For McDonogh junior Jared Cohen, the thought of representing his home state while playing football in college was just too enticing to pass up.
In February, the 6-foot-4, 290-pound offensive lineman became Maryland’s first commitment for the 2014 class. The Terps have offered him a scholarship as an inside guy, and most likely will end up playing guard.
“My decision to pick Maryland was pretty easy to tell you the truth,” Cohen said. “It is about an hour from my house. My parents and grandparents can come to my games and that is a big thing for me.”
Cohen attended Maryland’s Junior Day and that sealed the deal, reaffirming that College Park was where he wanted to call home for the next four or five years.
“It sort of reassured me that it was where I wanted to go,” Cohen said. “They were the school that was in contact with me consistently throughout the football season and for a while now. They proved they wanted me to go there. They were putting in a lot of effort.”
Cohen said down with his parents and weighted the possibility of other schools offering him, and if those offers would be more enticing than Maryland’s. Deciding that an opportunity to play at Maryland outweighed all other possibilities, Cohen decided to pull the trigger.
“The plan was to commit before my senior year,” the junior said. “I wasn’t actually planning on committing so early. I sat down with my parents. After choosing Maryland over every possible school that could offer, I decided that I wanted to be the first commit and let the coaching staff know that I wanted to go there.”
Cohen chose Maryland over Duke, Virginia, Iowa, West Virginia, and Penn State
One of the advantages Cohen has when he enrolls at College Park is the fact that he plays in the MIAA which provides him with the opportunity to go up against other Division I caliber players on a weekly basis. That opportunity played a huge role in the Hampstead native choosing to transfer to McDonogh.
“It is a huge advantage playing in the MIAA,” Cohen said. “I thought to myself that if I were to play at North Carroll, I would get less college looks because I am not playing against top competition every week. Being able to play against D1 recruits in high school will definitely help the transition to college. It is just a step up for me to be able to play with the talent in that league.”
Growing up, Cohen had played football, basketball, and lacrosse. When he reached high school he decided to give up basketball and focus on lacrosse. The plan all along was to see which sport gave him the best options for college. The decision ended up being made for Cohen.
“You don’t see many 300-pound lacrosse players out there,” Cohen said.
When Cohen enrolled at McDonogh, he did not anticipate seeing the field much his first year. Three games into the season though, he found himself starting. That was when he first realized that he had the potential to play at the Division I level.
“I first started thinking playing Division I was possible when I was going up against players like Emmanuel Holder (Towson), Henry Poggi (Michigan), and Melvin Keihn (2014),” Cohen said. “Eventually I was able to hold my ground and block the and I just started to think to myself maybe I do have what it takes and then the schools started contacting me and it took off from there.”
Cohen’s former teammate at McDonogh, Roman Braglio, currently calls College Park home and definitely had a hand in Cohen’s commitment.
“He told me that he loves it there and said that he had no regrets in his decision,” Cohen said.
For Cohen, it just seemed like everything lined up perfectly, familiarity with some of the players on the team, his relationship with the coaches, and entering the Big 10.
“I felt a lot of love from the coaches,” he said. “It really seemed like they wanted me to play there. I thought them entering the Big 10 was a good thing. We will be playing against some of the best competition in the country. You can’t beat going to school an hour away and playing against some of the best players and teams in the country. Them going to the Big 10 was the icing on the cake.”
Cohen enjoyed the courting from college coaches but is glad the recruiting process is over.
“I enjoyed it,” he said. “One thing that was kind of tiring was traveling around on the weekends. You go to the games and watch, and that was kind of tiring.”
One tactic that he found helpful in figuring out what coaches were telling the truth and what coaches were telling him what he wanted to hear was just through interacting with the players.
“When I went up to Rutgers I talked to the players and they told me how rigorous the academic program is and how much they have to study,” Cohen said. “I am not saying that I am looking for a college that is easy, but that kind of steered me off a bit. The coaches will tell you it is easy but when you talk to the players you get a good idea of what the work load is like and what college football is like at that school.”
Between now and the time that Cohen puts on a Maryland uniform he realizes there are quite a few areas he needs to improve upon.
“I definitely need to get stronger,” he said. “I need to be more solid and get my conditioning up. I just have to work on my all-around game and up it one more step because it will be a lot more faster in college. I will be playing against people who are exactly my size instead of high school where I am bigger then people. I am pretty well balanced in regards to my blocking but if I had to pick one, I would say I would be better pass blocking because McDonough has always been very pass oriented.”
Now that Cohen is on board, he plans to do some recruiting of his own.
“I talked to Johnathan Thomas, a running back from Massachusetts at the Spring Game,” he said. “I have been talking to him on Twitter. He seems like he really likes Maryland. I was trying to talk to Sam Mustipher but he committed to Notre Dame, but I was really working on him. I am definitely going to reach out to Melvin Keihn. He is a great player from Gilman and would be a very good asset if he were to come to Maryland. I haven’t been in much contact with him but I definitely plan on doing that before the beginning of the season and building a relationship with him.”
