Keep' Em Home

            So today was National Signing Day, the day that high school football seniors can sign a binding letter of intent to the NCAA College or university of their choice.  College football fans everywhere will be logging onto sites like  Rivals and  ESPN , excited to see what new players will be entering their favorite schools come this fall.  Year after year, the same schools lead the way for reeling in the top recruits.  With a quick glance you will see schools like Alabama, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Texas, landing multiple players ranked in the top 100.  However, if you go back and look at the lists more closely you may see another trend.

            Though most high school seniors can’t wait to move on to new states and begin their college careers and adult lives, most of the larger universities are able to land a recruit from their own home state.  For example, this season out of the 12 Texas recruits in the top 100, 10 of them opted to attend either Texas, or Texas A&M.  Likewise out of the 3 Virginia natives in the top 100, one selected Virginia Tech, while the other two opted to attend Virginia.  Elsewhere in Maryland, the trend doesn’t quite seem to carry over.

            Three of the top 100 players reside in the state of Maryland, two of which have opted to attend Alabama and Florida St, while the remaining one has yet to decide.  University of Maryland fans most likely aren’t holding their breath waiting for him to declare that he’ll be playing his college ball in Maryland either.  Since 2002, the state of Maryland (and the D.C Metro area) has produced 26 top 100 recruits.  Out of those 26 recruits, the University of Maryland has landed five, and only one since 2005.  In 2006 the state of Maryland had 5 prospects ranked in the top 100 and somehow managed to let them all slip away.     

            I understand that we don’t exactly have a college football powerhouse in College Park, but it’s still a state University.  This is unacceptable!  Following a year where a well respected coach was fired from his position and a new coach has come in and completely derailed the program, you have to make a statement by getting those players.  I’m sorry, but after what I saw last year from the terps on the gridiron, one guy from the top 250 players in the country (Wes Brown, 188) AIN’T NOTHING TO BE PROUD OF!  DO BETTER!   We have enough embarrassing teams in this area.