The college football recruiting game can get ugly, and Maryland suddenly finds itself dragged into the mud by a recruit of the national-champion Buckeyes for an apparent slight and wasted opportunity.
The player in question is defensive end Terrell Hall, a St. John’s College star and Washington, D.C. native who chose the Buckeyes over offers from Penn State and nearby Maryland, among others. Because he decided to leave the larger DMV (District of Columbia-Maryland-Virginia) area, Hall found himself the subject of attacks from passionate Terrapins fans, who felt he was turning his back on his roots.
Hall didn’t take kindly to that assessment, and was happy to let them know why he chose Ohio State. Among the reasons? Maryland was too slow, and too lackadaisical, when it decided to recruit him.
Here’s the full Twitter flow of Hall’s comments, as captured by College Spun.
Ouch. That’s a scathing assessment of Maryland’s scouting operations, and perhaps its ability to assess talent full stop. If they couldn’t see the potential in Hall, a 6-foot-5, 250-pounder with serious edge speed and strength, one wonders which other players the Terps might be passing on from their own camp.
Of course, all of that is based on the idea that Hall is definitely telling the truth, which we can’t be entirely sure of. Yet there’s no reason to think he would be lying about the recruiting process, particularly before National Signing Day. After all, you never know what might happen before next February.
Actually, you never know what might happen, but at this point you can be pretty sure that Hall won’t be playing at Maryland come fall 2016.