National Signing Day 2017: 4-star CB Tariq Castro Fields commits to Penn State over Maryland

Maryland football won’t get one of its top remaining targets in the 2017 recruiting class, as local four-star cornerback Tariq Castro-Fields committed to Penn State on National Signing Day.

The Terps appeared to be very much in the running for Castro-Fields, who announced a top three of Alabama, Penn State and Maryland early in January.

But the Nittany Lions ultimately took the upper hand in his recruitment, with head coach James Franklin striking to get his first blue-chip recruit from Maryland’s home turf in this cycle. Last year Penn State captured four of Maryland’s top 11 recruits, while the Terps only got two.

247Sports Composite rankings have the the Riverdale Baptist prospect as the No. 7 recruit in Maryland and the No. 32 corner in the 2017 class.

Maryland wanted Castro-Fields as another piece to team up with blue-chip commits Deon Jones and Markquese Bell to rapidly improve its secondary, but that won’t be the case. The good news for Maryland is that it does have Jones and Bell committed and enrolling early. Those two give the team talent to work with, and make this recruiting miss easier for the program to swallow.