Maryland football’s highest-rated target in the Class of 2018 is off the board. Five-star cornerback Anthony Lytton committed to Florida State Thursday night.
#Tribe18 pic.twitter.com/SYucMW7Drr
— AJ (@Lil_ajj1) April 27, 2017
Lytton is the No. 1 player in Maryland, the No. 3 cornerback in the country and the No. 21 overall prospect in the Class of 2018, per the 247Sports Composite rankings. He’d been a Florida State lean for quite some time, as experts unanimously — and correctly — predicted he’d commit to Florida State.
It’s the second straight year a five-star prospect from Maryland has committed to Florida State. Last year, it was Joshua Kaindoh, who played his junior and senior seasons at IMG Academy in Florida.
Maryland pushed hard for Lytton and even got him on campus two weekends in a row leading up to the spring game, but ultimately came up short. The Terps’ efforts aren’t a total waste, though, and they’re certainly not done recruiting Lytton. Any Maryland fan who follows recruiting — and maybe even some who don’t — knows that verbal commitments aren’t binding. If the Terps were to somehow flip Lytton, it would be thanks to their early efforts and persistence.
That being said, this was an uphill battle for Maryland anyway. That hill just got a lot steeper.