New Jersey running back Johnathan Lovett will play his college football at Rutgers, not Maryland, he announced on Monday.
Lovett got a Maryland offer in late February, and his recruitment picked up steam over the last few months. He ultimately chose from a stated final four of Maryland, Boston College, Temple and in-state Rutgers.
Lovett is rated three stars on the 247Sports Composite, as the No. 75 running back in the 2017 class and the 25th-best player in the state of New Jersey. Maryland running backs coach Anthony Tucker has been his primary recruiter.
He told Testudo Times in February that he was open to playing either side of the ball in college, but Maryland had recruited him as a running back. The Terrapins signed three running backs in the 2016 class, so there's quite a bit of depth already at that position.
The level of high school competition in New Jersey is just so-so for the most part, but Lovett clearly has some physical gifts. He's got legitimate breakaway speed and could develop into a strong player with enough time.
As it's been pointed out in the comments, there's a reasonable chance Lovett couldn't have committed to Maryland right now even if the Terrapins had been his choice. Scholarship offers are sometimes sort of weird, in that they're "committable" when they're made on the spot, but then schools put players into a holding pattern while they wait (especially at skill positions) for slots to fill up. It's part of the reason verbal commitments are pretty dumb, generally.