National Signing Day has come and gone. Announcements have been made, final team rankings have been determined and, for the most part, eyes are already fixated on the 2014 class.
According to 247Sports Team Rankings, Maryland signed the seventh best recruiting class in the ACC finishing behind FSU, VT, Clemson, Miami, UNC and UVA . Since the Terrapins are a member of the ACC it makes sense that this recruiting class is looked at against its conference brethren. However, the vast majority of these prospects will not being making a name for themselves as Maryland Terrapins by going against ACC competition as the 2013 season marks the Terps last go around the conference in football. When looking at how this class stacks up it makes far more sense, to me at least, to compare it to the league the Terps will soon call their home for all sports, the Big 10.
The Big 10 had two of National Signing Day’s big winners in Ohio State and Michigan as both blue bloods, not surprisingly, brought in stellar recruiting classes which landed them in the top ten in the country respectively. Much like in 2012, the Buckeyes and Wolverines were the class of the Big 10 on signing day and among the nation’s best. The Big 10 Recruiting Team Rankings can be found here, as you can see the Nebraska Cornhuskers, Penn State Nittany Lions and Wisconsin Badgers round out the top five when it comes to how the current Big 10 did this recruiting cycle.
Now, how would these rankings be different when you take into consideration the classes signed by, incoming members in 2014, the Maryland Terrapins and Rutgers Scarlet Knights? Since we don’t cover Rutgers I won’t go into much detail on their class other than to say it would finish ranked eighth when compared to the rest of the league.
Maryland, however, would have provided a shake up of the top five classes in the Big 10 were this class to be compared to the rest of the Terps future conference. When you look at the total number of points allocated to the Terrapins recruiting class, 247Sports ranking system can be explained further here, you see that they earned a total of 719.36 points, as I mentioned previously good enough for seventh in the ACC. Compare that number to the classes in the Big 10 and you find that the Maryland Terrapins 2013 signing class would be considered as the fifth best in the Big 10 Conference moving behing Penn State and in front of Wisconsin.
Maryland won’t be joining the league until the 2014 season but for the most part, unless your name is Stefon Diggs, it is hard for a true freshman to break onto the scene and make a major impact. More times than not freshmen are redshirted or spend their initial season trying to work their way up the depth chart. The bulk of these players who signed their letters of intent on Wednesday will get their first shot at consistent playing time for the Terps after they have made the move to the Big 10.
After the festivities of National Signing Day had wrapped up, Randy Edsall was quoted as saying that the coaching staff really pushed the move to the Big 10 on this recruiting class and it was something that they were all excited over which helped the Terrapins land the #31 class in the country, according to 247Sports, despite the disappointing 2012 season which was marred by injuries. If Maryland is able to sign this type of class after the way the 2012 season ended on just the promise of the upcoming move to the Big 10 imagine the type of damage Randy Edsall and, recruiter extraordinare, Mike Locksley can have in the talent rich Washington D.C. area, as well as inside the state of Maryland, in the class of 2014 once the Terrapins start winning.