ATH Sanders Commings Jr. (6-2, 195) of Augusta, made an unofficial visit to South Carolina on Saturday and talked with his recruiter, John Hunt, and defensive back coach Ron Cooper. He plans to return for the South Carolina State game and meet with baseball coach Ray Tanner and he said he might use that trip as his official visit. He also plans to set official visits with Georgia, Florida and Georgia Tech. He's also looking at Auburn, Maryland and Wake Forest. Commings had hoped to make a decision before his first game this Friday but he's not sure he can make one before then. South Carolina is recruiting him as a safety.

So Maryland will have to duke it out with Auburn and Wake Forest for that fifth and final official visit -- assuming he doesn't make his decision before that. It doesn’t seem promising, but once you get a kid on campus, there’s no telling how much that recruitment could change. If anyone needs a reminder of how good Commings is, check out his YouTube highlights.

"Being one of the top football teams in the area, there are a lot of people that want to beat us and want to see us lose," Tate said, acknowledging that opponents are so motivated to play DeMatha that they often play better than they look on videotape. "Most people do tend to play harder against us. They want to be known as the team that beat DeMatha and they're not all this or that."

DeMatha opens its campaign on the road at the University of Cincinnati. Tate and company square off against St. Xavier of Cincinnati as part of the Kirk Herbstreit Classic. The game will be televised on ESPN on Sunday at noon.

Checking in with two commits …

Boykins suffered a sprained right knee in last week's scrimmage against Phoebus.

"He's walking around fine, but I don't want to push him," coach Richard Morgan said. "I'd rather hold him out now than have it linger the whole season."

Hillside senior Gary Douglas said learning how to zone block has been the most challenging part of playing running back. He struggled with bending low on blocks and selecting the right defender to engage in his zone.

"It's harder than you think," Douglas said. "I still have a little more work to do. I'm almost there."

There’s no question that plenty of highly-recruited running back prospects enter college with little understanding of the importance of blocking. For Maryland fans, it’s good to know that Douglas won’t be one of those players.