Will Any Sports Recruits Stay in College Park?

Seriously, it was mildly humorous when the Maryland Terrapins basketball program was faced with multiple defections from recruits, but now with a prized quarterback recruit backing out of his commitment, this reeks of something much larger. Basketball more than football has been plagued by indecisive teens and failures of communication in the recruiting process, but Ralph Friedgen, like Gary Williams, hasn't landed that kind of recruits that will put him over the hump in the ACC standings. For both sports, that means another year of lowered expectations and probably less support for the program. As for the recruits themselves, the changing of addresses before their arrival can be indications of a couple of things. The most obvious is that current players are telling recruits that they should not come to College Park, either in protest of current coaching staff or for selfishly-motivated reasons. More than coaches, boosters and family, current players yield the most sway over impressionable and talented high school athletes. It could be possible that Maryland just doesn't have the facilities that widen the pupils of well-traveled athletes. Maryland is not in the poor house by any means, but its rare to hear commentators and experts glowing about the weight rooms, dorms and eating facilities on campus at Maryland. Finally, and most likely, Maryland just does not have the kind of booster pull that other schools have. As unquiet as it is kept, players need their families and themselves to feel pampered in the recruiting process. The coaches and athletes can talk about the career and sex options, respectively, but only boosters have the money and the leeway to show money to these kids and their loved ones through undetectable channels. I know. We don't like to hear that Maryland or any other school should have to resort to the money game to get good players, but the bottom line is that the players are getting everything they need from somewhere else. After originally thinking that everything they needed was in College Park.