Maryland football landed arguably its biggest commitment of the recruiting cycle after four-star offensive tackle Jaylen Gilchrist picked the Terps over South Carolina and Georgia, signaling one of the most important commitments of the NIL era under head coach Mike Locksley. And Maryland continues to put the pieces together on a consensus top-20 class.
With Gilchrist now in the fold, Maryland football’s 2025 class rose to 26th in the country on both Rivals and 247, while the 21-man class checked in at 33rd on On3. While Maryland still has four months until signing day, the current class ranking marks the second-highest on both On3 and 247 since Mike Locksley became head coach of the program.
Maryland has been steadily putting the pieces together to reel in arguably its most talented and complete class of the Mike Locksley, capitalizing on the local talent led by a collective staff effort while the pursuit of assistant Latrell Scott gives the program a marquee win in Virginia Beach — an area that Maryland has worked to break into for years. While the local recruiting ties throughout the staff have laid the foundation for Maryland’s foundational recruiting haul in the 2025 cycle, Locksley adjusted his recruiting department to set the program up for its recruiting momentum.
“This landscape we’re talking about — general manager salary caps. I mean, college football is becoming more NFL-ish,” head coach Mike Locksley said at Big Ten Media Days. “I brought Brian Griffin from St. John’s College High School [who] also spent two years with the Atlanta Falcons. And we put in an NFL system for evaluation for how we go get players and identify players. And then we’ve got Merci Falaise leading up the charges. Our GM, we anticipated this landscape. And that’s the one thing when you expand the room and you bring diversity into it. I’ve had to navigate trying to figure out how to get to be a head coach again. Because of my experience doing that, when you get the NIL thrown at you, you get the pandemic thrown at you, you get expanded playoffs thrown at you, you just always think ahead. Because of how I was raised, the change doesn’t frustrate me.”
Maryland will look to maintain momentum on the recruiting trail when Warwick (VA) four-star safety Messiah Delhomme makes his decision in the coming weeks while local four-star Jayvon McFadden is likely to take his recruitment into the fall and the Calvert Hall (MD) twins — Asaiah and Alijah Hamond — remain uncommitted heading into August. Maryland also remains in the top group for Highland Springs (VA) three-star safety Brennan Johnson, though his timeline remains murky heading into his senior season.
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