With national signing day only a day away, preview the Terps‘ class of 2014 with a handy, commit-by-commit guide. Prospect profiles will run all the way through Wednesday (Feb. 5), when players can officially sign a national letter of intent. (SEE THEM ALL HERE.)
Name: Nnamdi Egbuaba
Position: Outside linebacker
Measurables: 6 feet 1, 215 pounds
High school: St. Frances
Recruiter: Mike Locksley
Finalists: Virginia, Connecticut
Rankings: 247: 3*, No. 101 OLB
Rivals: 3*
ESPN: 3*, No. 154 OLB
Stats/honors: 105 total tackles (17 for losses), 19 sacks; MIAA All-Conference (B Conference), second-team All-State
Quoted for emphasis: “The first time they threw me the [football], I caught it and I was like, ‘This ball looks funny, but I kind of like it.'”
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Breakdown: Grows up in an undeveloped African village. Comes to America with hoop dreams. Lives with a coach who shows him football is his meal ticket. Earns full athletic scholarship to local university. As Jeff Barker expertly details, Egbuaba “has traveled farther and faced more barriers than any of the players expected to sign with Maryland.” If St. Frances coach Messay Hailemariam, himself a former Maryland player, is “the black Rudy,” as he jokes, Egbuaba is something like the Nigerian Michael Oher. At the very least, his life is a Hallmark Movie Channel motion picture in the making. It might take some first-time football players two years to learn the basics of the sport. It took Egbuaba two years to be named All-State. Looking at his highlights, it would be inaccurate to call him a refined technician. He zooms around the field, fearless, as if he’s a kid in a go-kart who doesn’t know there’s a pedal next to the throttle. Hailemariam likened him to Shawne Merriman, a comparison that, for most any other three-star kid, would be unfair to both the former NFL star and the high school senior. With Egbuaba, though, it’s fair to believe.
Video: Hudl highlights