lot later than most people, but we were able to make up a lot of ground over the course of the last three weeks between hiring coaches and finishing up this 2019 staff. I’ve got to give my staff a great deal of accolades for their hard work and effort. We were able to keep a great deal of the DMV talent we talk about here.”
Locksley’s recruiting rallying cry centered around DMV pride. In his previous stint as a member of Maryland’s coaching staff, Locksley saw what football in College Park can be like when things are going well like they were in the early 2000s. This time around, he is determined to “make it cool to be a Terp again.”
“I know what it looks like when this place is hitting on all cylinders and that’s the vision I keep in the back of my head as we go out and recruit and build this thing,” Locksley said. “There’s no doubt about it the DMV in particular has become a hotbed and a very fruitful area for recruiting. Especially in the football area. Prince George’s County right here where we’re located has produced a great number of big-time players over the years and we continue to see that trend. There’s no doubt we have to be very aggressive in this area and we have to do a good job identifying those players as early as we possibly can and make it cool to be a Terp again.”
While much of Locksley’s efforts were focused around keeping local talent at home such as St. Charles (Waldorf, Md.) three-star linebacker Kameron Blount and Westlake (Waldorf, Md.) two-star defensive end Deshawn Holt, the Terps certainly weren’t shy about venturing out to other states to fill their needs.
Of the 17 student-athletes that comprise Maryland’s 2019 recruiting class, seven are from the DMV area, and the rest hail from Florida (2), Georgia (2), Louisiana (1), Massachusetts (1), New Jersey (1), New York (1), Ohio (1), Pennsylvania (1). The Terps’ group of out-of-state signees is highlighted by three-star safeties Cortez Andrews (Godby - Tallahassee, Fla.) and Treron Collins (Langston Hughes - Fairburn, Ga.) as well as defensive lineman Anthony Booker (Winton Woods - Cincinnati, Ohio).
“We were able to go out and get players in other areas,” Locksley said. “I think the Maryland brand is a national brand. Of course, we’re going to start right here in the DMV, but we will use our connections and ties to other places we’ve been. We’ve been able to get down into Georgia, Louisiana and Florida — as well as Ohio and some really fruitful recruiting areas to fill out this class. Again, we’re excited about it. We were able to meet specific needs. That’s what this class was for me coming in — to meet the specific needs we had to fill. We feel good about the foundation that this class provides for us.”
With glaring needs across both the offensive and defensive line, the secondary, and at quarterback, Locksley heavily targeted these positions throughout his recruiting for the Terps and was able to fill many of the voids that have been left from roster attrition in College Park
“We were able to meet the needs that we had, we were able to go get the players to fill the slots,” Locksley said. “We had position slots and position needs, and we felt like we hit on all of those. We feel like we hit home runs with the guys we signed. We feel like they met and fit the evaluation that we wanted position by position. That’s how we were able to build this class.”
The biggest and perhaps most surprising signing day news to come out of College Park on Wednesday was the commitment the Terps received from Warren Easton Senior (New Orleans) four-star dual-threat quarterback Lance Legendre, who was thought by many to be choosing Florida State before announcing that he will be taking his talents to Maryland.
Although the 6-foot-3, 206-pound signal caller’s decision came as a bit of a shock to some, his relationship with Locksley and some of the members of his coaching staff that followed him from Alabama paid off in the end and helped the Terps land their potential QB1 or next season.
“We were fortunate to be able to sign Lance LeGendre,” Locksley said. “He was a guy we had started recruiting at Alabama so his name was on our board for quite some time and we’re very familiar with him. Our recruiting process for him at Maryland probably started about two weeks ago. I actually found out that he was still available with the ties we had in Louisiana from my time at Alabama. We were able to make some specific connections to Lance and I think he and I started trading text messages while he was on a visit at another place. We flew down last week, went and saw him — myself and Coach Montgomery. We were able to get he and his mom up this weekend for an official visit.
“Just like what happens to most people, when they get here on this campus they see the vision and the investment administration has made with the facilities that we’re building, and the opportunity. That’s the one great thing we have to offer in an opportunity. With a new staff coming in, to have the opportunity to compete. Lance is a competitive player. If you look at him, he’s one of the dual-threat guys who has the opportunity to beat you with his arm and his feet. We think he’s going to be a great addition to the quarterback room, which already has some pretty talented players as well.”
