Wayne (OH) four-star offensive tackle Aamil Wagner wrapped up his midweek official visit to Maryland as the Terps made a big move on the 6-foot-6, 265-pound target.
“It was a great visit. I didn’t really know what to expect coming to Maryland but it was great. It was a good chance to meet with the coaching staff and just get a chance to spend some time with them,” Wagner told Inside the Black & Gold. The Terps began pursuing Wagner earlier in the spring and didn’t stop their efforts after being omitted from the four-star’s top six schools. When Wagner made it to campus, the Terps rolled out the red carpet.” This visit came a little later in the process. It met what I was expecting just sitting with some of the coaches and talking with some of the players and just building a connection with head coach Mike Locksley, some of the university leaders so it was a great trip.”
Henry Frazier gave the staff a connection to get back into the mix. It was then when Wagner began doing his own research on the Terps’ offensive line coach. “So he and my dad are in the same fraternity so they had built a connection because my dad knows everybody north to south, east to west so he knew dad. I had a couple of friends in the area that was pushing me to get in contact with coach [Henry] Frazier and so he, along with my uncle, is actually golfing buddies with coach [Brian] Braswell. I think after my uncle had talked and asked around and found out I was a recruit I was after, coach Braswell gave me a call and I started to look more into his history and seeing where he coached. He coached at Cleveland and I’m a big Browns fan, he coached Joe Thomas which is my favorite player of all time. He coached some legendary players and he has a great football mind so I took a visit there.”
The highlight of the trip was when Wagner and his family met with University of Maryland president Darryll Pines. “I got an opportunity to meet the school president which was good. That was a great experience for me because at other schools, I met the dean but this is the first time I met the president of the university. That kind of blew my mom away, really cool experience.”
Wagner also took advantage of his time with his host, Spencer Anderson, to ask questions as he basked in the quality time with the coaches and players. “I spent a lot of time with the coaches, coach Braswell but me and him were together usually at night. Like one night we went out and played Top Golf, but it was a good experience. I got to ask some good questions, ask about him, talked about coach Braswell and he said is a little bit of a technician as a coach. Every little fine detail, he wants to work on and make perfect which is what I like a lot about him.”
Wagner admitted it was clear to him that he’s a priority for the Terps this cycle. “Definitely. I got that feeling when I met the president. I already knew how important it was to meet him, especially the first day that I was there but for him to actually know who I was was an amazing experience. That was awesome, honestly.” It helped that head coach Mike Locksley was with Wagner for what felt like all 48 hours. “I was the only guy in there that day so I was around coach all the time. When I was at dinner, sat next to me and talked the whole time and we got to be ourselves and we talked about the process, his future and what he has in store, and his plan at the University of Maryland for the next few years. He told me that he used to coach at Alabama and has the same game plan to build the program back up at Maryland. He talked to me a lot about how he’s building the program but also making it that he’s building better people, better players, better young men so it was really everything that I was looking for.”
Wagner has already taken four official visits to Kentucky, Ohio State, and Notre Dame with an official to Penn State set to begin on Friday morning. With Maryland outside of Wagner’s original top six, the four-star prospect admitted it’s “moreso a top five” now.
“I think it’s moreso a top five, replacing Stanford and Auburn with Maryland. I think the ability to actually sit down with the coaches and talk with Maryland, I think that helped.”
The four-star revealed his commitment timeline.
“I’ll announce it at the All-American game in January but before that, get a couple gamedays visits in and actually watch them, see the atmosphere and things like that. I think I’ll probably make my decision in October, September area then announce it a couple of months later.”
Wagner is rated a four-star prospect and a 94 overall by 247Sports, sitting as the third-best prospect in Ohio and the nation’s eighth-best offensive tackle.
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