National Signing Day 'a great day for our program,' says Durkin
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Terps head coach D.J. Durkin announced Feb. 1 that 28 student-athletes have signed their letter of intent to play football at Maryland, culminating what is being pegged as one of the best recruiting classes in program history.
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“It’s hard to wipe the smile off of my face right now today,” Durkin said to open his National Signing Day press conference. “It’s a great day for our program. It’s a great day for our team. I can’t tell you how excited we are. What a tremendous day for all of us in the direction that we’re heading in toward improving.
“You look at this recruiting class and it’s a big class in number--I mean, we’re close to 30 guys--as well as in the quality of this class from top to bottom. All positions from offense to defense are represented in this class and it’s about an even split between offense and defense. And when you look at any position and start going through the names, we feel strongly about those guys as students, as athletes and as people with character.”
Rivals currently has Maryland’s recruiting class, which includes eight four-star prospects and four members of the Rivals250, ranked 16th nationally. The signees include athletes from 10 different states and Washington, D.C.
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The Terps’ class is highlighted by 17 players from the DMV area and eight who earned All-WCAC honors. Nine of the top 20 players from the state of Maryland and three of the top nine players from Washington D.C. signed with the Terps on Wednesday.
“Seventeen guys from the DMV, from our own backyard--I can’t tell you how excited we are about that,” Durkin said. “We’ve made no secret about it. That’s our formula. Our formula is that we’re going to take care of our own backyard and we’re going to win here in the DMV and build our team with that being our foundation. So to land 17 guys in one class from here is big time. There are eight guys in the class that I think have been WCAC all-conference players. There are a lot of Maryland public schools that are represented, some great programs are represented in this class. So when you go up and down the list, it’s really big, it’s tremendous.
“With that being said, there’s also representation from 10 different states in this recruiting class. So we’re doing right here in our own backyard and we’re recruiting guys from various parts of the country and that are highly recruited and making the decision to come to Maryland.”
Durkin took great pride in being the orchestrator of one of Maryland’s most highly touted recruiting classes, but what stood out to him the most were the players’ enthusiasm to be a part of what’s being built in College Park.
“There’s a lot of guys right here that had a lot of different opportunities to play at a lot of different places in the country, some of the perennial big names or whatever you want to call it in college football, and they made the decision to come here, to come play for the University of Maryland and to be a part of something special in what we’re building,” Durkin said. “So that’s the most impressive thing to me and the most exciting thing for me, and I think it tells you where the excitement level is for our program around the country.”
But Durkin was also quick to point out that he would not have been able to put together such a talented class all by himself and gave thanks to his supporting cast.
“There are so many people to recognize and thank when you put together a class like this. It’s hard to factor in all of the people who had something to do with it. Obviously our coaching staff--We have an unbelievable staff that works tirelessly. I grind them pretty hard. We recruit here every day. We’re always available. Part of the reason we’re able to get all of these guys is because we’re always here. Any weekend, it doesn’t matter, we’re always here to host recruits and their family and make sure they feel comfortable and welcome here.
“And last but certainly not least, our current players. They spend time with these guys when they come on visits, and that’s taking time out of their schedule and their day, and that might inconvenience them at times, but they’ve done an unbelievable job of making these guys feel welcome, making them feel like part of the team before they’re even actually here.”
Durkin, a former Rivals National Recruiter of the Year, has flipped the script on Maryland football’s recruiting culture in just one season at the helm in College Park. He explained how this year’s large and talented class required some foresight and stated that he expects the Terps to continue to recruit at this level moving forward.
“You can’t every year have a class where you sign close to 30 guys just based off of numbers,” Durkin said. “This was designed this way. Last year we signed a smaller class and I held onto scholarships to be able to do this this year. The quality of this class, absolutely, we expect to recruit at this level every year and continue to get better and better. There’s not a reason not to. We’re going to attack it and be aggressive with it. We are all sitting right now in the middle of one of the most fertile grounds for recruiting in the entire country and we have a product that is second to none I believe.”
Durkin went on to cite Maryland’s new practice facility at the New Cole Field House that is currently being constructed on campus, playing in the Big Ten conference and the Terps’ relationship with Under Armour as things that make College Park a special place. But he knows at the end of the day, winning games and attracting great players is how a contender is built.
“Great players want to play with other great players, so when they see guys are going there, they know they’re going there for a reason,” Durkin said. “That opens the door for this to continue as we keep going through this for years to come. This is the level we need to recruit at to do what we want, which is win championships.”