Signing Day: The DMV’s place in the ESPN 300
Signing day, every year around this time hundreds of kids take time to announce their college decisions to the college football world. There are at least a dozen different sites that rank these young men every season, mostly all use a rating system involving stars. One of the most popular or most referenced is ESPN’s top 300, today we’ll focus on the Washington D.C, Maryland, and Virginia area(s) known as the ‘DMV’ by locals.
The area is known for being a hot bed of talent in the basketball recruiting world, but they do just as well on the football side of things. For whatever reason, those players seem to fly under the radar until they are in the NFL. Before we share the members of the area that made the ESPN 300, let’s keep this in mind. The Super Bowl that was just played featured no four or five star recruits, the NFL’s MVP and Defensive player of the year were a Junior College transfer and a two star recruit coming out of high school. So why there is reason to be excited about the ranking, it means nothing until we see the final product.
Annual reminder that it’s not all about how many stars you have or how many cameras show up at your signing. It’s what you do next.
— JJ Watt (@JJWatt) February 4, 2015
J.J. Watt, a two-star recruit. pic.twitter.com/UIWoh35Qfp
— Dylan DeSimone (@DeSimone_80) February 4, 2015
3-star DT, but we see superstar potential with @AaronDonald97! #AD4DROY#RamsNSD15 {http://t.co/m6vw4cnrCF} pic.twitter.com/4cqGgFesNI
— St. Louis Rams (@STLouisRams) February 4, 2015
Let’s get started with the members of the area that made the ESPN 300 list of recruits. Below are the players, what area they are from, their position, height/weight, school they committed to, and ESPN 300 rank.
Josh Sweat Chesapeake, VA DE 6’5 , 240 Florida State 5-star (11)
Tim Settle Manassas, VA DT 6’3, 339 Virginia Tech 5-star (19)
Adam McLean Gaithersburg, MD DT 6’2, 293 Maryland (83)
Matt Burrell Jr. Woodbridge, VA OG 6’4, 291 Ohio State (94)
Ricky DeBerry Mechanicsville, VA DE 6’2, 235 Oklahoma (132)
Clelin Ferrell Richmond, VA DE 6’5, 225 Clemson (136)
Garrett Taylor Richmond, VA CB 6’1, 187 Penn State (139)
Richie Petitbon Washington D.C. OG 6’4, 313 Alabama (151)
Marcus Lewis Washington D.C. S 6’2, 187 Florida State (159)
Jahvoni Simms Virginia Beach ILB 6’1, 237 Virginia (162)
Darvin Taylor II Chesapeake, VA DT 6’2, 300 Florida State (170)
Pat Allen Reistertown, MD OT 6’6, 282 Georgia (210)
Isaiah Pruee Greenbelt, MD OT 6’6, 270 Ohio State (223)
Jalen Christian Damascus, MD WR 5’10 South Carolina (252)
Grant Newsome Mclean, VA OT 6’7, 290 Michigan (253)
Jonathan Holland Potomac, MD DE 6’5, 225 Penn State (265)
Kai Locksley Baltimore, MD ATH 6’4, 190 Texas (289)
Chad Smith Sterling, VA OLB 6’4, 213 Clemson (290)
Juwaun Briscoe Waldorf, MD ATH 6’0, 182 (293)
*Remaining players were 4-star recruits
*ATH-athlete, WR- Wideout, OT-offensive tackle, DT-defensive tackle, ILB-inside line backer, OLB-outside line backer, DE-defensive end, S-safety
