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Five-star Florida defensive end Joshua Kaindoh announced his verbal commitment to play football at Maryland Saturday on Twitter. He is the program's highest-rated recruit since Stefon Diggs signed with the Terps in 2012.
— Joshua Kaindoh (@_jkaindoh) April 30, 2016
Kaindoh's recruitment was a winding road where he appeared to be headed to Maryland, then wasn't, and now is again. 247Sports predicted College Park as his destination almost two weeks ago. Then Kaindoh tweeted out a top four that consisted of Notre Dame, Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan. Not Maryland.
But after the Terrapins appeared to be out of the running for his services, reports continued to suggest they had a chance at landing him.
On Friday, Steve Wiltfong of 247Sports said, "My prediction is Maryland although I expect Kaindoh to still take visits following this decision."
Wiltfong was in the minority of analysts by predicting Kaindoh would commit to Maryland, but he was dead-on.
Kaindoh is the No. 1 weak-side defensive end in the class of 2017 and the No. 4 player in Florida, according to the 247Sports Composite. He is Maryland's second 2017 verbal commit from Florida powerhouse IMG Academy, joining four-star defensive tackle Cam Spence. Kaindoh grew up in Maryland and attended Mt. Carmel High School in Baltimore before transferring to IMG.
Still, it's a long way until National Signing Day, and other schools will no doubt continue recruiting Kaindoh hard. Commitments are never official until a player signs on the dotted line. But for now, DJ Durkin and his staff deserve to be excited.
Kaindoh figures to start right away when he gets to Maryland. With Roman Braglio graduating after the 2016 season, that figures to open up a logical spot for Kaindoh to slide into. But he's the kind of player who doesn't need a spot to open up in order to be a first-year starter. Kaindoh would probably end up a starter on 90 percent of the teams in the country. He's just that good, and Maryland fans should be excited.