Maryland football receives commitment from West Virginia transfer linebacker VanDarius Cowan

After losing a few players to the transfer portal since becoming bowl-eligible, Maryland football has added a future reinforcement to its defense.

Redshirt senior linebacker VanDarius Cowan, who transferred from West Virginia, announced his commitment to the Terps on Saturday.

The 6-foot-4, 236-pound linebacker has spent the last three seasons playing in the Mountaineers’ program. In 2021, Cowan has played in 10 games and totaled 15 tackles, 11 of which are solo and one sack.

Throughout his career, Cowan has struggled to stay on the field despite having a solid amount of potential. He sustained a season-ending knee injury as a redshirt sophomore in 2019, and a year later, he started the opening two games of the season before having another knee injury that kept him out for seven total games.

Cowan is a former Alabama commit and he started off as a four-star linebacker, per 247Sports. When he was a freshman at Alabama, he was dismissed from the team for violating team rules before eventually moving on to West Virginia.

With freshman linebackers Branden Jennings and Terrence Lewis out of the picture, Cowan is a suitable replacement to the team’s linebacker corps.