Maryland football commits impressed at Nike’s ‘The Opening’ D.C. camp

Nike’s The Opening D.C. regional combine brought hundreds of the area’s best football players to Centreville High School in Virginia Sunday morning. Many of Maryland’s top 2018 targets were in action, and all entered with the hope of snagging an invite to the camp’s national finals in Oregon this summer.

Austin Fontaine and Evan Gregory, Maryland’s newly-minted commits, sported Terps gear during the warmup period before each left to work with his own position group.

Gregory split off with the offensive linemen and showed that he deserves his four-star rating, stuffing defensive linemen at the point of attack.

Fontaine took his 6’2, 312-pound frame over with the defensive linemen. He had as good a combination of speed, strength and explosiveness as any lineman on the field, frequently depositing offensive linemen in the laps of quarterbacks-turned-pylons. He’s one of the best defensive line prospects to commit to Maryland in years, and his skill set was on full display all day long.

Despite being the lowest-rated of the three Terp commits in attendance, three-star linebacker Durell Nchami, may have had the best day of the bunch as he was named MVP of the linebacker position group. Nchami showed he’s capable of dropping into coverage and playing more of a traditional linebacker role. Maryland may have found an underrated diamond in the rough here. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to see Nchami’s ranking jump up after his performance Sunday.

Nchami was one of seven position group MVPs; there was also an “overall measurable” MVP given for performance in sprints and drills. Here’s a full list of all the MVPs:

• QB Devin Leary—three-star NC State commit
• RB Mychale Salahuddin—three-star recruit
• WR/TE Donta Anthony—unrated recruit
• OL Joshua Jefferson—three-star recruit*
• DL Jalen Brown—unrated recruit
• LB Durell Nchami—three-star Maryland commit
• DB Judson Tallandier—three-star recruit
• Overall measurable Mike Dowell—three-star recruit

*No composite available; 247Sports’ ranking

Ultimately, only four players Sunday would receive invites to the national finals. Five-star defensive lineman and Ohio State commit Taron Vincent, five-star running back and Penn State commit Ricky Slade Jr., five-star defensive back AJ Lytton and three-star running back Mychale Salahuddin each received invites to The Opening Finals. Salahuddin was the only Finalist to also be named MVP at his position.

Maryland’s 2017 recruiting class featured two Finalists and a handful of D.C. regional participants. The Terps had three verbal commits at Sunday’s camp, and they’ll be after dozens of other competitors between now and National Signing Day.