Maryland received the 17th commitment of its 2020 class early Wednesday morning from Frostburg (Md.) Mountain Ridge three-star defensive tackle Tre Smith, who picked up an early summer offer after camping in College Park and has seen his relationship with Terps coaches grow immensely since.
“The reason I picked Maryland is because it’s close to home and my friends and family can go watch me play. I just fell in love with it when I was first introduced to it,” Smith told TSR. “[My relationship with Terps defensive line coach Delbert Cowsette] has grown tremendously. I talk to coach Cowsette about twice a day now, and when he’s on his free time he’s always texting me. I just think it’s awesome how he has kept in constant touch with me all summer long, and then some more hopefully this fall season.”
Smith chose Maryland over Kent State, Old Dominion, Temple, and Syracuse, becoming the sixth in-state prospect to join the Terps’ 2020 class. The 6-foot-2, 280-pounder camped in College Park June 21 and made a return trip in July for the Terps’ recruiting barbecue. He also got to see the defense he’ll be eventually be playing in up close and personal in Maryland’s season opener against Howard.
“It felt good because I was on the sideline at the beginning of the game and I got to see them warm up and get after it in the warm-ups,” Smith said. “It made me feel good about myself. It made me feel like, ‘Wow, this could be me one day.’ And now it is going to be one day. It’s just amazing. Getting to watch them warm up and then seeing them blow out a team, let up zero points. It was just awesome.”
Smith is thrilled about being able to represent his home state in college, and from his initial conversations with Maryland head coach Mike Locksley, he’s excited about potentially making an early impact for the Terps.
“Coach Locksley has said he sees me coming in as a freshman and getting a lot of time on the defensive line; so I’m looking forward to that,” Smith said.
Smith hails from an underrecruited area of Maryland where former Terps running back, now member of the Detroit Lions backfield, Ty Johnson, played high school ball. The Terps are hoping for the same fortune after striking gold with Johnson, who has reached out to Smith before about Maryland and was quick to congratulate him after he announced his commitment.
“I know Ty. I used to watch him when I was growing up and he played for the Fort Hill Sentinels,” Smith said. “I used to go to his games all the time when I was in middle school. He’s a great guy. Him coming from here made me think that I could become something. So he pushed me to who I am today. He said stay focused when you go to college, Maryland is a great university, you’ve got everything you need.”
Johnson isn’t the only Maryland athletics alum to congratulate Smith on joining the family. A former Terps hoops star also took to social media to give the Maryland football team’s latest addition a shoutout.
“Melo Trimble hit me up [Wednesday],” Smith said. “He liked my (social media) post today and was just like, ‘Go Terps, good spot.’ So that made me feel good about myself that a former Maryland basketball superstar reached out to me.”
