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Maryland football recruiting: Jared Cohen commits to North Carolina

From Terp, to Tar Heel, Jared Cohen goes from being Maryland's first recruit of their 2014 class, to potentially playing for a longtime Terps' rival.

By Patrick Donohue
247sports

Since becoming the first pledge to Maryland's 2014 class all the way back in February 2013, Jared Cohen's status as a future Terp has recently been put in doubt, and is now officially a thing of the past.

The 6-feet-3, 275-pound offensive lineman from the McDonogh School in Owings Mills, Md., has now committed to longtime Terps' rival North Carolina, after deciding to decommit from Maryland on December 20.

When Cohen announced his intention to decommit in a lengthy statement on his Twitter account, it was thought that he was doing so in order to pursue a visit to his initial "top school" Penn State.

However, new Nittany Lions' head coach James Franklin elected to fill his class with other options, and after Cohen received an offer from UNC on January 8, he has elected to go in that direction.

Cohen is a three-star prospect according to the 247sports composite and is rated as the 22nd-best offensive guard in the class and the 10th-best player coming out of the state of Maryland.

Although his official offers came from Maryland, Penn State, and UNC, Cohen also received interest from Duke, Iowa, NC State, Rutgers, and Virginia.

Cohen would have been the second recruit for the Terps this year out of the McDonogh School, joining safety Josh Woods, who committed to Maryland in November.

Video of Cohen in action can be seen here.

Pete Volk, Testudo Times managing editor: This one hurts quite a bit, as it would have been easier to swallow if Cohen ended up at Penn State -- his favorite school since childhood. Instead, Maryland loses their first commitment from the 2014 class to a program that is both around the same level in prestige and a late-comer in Cohen's recruitment. He would have had an opportunity to start at Maryland immediately on the interior line, and the Terps may now look elsewhere to fill out the class.

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