Sting Factor: Kobe Prentice's decommitment from Maryland
When a major program loses a key recruit, Rivals.com takes a look at how big of a blow it is to the respective school, analyzing it from a local and national level. To quantify the “sting” of each decommitment, we assign a score from 1-10, with one being no big deal and 10 being a catastrophic hit.
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THE STORYLINE
The recruitment of Kobe Prentice is one for the books as the three-star receiver committed to Maryland only to decommit about two weeks later.
The reason? The Calera, Ala., standout was unaware that Alabama had offered him after he worked out at a Crimson Tide summer camp.
Prentice picked Maryland over Arizona State, Kansas State, Coastal Carolina and others in late June.
Right around that time, Prentice worked out in Tuscaloosa and according to sources he’s one of the top handful of receivers now on Alabama’s board. The Crimson Tide came through with an offer.
But Prentice was unclear if he had one or not until he talked with assistant coach Freddie Roach. Shortly after that conversation, the three-star standout backed off his pledge to Maryland and reopened his recruitment.
Alabama was the childhood favorite and it would be really surprising if Prentice doesn’t pop for the Crimson Tide at some point.
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LOCAL REACTION
“While losing any commit hurts, if the Terps were going to have a decommitment, wide receiver was probably the best position for it to happen. Rakim Jarrett is a rising star and just a sophomore, while the Terps added Nebraska freshman transfer Marcus Fleming this offseason. Maryland recently got a commitment from three-star Florida speedster Perry Fisher for 2022 and also currently have New Jersey four-star athlete/wideout Amari Clark committed. Add to that the fact that Maryland is currently in pretty good shape with Rivals100 WR Shaleak Knotts and this one probably stings more for the fact that Prentice is likely to commit to Locksley’s old boss Nick Saban after Locksley was the first one to take a chance on him.” - Scott Greene, TerrapinSportsReport.com
Sting factor: 4
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NATIONAL REACTION
“Maryland does have a lot of talented players at receiver but the Terrapins haven’t had a winning season since 2014 and so they still need a lot of help across the board. Prentice would have been a perfect steal for coach Mike Locksley and his staff since he was an under-the-radar prospect who definitely has the skills to play at any program in the country. I completely understand that Maryland has Jarrett and many others at the receiver spot so help is needed elsewhere but no one would have turned down keeping Prentice on board. He was only committed for a few weeks so Maryland fans hardly knew him but Prentice would have been a big one to keep and now it looks like he will definitely end up in Alabama’s class. Even though his commitment was incredibly short, that still hurts.” - Adam Gorney, Rivals National Recruiting Director
Sting factor: 7