Maryland extended a handful of new 2023 offers during June as the staff leveraged the facilities to host prospects for workouts. Among those to make it to campus was Flowers (MD) defensive end Desmond Umeozulu, who also camped at VT, UNC, and Duke.
Old Dominion also extended an offer to Umeozulu, but the Terps became the first Power Five school to offer which resonated well for the 6-foot-6, 230-pound defensive end. “It showed me the workout paid off through the offseason, which is good for me,” he told Inside the Black & Gold. “I won the edge rusher MVP at North Carolina and I got some good coaching up there so I thought I did good. I had some talks with Virginia Tech and North Carolina as well.”
Umeozulu will also lineup at tight end this fall but primarily as been working out on the defensive side, where he got a chance to work out with defensive line coach Brian Williams. “They had me at end. I was at the camp and I did good in my drills then one-on-ones, I won all three of my reps. I thought I was the best lineman there at the camp and coach [Brian] Williams worked with me a lot on my one-on-ones. We didn’t talk a lot before the camp but he has my contact information, my number now so we’ll start talking.”
Umeozulu was expecting an offer from the hometown school during the process, but was happy to earn one so early. “It was really exciting because that’s my dream school. Stay home, play in front of my friends and family, it’s just always been a dream of mine to get a Maryland offer. That red and yellow feels so nice and I just love the culture around Maryland,” he added.
“My coach is a coach for Big 33 and is pretty connected with Maryland and he told me that Maryland wanted to see me earlier this year. He wanted me to come to the camp and see what I look like in person then coach [Elijah] Brooks pulled the trigger like one week after the camp.”
The offer also gave him a chance to briefly reconnect with a pair of former teammates. “Tommy hit me up when I was at Maryland then Leron told me congrats what I got the offer.” Running backs coach Elijah Brooks is leading the way in the process. “Coach Brooks was like I can be a great addition to the team. He loved the performance at the camp, I showed good footwork in the drills and I did great in one-on-ones.”
You can watch his highlight tape here.
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