Linebacker Alex Twine didn’t receive an offer from the Terps’ coaching staff until late in the recruiting process, but after several Terps injuries and a standout preseason, the 17-year-old is already seeing time on the field.
As recently as 10 months ago, Alex Twine hadn’t spoken to a single FBS school. And he was fine with that.
A linebacker at Gaithersburg’s Quince Orchard High School, Twine received his first offer from Massachusetts only last November, and he was quite comfortable with a future with either the Minutemen or another team in the FCS powerhouse Colonial Athletic Association.
That all changed when the Terrapins football team contacted Twine.
“After I got my first offer, I was excited then,” Twine recalled. “I didn’t think about Maryland or any other teams because nobody had really talked to me.”
As National Signing Day rapidly approached last winter, Twine’s recruiting path took a sudden twist. In December, he received a scholarship offer from former coach Ralph Friedgen, giving Twine a more prestigious option than he’d ever imagined.
“I was shocked,” Twine said. “I knew exactly what I wanted to do when I got the offer.”
Twine’s subsequent commitment in December and eventual role as a contributing true freshman this season has culminated a remarkable transformation.
He entered his junior season at Quince Orchard as a backup linebacker and special teamer with a largely untapped source of raw athleticism.
But when an injury gave Twine a chance to start for the Montgomery County power, he quickly began to recognize his potential, and after living in the weight room the next offseason, he dominated competition in his senior season.
“I just think he lacked confidence in himself,” Quince Orchard coach Dave Mencarini said. “Unbelievable athleticism, he just didn’t do it consistently.
“I told him he could be a scholarship football player. He worked really, really hard, and his senior year he really blossomed. When he hits people, he runs through them. He was clearly the best player on the field in every game we played last season.”
And so Mencarini fought for Twine. He knew that Twine was a “classic late bloomer” and had what it took to compete in the ACC.
The ACC just didn’t know it yet.
“I kept calling [former Terps recruiting coordinator] Dave Sollazzo and said, ‘You’re going to call me crazy, but you should look at this guy,'” Mencarini said. “He got the tape, and it was a no-brainer. Middle of his senior year, he came to a game and it was pretty obvious.”
After working his way from relative no-name to FBS athlete, Twine spent much of the offseason in limbo.
He faced the possibility of a redshirt year, and concern even existed that he would have to greyshirt — a seldom-used scholarship alternative that requires a player to pay his way through his first semester to preserve eligibility.
Once those issues were resolved, though, it soon became clear that Twine could expect to contribute right away.
“I didn’t really know if I was going to greyshirt or redshirt,” Twine said. “That was one of the reasons why I was always upset over the summer, because I really didn’t want to wait. … I was so worried about not playing, and now I’m thrown into situations I never thought I’d be thrown into before.”
The 17-year-old impressed coach Randy Edsall and his staff during preseason camp, and has appeared in all five games this season in varying capacities on defense and special teams.
Despite his youth — “I don’t really get made fun of, but they kind of kid with me because a lot of kids here are 22, 23 and I’m just 17,” Twine said — he’s proven capable of playing with the big dogs.
After linebacker Demetrius Hartsfield left in the third quarter of Saturday’s loss to No. 12 Georgia Tech with an undisclosed injury, Twine was called on for the first extended appearance of his career.
It wasn’t a storybook start for Twine. The Yellow Jackets ran right at him on his first play and scored a touchdown.
But as Georgia Tech continued to attack the youngster, Twine settled in and made two pivotal third-down tackles to force Yellow Jackets punts.
“He came in, and I turned back to him and I was like, ‘Twine, they’re going to take a shot at you,'” defensive tackle Joe Vellano said. “He stepped up. When you come in against the 13th team in the country, every play is a game changer. Last year he was playing against some high schoolers.”
While his transition from high school to college hasn’t been completely smooth on the field, his being just 30 minutes down the road from his hometown has helped the rookie adjust to college life off the field.
“I like it because a lot of people here knew who I am. I’m like a hometown kid,” Twine said. “It kind of makes you feel special that a lot of people know who I am and this is my school.”
Plus, he gets to enjoy some of the little comforts of home.
“It’s always good to have home-cooked meals,” Twine said with a smile. “My mom can come up and bring home-cooked meals, I can go see my family. It’s good that I’m so close to home, it makes me feel so much more comfortable.”
He’ll have a national-television audience eyeing him tomorrow, when he again starts at weakside linebacker against No. 8 Clemson in place of the injured Demetrius Hartsfield.
Still, given the work ethic he showed off during his development from a high school role player to a 17-year-old contributor in the ACC, there’s little concern he’ll be ready for his latest on-field challenge.
“Alex Twine was a backup to [Hartsfield], and he goes down, so he’s got to go right in there in the second half,” Edsall said. “But because of how he practiced and how he prepared during the week, it didn’t surprise me that he went out and played as well as he did.”
cwalsh@umdbk.com
