It was a good weekend in Maryland for football recruiting ... if you’re a Penn State fan.

On Saturday, Lackey cornerback Darrell Givens switched his commitment from Ohio State to the Nittany Lions.

Givens, whose teammate at Lackey High School, Malcolm Willis, committed to Penn State on April 29, had chosen Ohio State, but de-committed from the Buckeyes and chose the Nittany Lions over offers from Florida, Michigan and Oregon among others.

Then last night, Eleanor Roosevelt cornerback Derrick Thomas also pledged to PSU.

The 6-foot, 175-pounder is the third DB to announce for the Lions in as many days and fourth secondary player overall to pick Penn State.

He attended the PSU Nike Camp Saturday.

• Quince Orchard defensive tackle Terrence Stephens announced his verbal commitment to Stanford on Friday. The 6-foot-2, 280-pounder, who chose the Cardinal over offers from Maryland, Nebraska, NC State, Penn State, Syracuse, UConn and West Virginia, told Scout.com that Stanford’s education was a major factor in his decision.

“My mother is a single parent, so she obviously had to face the fact that she knows I’m leaving and leaving soon now which was understandably hard for here, but she is very happy in my choice and happy that I’m going to be happy, so I really appreciated that from here,” Stephens explained. “She was thrilled with the education that I’ll be receiving at Stanford above everything else and also really liked the coaching staff. She knew the opportunity for me coming out of Stanford was top-notch and that nothing else compared to it. My mother knew I was making a good choice.”

• Switching to basketball recruiting, ZagsBlog reports that Plainfield, N.J. point guard Isaiah Epps picked up an offer from Pittsburgh recently. In that update, Plainfield head coach Pete Vasil mentions Maryland’s interest in Epps.

The 6-2 Epps already holds offers from Maryland, Rutgers and Seton Hall, with Maryland head coach Gary Williams telling Vasil he's targeting Epps as his guard of the future out of the Class of 2010.