How Maryland football moves on from missing 4-star ATH Trevon Diggs

Maryland target and Four-star ATH Trevon Diggs (The Avalon School) committed to Alabama Saturday, so the Terps are now left to move on after missing out on one of their top in-state targets.

While Maryland would have loved to stick Diggs in its defensive backfield, the team reportedly recently switched his offer to wide receiver.

He would have formed an impressive wide receiver tandem with 4-star DeMatha commit Tino Ellis, and the vision of Diggs hauling in bombs from Dwayne Haskins will be a tough one for Maryland fans to to get out of their heads. But all is not lost for the Terrapins.

Haskins is still the centerpiece of the recruiting class, and an attractive centerpiece at that. The 4-star quarterback was always the team's most important recruit. As we've seen in the past decade of Maryland football, talented wide receivers don't make a powerful offense- talented quarterback do.

Stefon Diggs, Torrey Smith and Darrius Heyward-Bey are a few guys who were clearly talented during their time at Maryland, but none were over-the-top dominant in college because no one could get them the ball. There's no one recruit Maryland will go for to try to replace Diggs, because Haskins will still have some talented weapons at his disposal. While Diggs was the fourth-best recruit in Maryland, according to 247 Sports composite, Tino Ellis is the No. 9 recruit in the state and fellow Terps receiver commit D.J. Turner is No. 13. So instead of Ellis and Diggs as the freshman receiver tandem, it's going to have to be Ellis and Turner.

The rest of the wide receiver unit will also have to step up for the Terps. This isn't an impossible task, as the team has talent and currently has no scholarship seniors at that position. Leading receiver Levern Jacobs, who has 26 catches for 272 yards and two touchdowns, has one year of eligibility remaining, and his brother Taivon has shown flashes of ability in limited appearances this season, including this 70-yard touchdown:

Freshman D.J. Moore has at times looked like the team's most impressive receiver this year, averaging 14.8 yards per catch, but he'll have to become a more consistent threat next year for the Terps. He's averaging less than two catches per game, a total he'd probably have to triple next year to become the threat Maryland needs.

The loss of Diggs hurts the Terrapins on defense, too, although their recent offer switch from cornerback to wide reciever suggests he probably wasn't going to play on that end even if he did come to Maryland. That said, the Terps have some work to do on the recruiting trail, because Will Likely is the only member of the starting secondary with eligibility remaining after this season, and even he's not a sure thing to return.

Having Diggs at corner would have probably locked down one of the key positions on defense for a few years, so that hurts. The ship has probably sailed on getting a quality replacement in the secondary in the class of 2016, so finding a quality corner (or two) will be one of the team's primary concerns when recruiting for the class of 2017.

Maryland's offense will be fine if Haskins lives up to his reputation. It's up to the coaching staff to make sure the Terps can find a back end for the defense.