Maryland Football: Recapping Maryland’s National Signing Day

The Maryland football program brought in one of the most impressive classes in their history on Wednesday.

National Signing Day yielded the Terrapins eight four-star prospects and a host of other talent that should be productive in the coming years.

D.J. Durkin preached about how fertile the DMV was as a recruiting ground when he first arrived in College Park. Just one calendar year later, he proved that sentiment to be very true.

“There are 17 total from the DMV and those guys are big because they are the ones who started this and they have kept it going and brought other guys in with them,” Durkin said on Wednesday.

Seven of Maryland’s eight four-star recruits come from the DMV area. The only one that doesn’t is Bridgeton (NJ) athlete Markquese Bell, who is the first New Jersey signee since 2014 (Juwann Winfree).

“Jersey pumps out good players every year,” Durkin added. “They have great high school programs up there. It’s in close proximity to us, so we’ll always be up that way and trying to get as many guys as we can. We feel great about Markquese (Bell). He walks in the room and looks like a NFL safety. It’s going to be for him learning the defense and getting caught on but he’s going to have every opportunity to do that.”

One of the biggest takeaways has to be how hard Maryland attacked the skill positions on offense.

The Terps already have talented running backs like Ty Johnson and Lorenzo Harrison in the fold. Johnson has two more years of eligibility remaining while Harrison has three.

Despite that, Durkin and his staff still beefed up the position with three more tailbacks in the 2017 class. Anthony McFarland (DeMatha), Tayon Fleet-Davis (Potomac), and Javon Leake (Page, NC) are three very talented running backs that give the Terps even more depth.

McFarland is the highest ranked recruit that Maryland was able to land. It’s pretty safe to say that the former Stag has the ability to be a special player.

“The sky’s the limit with him,” Durkin said. “If you put the ball in his hands, he has the chance every time he has it to go the distance.”

According to 247Sports’ Composite rankings, McFarland and Leake both rank in the top 10 at their position.

To top off all of that, Durkin got his quarterback of the future.

St. John’s College (D.C.) star Kasim Hill committed to Maryland back in April and honored that pledge as he signed on Wednesday. Hill is rated as the No. 10 pro-style quarterback in the 2017 class.

Hill is also one of four Big Ten signees in the top 10 of 247Sports’ rankings.

“Kasim’s special in that obviously anyone that watches football can put on the tape and watch him and know that he’s a tremendous talent,” Durkin proclaimed. “He can make all the throws, he can beat you running the ball. He’s 230 pounds. The guy is a freak of nature. But that’s only scratching the surface of what Kasim is all about.”

Durkin already has a talented group of quarterbacks with North Carolina transfer Caleb Henderson and Tyrrell Pigrome already on the roster. However, it was evident last year that Durkin is always going to play the guy who performs the best in practice.

While true freshman starting quarterbacks don’t pop up every day, Hill definitely has the pedigree to make a lot of noise as soon as he steps on campus.

Durkin just did a phenomenal job putting this class together.

The Terps had very mediocre recruiting classes when Randy Edsall was around. Edsall’s classes usually ranged in the top 40-45 in the nation.

Next: Niswander's Notes for Maryland/Ohio State

Maryland usually had a few four-stars, but never had anywhere close to the eight that they reeled in this time around. If a majority of these recruits live up to their potential, this is going to be a very dangerous program in a few years.