National Signing Day 2017: 4-star RB Cordarrian Richardson commits to Maryland from outer space (?!?!)

Maryland football received a surprise commitment from Memphis, Tenn. running back Cordarrian Richardson on National Signing Day.

This came out of nowhere, as Maryland already had three verbal commits at running back, including four-star Anthony McFarland, who signed last week.

Richardson is the No. 10 running back in the country on the 247Sports Composite. He was committed to Clemson in March, but left the Tigers’ class in December.

He attended Trezevant High School, a school whose football program went through an odd couple of weeks back in October. It forfeited a couple of football victories, then decided a week later it was un-forteiting those wins, according to The Jackson Sun.

Rivals mid-atlantic recruiting analyst Adam Friedman noted that Richardson will have an ‘uphill battle’ to qualify.

The school’s status appears to be related to why he decommitted from Clemson. He told Scout’s Ole’ Miss affiliate a week ago that he was leaning toward the Rebels “90 percent.” Maryland wasn’t even mentioned in that article.

Here’s an update on his story from FOX Memphis reporter Peter Fleischer:

This is intriguing, given the fact that Maryland’s coaching staff has almost completely changed since Richardson’s freshman year. The school hasn’t yet tweeted out a confirmation that it’s received his National Letter of Intent.

We’ll update this story when we find out more about Richardson’s academic standing, but this appears to be another steal for the Terps.