Baltimore Sun: How did Maryland land Quincy Wilson? The inside details that involved the governor, school president & more

"“I was talking to my mom about this a couple days ago,” Wilson said. “Why start something from scratch? Why restart something if it’s already working? Why rewrite another part of my life somewhere else when you can keep on building to the resume that you have here in Maryland?”...
Valmon made clear Maryland wasn’t trying to win Wilson with a hefty NIL offer. He focused on the educational resources available to Wilson, who is interested in broadcast journalism at Maryland’s esteemed Philip Merrill College of Journalism, and how to best prepare him for the 2028 Olympic Games. And of course, what it meant to represent the state."

So does this mean his HS coach will continue to be involved in his college training? It almost sounds like a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality to me.

I enjoyed the article. I liked the anecdote about how the big booster was stunned.

I mean from a non-track person's view it's incomprehensible hat a program that is literally last in a 17-team Big 10 would land him. So they deserve a lot of credit for even going after him. But track is an individual sport, Valmon was a 400 guy and in many ways, the fact that the program is so bad as a whole, is good for Wilson as there will be no Britton Wilson type situation where he's injured from doing too much.

As a Maryland resident, who spent 10 years working in college sports, I think it was very smart to do the full court press. If Maryland is going to be good at sports, they have to become the go-to destination for local talent.

This fall lots of die-hard fans wanted to fire the football coach Mike Locksley as they lost 8 in a row. As a more neutral observer who is a Maryland resident, I was like, "Are they crazy? The only hope Maryland has is they start landing the big-time local stars. They aren't going to out recruit a Michigan, Ohio State, nationally. No chance. And he's getting the big local stars."

Their local freshman QB was amazing. They also had two really good DEs that were freshman that were local (one from Maryland one from Philly. Philly doesn't sound local but it's 2:15 away from the campus).

I honestly thought they should either keep Locksley or give up on football tall together and just spend all of that NIL on basketball and become like a Villanova or something.

So thumbs up to the administration for even trying. I'm pleased they didn't just ignore the coach of the last placed track team as being irrelevant. Getting local talent is the key to the school's chances in many sports.

PS. But when they say it's not about the money, it's often about the money. Anyone from a rival school who lost out want to share what numbers were being thrown around?

It’s remarkable that the governor and university president got involved in recruiting Quincy. I could see that happening for a football star, but I would have never imagined it would be done for a track athlete.

It shows there is greater interest in our sport than we may realize, and it’s also a testament to how special Quincy is.

Did they mention anything about how Maryland does not have and indoor team and therefore he will not be able to do indoor big10s or NCAAs?

Is Maryland going to bring back indoor track? They have a new AD this year.

I assume part of the draw for Quincy was that he can really do his own thing here.

If they could create a Bullis/UMD pipeline, I believe they could be decent in the big10. The basketball team has on/off years, but in 2020 when they won regular season big10, most of the team was from dematha(down the street)/baltimore.

The funding is the biggest problem there right now for track . They have seemed to recruit a couple sub-1:50 800 guys this year though. I do wonder if they go here because they don’t have to run cross haha.

We often talk about building a fan base. Perhaps Quincy will generate paying crowds to see Maryland T&F.

His presence and success could well be the draw for local talent to join him and improve themselves and the team.

Often, I read sports articles asking "who would you build your team around?" Maybe this is that moment for Maryland.

No mention of indoor in the article. I forgot they didn't have men's indoor track. So he can't run NCAA indoors? I guess not, He can do the pro circuit and USAs.

Maryland will always have a good basketball team. You only need 5 players. There is a ton of tradition. It takes a lot of bodies in track and basketball.

If I was the AD, I would not be trying to build a track team powerhouse. You aren't beating Oregon. Let's be realistic. They are going to do what most ADs hope to in the Olympic sports - have a few superstars every now and then that make it to the Olympics and make a nice story in the alumni magazine.

In these super conferences, consistently competing for team titles in track is crazy hard. There are 17 team in the Big 17 I mean Big 10. Maryland scoed a combined total of 12 points (9 men, 3 women).

In my mind, the marketing of "the top talent wants to stay in the DMV" is worth 7 figures for Maryland just in terms of trying to get other recruits in the sports they do care about. I would love to know how much he got to go there, however.

I like it. He gets to stay home. He gets the normal college experience, etc. There is no pressure at all to produce for the team. He gets the benefit of having an NCAA title as a goal but basically being allowed to compete like a pro if he wants.

Lol. No. See my previous post.

rojo, as a life long Maryland fan I must say that Mike Locksley, the football coach, is a good recruiter and likable but a terrible football coach. Just look at how his teams make penalty after penalty and blow chance after chance. Malik Washington regressed last year as a Qb.

Maryland would be better off if they made Locks a "school recruiter " for all sports and keep him away from the sideline because Mike Locksley is not a good coach.

Maryland is the worse College Track Program in the USA - They don’t even have indoor track as a Men’s Sport!! Quincy going there is a JOKE to most people as Valmon has not won a single track meet as a team since he became the coach!! Quincy will have NO teammates than can make up a 4X400. For example, 51.5, 52.2, 51.3, and 45.00 is a horrible RELAY!! Sydney can beat the rest of the Maryland men’s team!!

He will transfer to Texas A&M, Baylor, or LSU in the next 18 months. (Once he gets used to living away from home.).

He's a generational talent but will get sick of anchoring the 4x400 while 4-6 seconds behind.

How much is Under Armor paying QW?

Come on....Maryland? Program is Track CRAP. School is mediocre at best. Be real.

Quincy is the University of Maryland's second best sprint recruit every coming out of high school. Would be great if his career turned out even better. Even coming close would be fun to see. Seemingly very nice kid.

Ever, (not every), after the astoundingly good Renaldo Nehemiah, who set the 110 meter hurdles world record while at Maryland.

I know this probably had no factor but UM has one of the best campuses of any college in America. I had 3 older brothers and visited colleges with them and for myself all up and down the east coast, nothing came close to UM.

That’s amazing! Glad to hear he’s in the Maryland area. Now comes the hard part: develop him into the world conquering runner he clearly has the talent to become. Can UM do it?

this whole thing has me wondering how many will go to that school just to run with him

Interesting coverage. I'll just say that seeing him live back in July at the Ed Murphey Classic in Memphis, you realize what star power is. The only time I've felt that sort of electric current flow through a crowd is in that scene from "Without Limits" where Billy "Pre" Crudup is running an early race at Hayward Field and a crunchy rock chord sounds as the crowd suddenly alerts: a rock star is born! It was like that. Uncanny. EVERYBODY stood as he came around the final curve. So the kid's got something rare, and it sounds as though he grooves to the hometown feeling. It sounds silly, but Occam's Razor might be in effect.