Profiles In Terpage - A Countdown to the Football Season: Kingsley Opara

Thanks to Gaylen from Black Shoe Diaries for this marvelous work of Photoshop excellence.

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Today we profile the last of the true freshmen defensive linemen.

Kingsley Opara, Freshman, Nose Tackle

Stats:

Height: 6'3"

Weight: 280

Twitter: @future40million

Collegiate Stats: N/A

High School Stats (Senior Year): 42 tackles, 11 for a loss, ten sacks, three forced fumbles

Recruiting Ratings: Three stars by 24/7 (#62 DT, #140 in Florida), Rivals, Scout (#91 DT), ESPN (#85 DT, #192 in Florida)

High School: Mandarin

Hometown: Jacksonville, Fla.

High School Highlights:

How'd he get to College Park?

Opara was a soft commitment for a while, originally committing to Maryland in June of last year, who has said he was waiting to see what turned up after a big senior year. He was thinking specifically about UNC and NC State, and after first eliminating the Tar Heels he was planning on visiting the Wolfpack campus. Then, the head coaching change occurred (or you can blame the Curse of Yow) and Opara ended up sticking with the Terps.

Opara played in the Florida Athletic Coaches Association North-South Classic and was named to the Florida Times-Union Super 24 team.

He was offered by NC State, UNC, West Virginia, Wake Forest and UConn among others, and was recruited to Maryland by Lyndon Johnson, who it appears is trying to reinvigorate Don Brown's Florida pipeline.

Nickname:

"The King"

Career Highlight:

Committing to Maryland.

Dream Season:

Three games through the season, Opara wrestles away the starting nose tackle job from Darius Kilgo.

2013 Prospectus:

At nose tackle, including Opara, Maryland has five options - current starter Kilgo, former offensive lineman Nate Clarke and walk-ons Alex Walker and Azubuike Ukandu. If they decide to play Opara (instead of redshirting him), he should have no problem overtaking Walker and Ukandu on the depth chart.

So the focus for Opara will be Clarke and Kilgo, who we will naturally talk about more in depth later on in the series. Both of them have two important advantages: size and experience - both are bigger and have played in the program. But Opara is a highly-rated prospect with good hands and great size to build on, and it would not be a surprise at all to see him as Maryland's nose tackle by the end of this year. Now, of course, the smart money is on Kilgo holding on to the job (especially considering how well he performed last season), but an Opara-anchored D-line is not out of the realm of possibility.

Up Next:

Our next player is the brother of a former Terrapin.

adam.akelson gets his first.

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