College Football Recruiting: Maryland Lands Program-Changing QB Dwayne Haskins Jr.

Under Randy Edsall, the Maryland Terrapins have focused on improving their recruiting in their own back yard in an attempt to keep the best talent of Maryland close to home. That strategy has paid big-time dividends with the verbal commitment of blue-chip quarterback prospect Dwayne Haskins Jr., who has the ability to take the Terps to a new level in the Big Ten during his collegiate career.

Haskins is rated as the No. 2 pocket passer in the nation for the 2016 recruiting class and the No. 25 overall rated recruit according to ESPN. Hailing from Potomac, Maryland, Haskins chose the Terrapins over suitors from all across the nation, including the Florida Gators, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, and Alabama Crimson Tide, just to name a few. He was the top target for Edsall and his staff in their 2016 class and will be a key piece to closing out one of the best recruiting classes in recent memory for the school.

With Haskins’ commitment, six of the eight commitments that Maryland has received for 2016 are from in-state prospects. Edsall plans on continuing to hit the local talent market hard in the coming months with four ESPN 300 prospects from the state of Maryland (No. 114 Trevon Diggs, No. 130 Ellison Jordan, No. 192 Terrance Davis, and No. 263 Eric Burrell) now strongly considering the Terrapins, thanks in part to Haskins’ campaigning.

Following the young quarterback’s announcement, Maryland shot up into the top 25 recruiting classes for 2016 and would easily stay there if all or even most of these prospects signed on with the Terps. It would be the first top-25 recruiting class for the program since 2006 thanks in large part to Haskins. The 6-foot-3, 203-pound prospect is just the second top-25 prospect to pick Maryland in the last 11 years and would be the highest rated quarterback ever to play for the Terrapins.

But beyond what he means to the program on the recruiting trail, Haskins brings a skill-set that could take Maryland to the top of the Big Ten in the very near future. He is a mature player with a smooth, natural stroke that give him an effortless passing prowess. He has the versatility and ability to find success in any kind of offensive system and should only get better and stronger as he adds bulk to his frame.

Thanks to a young nucleus of Maryland-grown talent, Randy Edsall has positioned the Terrapins to be contenders in the very near future. With the commitment of a program-changing talent like Dwayne Haskins, the Terps may be ready to take a run at the conference title sooner rather than later.

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