Maryland's not a football school, which means most of you probably don't think National Signing Day is quite worth the hulabaloo National Signing Day is getting at places like the Mothership. The gridiron Holy Grail of recruiting is a state-wide holiday in Texas and Florida; here, it's more like Columbus Day.
In fact, National Signing Day is by far the second-most important event going down in Maryland fans' minds tomorrow, because a tiny school called Duke is coming to town. Generally, that overshadows all else in Maryland sports.
Unfortunately, I'm not going to have the time to offer comprehensive coverage like I did last year. Here, where the hardwood rules the day, it's just not quite economical for me to take an entire day recapping the escapades, nor will you likely be interested in what I write. SBN HQ, as linked above, will be rocking with wall-to-wall coverage tomorrow, as will several more football-centric blogs on the network, if you're in to that kind of thing.
But just because we don't treat it like others may doesn't mean there's not important stuff going on, nor that you don't care at all about it. If you find yourself with time, there are a few Maryland storylines to follow on an otherwise nondescript Wednesday.
- A.J. Hendy is staying on board. Right? The biggest news of National Signing Day is already done, as one of Maryland's best and brightest recruits, Bowie CB A.J. Hendy, recommitted to the Terrapins last night. But high school players are notorious for being indecisive - just ask Lorenzo Romar or anyone involved in recruiting Louis Young. Hendy had decommitted not long ago, so it's worth watching to make sure he gets his LOI in.
- Can Maryland pull a Travis Hughes upset? It's been thought that Maryland likely would've landed Travis Hughes, highly-regarded brother of current Terrapin Trenton Hughes, had Ralph Friedgen remained in place. He ended up at UNC after the coaching change, but Edsall made an effort to get back in it with him. Mike Farrell says that he's definitely UNC-bound and that Maryland gave it a shot, but nothing's official until the LOI is faxed.
- Any more late defections? It happens every year. Maryland's already had a few, with Jimmy Stewart and Larry Mazyck going to Vanderbilt and Ryan Malleck decommitting. Considering it's a new coaching staff, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a late decommitment and switch to some other school. Hopefully Edsall can keep everyone aboard.
- Whatever's going on in the rest of the ACC. Maryland's biggest competition in the Atlantic Division in the coming years will likely be Florida State and Clemson. The Terps have a great foundation for the moment, but both are absolutely loading up with talent: they're both considered to have top 10 classes in the country right now. Meanwhile, UVA and UNC are still doing big things on the trail. I love my ACC brethren, but root against all of them on the trail.