On Wednesday, The Sun’s Stefen Lovelace began a series chronicling the recruitment of Dunbar running back Tavon Austin, in Austin’s words. For the first installment, Austin updated readers on his recruitment up until this point.

So far, I've taken Junior Day visits to Maryland, Penn State, Rutgers and West Virginia. Dunbar football coach Lawrence Smith said that those schools and Michigan, South Carolina, Nebraska, Illinois, Syracuse, Boston College, Virginia and Wake Forest have all made scholarship offers.

Click here for a selection of YouTube highlights of Austin.

• Hoboken (N.J.) offensive guard/defensive tackle Isaac Holmes spoke glowingly of Maryland earlier this week. Holmes, who claims 10 scholarship offers, told Scout.com that Rutgers and the Terps are his two favorites.

"I love the vibe at Maryland and the coaches really show you lots of love," he said. "They seem very interested in me and I like how down-to-earth they are. Also, the campus is really nice and I like how everything is within walking distance and that the campus isn't too big."

• The Terps got an early jump on DeMatha offensive tackle Pete deSouza. According to this article from Yahoo! Sports, deSouza “kind of grew up an Oregon fan,” but Maryland’s proximity has helped him develop solid relationships with the UM staff.

“I’ve got offers from Maryland, Syracuse and Delaware,” he said. “Actually I like all of the coaches at those schools, but I’ve only visited one of them. I am planning to go to the other two. I’ve been to Maryland and their coaches treated me very well.”

• Maryland is one of eight programs to offer Verona (N.J.) linebacker Carlo Calabrese, but according to this article from Scout.com, the Terps might have some catching up to do.

Although he denies a leader, he said he favors Notre Dame, Penn State, Rutgers, Florida and Boston College. All of his favorites have offered except the Nittany Lions. He attended junior days at Notre Dame and Penn State already.

• Good Counsel running back Caleb Porzel, a one-time Virginia commitment, is back on the market, and Maryland is involved. Porzel is featured in the latest edition of The Washington Post’s Recruiting Spotlight. Click here to watch the video..

Basketball links

• In the wake of Motlow (Tenn.) Community College shooting guard Tyree Evans’ signing this week, Patrick Stevens of The Washington Times wrote an interesting take on Maryland’s history with junior college players. According to Stevens’ research, the Terps have now signed six JUCO players since 2001-02, the most of any ACC school other than Florida State, which has also signed six.

Make no mistake: The Terps have done about as well as could be expected with their JUCOs, especially their big men.

But it certainly makes you wonder why a program like Maryland --- which did, as coach Gary Williams will point out, win a national championship this decade --- needs to go this route and find quick fixes rather than reel in an extra guy each year from high school.

• Parade recently released its All-American teams for girls basketball, and one future Terp and one UM target made appearances on the list.

This season’s Parade teams include five players from Virginia. T.C. Williams’ Tierra Ruffin-Pratt was named to the first team, Potomac’s Lynetta Kizer to the second team and Notre Dame Academy’s Azania Stewart and Brooke Point’s Chay Shegog joined White on the third team.

• The aforementioned UM target, Alexandria (Va.) T.C. Williams guard
Tierra Ruffin-Pratt, was featured by the [Newport News, Va.] Daily Press earlier this week. Ruffin-Pratt had this to say about her recruitment.

Maryland, North Carolina, Duke, Rutgers, Tennessee, Connecticut and Texas are just a few of the schools that have offered Ruffin-Pratt a scholarship.

"I've heard that before," she said. "I'm open. I'll probably narrow it down by the end of July."