Maryland Football: New facility is beginning to take shape

The Maryland football program will soon be a state-of-the-art indoor practice facility that will rival any team in the country.

On Tuesday, fans got a glimpse of the progress of the construction of the former Cole Field House.

The official Maryland Football Twitter account tweeted out an overhead shot of Cole Field House with a glimpse into what the practice field will look like. It’s unclear when this portion of the construction will be finished.

The practice field is Phase One of the project and is estimated to cost $45 million. Based on the photo, it appears that this phase of the construction is near completion.

It’s also scheduled to include strength and conditioning facilities, team locker room, meeting rooms, and offices. The facility will have a pair of outdoor turf practice fields on the west end of the complex.

The facility is scheduled to be completed by late 2018. It will end up costing $155 million in total when finished.

It’ll be huge for the program to have a state-of-the-art facility to hold practices and other meetings in. However, the recruiting trail could be where the facility pays the most dividends.

It’s been no secret that recruiting has drastically improved since D.J. Durkin became Maryland’s head coach in 2015.

In his first full recruiting class, the Terps found themselves putting together one of the top groups in the nation. According to 247Sports, Maryland had the No. 18 class and the fourth-best in the Big Ten in 2017.

The Terps were able to reel in eight four-star prospects with seven of them hailing from Maryland, Virginia, or Washington D.C.

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Durkin and his coaching staff have done a tremendous job recruiting, but now they’ll have another area to sell prospects on. The state-of-the-art facilities could speak volumes to young recruits and may lead to more four and five-star caliber players coming to College Park.