Another week and another quarterback prospect emerges for Maryland.

Late last week, the Terps offered a scholarship to Kernersville, N.C., quarterback Danny O’Brien, who promptly named UM as one of his leaders.

“Maryland told me they would offer me (Friday),” O’Brien said. “After they saw me play I called Coach Franklin and he said he felt good about offering. He talked to Coach Friedgen and they called my coach this morning. They said the offer would be in the mail.

“I’m pumped, they’re definitely one of my top schools. They and Duke are the two in the clear lead right now. Now that they’ve offered it’s really solidified them at the top. Coach Franklin runs a pro-style offense and that appeals to me a lot. He’s had a lot of success wherever he’s been, and Coach Friedgen is a great guy.”

• Penn State picked up commitments from two Maryland prospects this week, both of whom had offers from the Terps. Gaithersburg defensive end Sean Stanley and Oxon Hill wide receiver Brandon Felder both pledged to the Nittany Lions on Tuesday.

“I just wanted to be part of the Penn State tradition,” Felder said Tuesday. “I was impressed with the staff, and it’s a great school academically.”

• DeMatha offensive tackle Pete DeSouza, who sports a Terps offer, had good things to say about Maryland’s staff in this Yahoo Sports article.

“I’ve been impressed with Maryland because I’ve been there,” he said. “I enjoy being around them, the coaches and staff. I haven’t been to other campuses.

“I like Coach Friedgen and Coach Bratten. I think they are real. They are honest about what they think and their opinions.”

• Eleanor Roosevelt linebacker/defensive end Isaiah Ross has two teammates headed to Penn State, but the 6-foot-2, 235-pounder currently has Maryland as one of his leaders.

“I’ve got offers from Maryland and Buffalo,” he said. “I like both of those schools. Maryland is close to home and two of my former teammates are heading to Buffalo. I like both schools.”

• Philadelphia running back Rob Hollomon told Yahoo Sports that he’ll probably visit College Park for camp this summer.

“I’d say my favorites are UConn, North Carolina State, Rutgers, Pitt, and I’ll probably go with Maryland,” he said.

“I’ve been hearing from some Division I and Division I-AA programs like Akron, Villanova, Temple, UConn, Pitt, Rutgers and Buffalo. I believe I’m going to the Maryland camp, Villanova, FDU, Pitt, Connecticut, and I think I might go to Temple. I may go to a few more down south like North Carolina State and Clemson.”

• The [Charleston, S.C.] Post and Courier has updates on Matthews, N.C., linebacker Hawatha Bell, Gastonia, N.C., wide receiver Jheranie Boyd and Fort Walton Beach, Fla., linebacker Matt Coffee, all of whom claim Maryland offers, according to The Post and Courier.

Basketball links

• Plainfield, N.J., coach Pete Vasil told ZagsBlog this week that 2010 point guard Isaiah Epps will take an unofficial visit to Maryland June 24-25.

"There's a camp going on," Vasil said.

Maryland recently offered the 6-foot-2 Epps and told Vasil they're targeting him to be their lead guard in the Class of 2010.

• The Sun’s Rick Maese has an interesting column in today’s paper on a new service that performs extensive background checks on recruits for interested colleges.

The colleges ensure each academically qualifies, but most don't do thorough background checks on every recruit. That's part of the reason Maryland offered a basketball scholarship to Tyree Evans last month without knowing the extent of his criminal history.

• Maryland is one of many DI schools watching Spotsylvania, Va., power forward Josh Hairston, but according Fredericksburg.com, a visit to College Park hasn’t been scheduled for next month.

Hairston has received scholarship offers from Virginia, Virginia Tech, Maryland, Georgetown and Ohio State. He has unofficial visits set up next month at all of those schools except Maryland, but he also has another unofficial visit scheduled for Duke.

• Walbrook small forward Roscoe Smith sat out the spring AAU season to concentrate on academics, but that didn’t matter to Scout.com, which recently ranked him the No. 15 player in the 2010 class.

Our last guy in is Roscoe Smith. Absent from the AAU circuit this spring, his resume was bolstered this winter at Walbrook High School.

According to The Topeka (Kan.) Capital-Journal, Kansas has joined Smith’s list of suitors.

It seems Bill Self and Co. were busy over the holiday weekend. According to Rivals.com, KU has offered Roscoe Smith, a 6-foot-7 small forward from Baltimore in the class of 2010 …

For those that missed it ...

This is an update I added to Wednesday’s blog entry about Latay Darden.

I received a report Wednesday that Darden had not been cleared by the NCAA clearinghouse. I spoke with Branch about this, and he claimed there was a mix-up with Darden's social security number and birth date on one of the forms. So, Darden hasn't been cleared just yet. Either way, Maryland hasn't offered, and probably wouldn't unless everything was settled with the clearinghouse. It's wait-and-see at this point.

My apologies to the readers for the confusion. Believe me, I’m just as confused about the original quotes from Branch as you probably are.

Programming note

I’ll be out of town until Tuesday, so unless something crazy happens, I probably won’t have another blog entry until Wednesday.