Shawne Merriman tweeted at a high schooler to ‘lock it in’ and commit to Maryland

College football recently made a rule governing how schools are allowed to interact with recruits on Twitter, and now former Maryland linebacker Shawne Merriman appears to be using it to recruit someone to play in College Park.

It’s hardly a very interesting tweet, but hey, it’s still a famous former Maryland football player trying to get a recruit to come to Maryland. The recruit: Brock Sassler, the top-rated long snapper in the area.

It’ll be interesting to see if Merriman keeps this up. In some ways, the pass-rusher is an ideal role model for DJ Durkin to point to when selling Maryland to recruits. Merriman is a local guy from Upper Marlboro, Md. who stayed in-state for college and went on to have a successful NFL career, at least briefly.

Maryland still falls short in the alumni department when competing against some other schools. Former Miami tight end Jeremy Shockey tweeted at a bunch of recruits, including Maryland running back target Anthony McFarland, right in the beginning of August.

It clearly had the desired effect on McFarland, and Merriman probably won’t have quite that impact on recruits. Shockey is just more of a household name.

In other news

Walt Bell explained a little more about how his Maryland offense is going to work. Focus on the running game and less decision-making for the quarterbacks? Sounds perfect.

CBS Sports projects Maryland to end up playing Louisville in the Pinstripe Bowl. A bowl game! That’s good!

Maryland football is sorting out its depth chart as its defense faces a steep learning curve, writes Roman Stubbs.

Here’s a cool project I worked on dealing with the diets of the athletes and spectators in Rio.

Jake Bentley skipped his senior year of high school to enroll at South Carolina, and he isn’t an afterthought in the Gamecocks’ quarterback competition either.