Successful season opener could help recruiting efforts for WVU in DMV region – West Virginia MetroNews
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia’s roster currently features five players from Maryland.
As Neal Brown braces for the start of his third season as the Mountaineers’ head coach, he wouldn’t mind seeing that number increase in the near future.
West Virginia can perhaps take a step toward securing more talent in the DMV (Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia) by knocking off Maryland when the old border rivals meet at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Capital One Field for their first matchup since 2015.
“It has some [recruiting] implications,” Brown said. “If we were playing them at the end of the year, probably a little bit more so closer to Signing Day. But it definitely does. That’s an area that’s important to us.”
The Mountaineers have long recruited the area that helped land them one of the most accomplished players in program history — Baltimore native Tavon Austin.
But since Washington, D.C. native Mike Locksley took over as the Terrapins’ head coach in December 2018, he’s made it known keeping homegrown talent in College Park is one of the coaching staff’s top priorities.
The efforts have paid off, with Maryland’s 2020 and 2021 recruiting classes ranking 31st and 18th nationally, according to 247 Sports.
“Locksley and his staff have done a nice job of keeping a lot of those DMV kids right there,” Brown said. “I think that’s their goal. The more success they have, the better they’ll be able to do that. Going in there and getting a win will help our efforts for sure.”
One of West Virginia’s top recruits in the class of 2021 is wide receiver Kaden Prather. The 6-foot-4 Prather hails from Montgomery Village, Maryland, and will see action as a true freshman.
Offensive lineman Jordan White, another Maryland native, factors into the rotation up front for the Mountaineers. White played high school football at DeMatha Catholic — one of the most accomplished athletics programs in the country.
DeMatha, like many Maryland high schools, is known for its basketball prowess. Prince George’s County, where University of Maryland is located, has annually produced some of the top high school basketball recruits in the country for decades.
That list includes players such as Len Bias, Kevin Durant, Michael Beasley and Victor Oladipo.
Baltimore is also one of the top basketball cities in the country and has a lengthy list of players known for success on the hardwood, including Carmelo Anthony, Rudy Gay, Sam Cassell and Juan Dixon.
“It was such a basketball area for such a long time and it’s still a quality basketball area,” Brown said. “But the football has really improved and the coaching. There’s a lot of really good programs in that area.”
While he was offensive coordinator at Kentucky in 2013 and 2014, Brown and the Wildcats’ coaching staff tried to build a recruiting foundation in the DMV.
“There’s really no regional recruiting anymore at the highest level,” Brown said. “It’s taken on more of a national look, but it’s something we were noticing at Kentucky in 2013 and 2014. We were one of first schools going north in the SEC and now everybody is doing it, but it’s a really talented group.
“The other thing, too, is there’s a lot of population there, so where there’s a lot of people, there’s going to be more football players. That’s the way it works.”
Though it’s the first matchup in six years, Saturday’s season opener will mark the 53rd time West Virginia and Maryland have faced each other.
The Mountaineers have won nine of the last 10 after losing all four meetings from 2001-2003. Of those four, three were directed by quarterback Scott McBrien. Following a successful prep career at DeMatha, McBrien went to WVU before transferring to Maryland.
“When I grew up a Terp fan, this was a game that was always a big one on the calendar,” Locksley said. “Coaching under Ralph Friedgen here, this was one of those games where the hair would be up on the back of his neck, because he really didn’t like those guys.
“This week, I got a text from Scott McBrien, who became kind of a West Virginia killer during his time here. It said, ‘Hey man, it’s West Virginia week. Let’s go get them.’ Former players and traditional Terp fans understand that this is a regional border rivalry. They’ve had their way with us nine of the last ten games and we have an opportunity Saturday to create an identity for ourselves and show what kind of team we’re going to be this year.”