One of the toughest things for a new coach to do is to come up with a good recruiting class in his transition year. New Maryland football coach Randy Edsall therefore has to deal with a stacked deck against him. According to many analysts, he did a decent, if not spectacular job at doing that.
The Baltimore Sun asked several recruiting experts to give their take on Maryland's incoming class, and it was described as average by several analysts.
"I think overall it's an average or below average class for Maryland this year," said Mike Farrell, national football recruiting analyst for Rivals.com. "I think a lot of that has to do with the instability with the coaching situation even before this year. ... When they started winning [in 2010], it was too late. Most of the kids from the state of Maryland were looking elsewhere and had already established relationships with other programs. Then you have a coaching transition on top of it, and there's absolutely no way that this class would finish in the top of the ACC."
Rivals ranked the incoming class 47th in the nation and ninth out of 12 teams in the ACC. Edsall managed to keep most of Ralph Friedgen's recruits, but did cut loose three players and lost another one, Ryan Malleck, to Virginia Tech. In response, Edsall has secured commitments from defensive tackle Keith Bowers and defensive end Quinton Jefferson. They are also likely to land Bowie cornerback Jeremiah Handy, the No. 8 recruit in Maryland.