Former Oklahoma quarterback Drew Allen visiting Maryland, would be eligible immediately

Well, this is interesting. Randy Edsall's finally taking a page from the Mark Turgeon Book of Immediately Eligible Transfers, it would seem, as Maryland is one of the schools courting former Oklahoma quarterback (and immediately-eligible graduate transfer) Drew Allen.

Ex-OU QB Drew Allen is planning on visiting Cuse, Maryland & ArkSt. He graduates in May & will be eligible this fall.

— Bruce Feldman (@BFeldmanCBS) March 14, 2013

Allen comes from a big-name school, but he's been a career backup to Landry Jones and doesn't have a long resumé. He's attempted 30 career passes (did complete 60%, though) and even coming out of high school was a three-star recruit, not bad but not of the elite level you'd expect given the Oklahoma name. But he's experienced and an older head, and given that Maryland's quarterback position is unsettled at best there can't be much harm in pursuing him.

He certainly wouldn't walk in to the job, given that he's never seen serious time for Oklahoma. But he'd instantly slide into the battle as one of the top three contenders, and given that the other two are every bit as unproven as he is, he'd have a shot at winning it. I'd stop short of saying he'd necessarily improve Maryland's chances next year, but if you get to the point where you have three to five generally competent options, like Maryland would, there's a good shot at least one of those will turn out pretty decent. Allen would give Maryland another ticket in the drawing, as it were.

In fact, I do wonder a bit about the timing; Maryland's several practices into the spring now, which means Edsall and Mike Locksley have seen plenty of Ricardo Young in action and even C.J. Brown is working in individual drills. If there was ever a time to know whether or not the Terps needed more competition under center, it'd be now.

Of course, he actually has to choose the Terps for any of that to matter; Syracuse and Arkansas State will likely have less logjammed QB spots, which will likely count for something given that he only has one year of eligibility left. Still, even if ends up elsewhere (or ends up in College Park and isn't the answer at quarterback) it's good to see Edsall looking for a creative solution - something that didn't happen last year and, at least to some degree, cost the Terps.

High school highlights, for those that want to check them out, are here. They're old, but at least kid's definitely got the legs for the zone-read.