More on Zion Elee's huge-splash Maryland commitment: Why it's big, reactions and another five-star coming?
It hasn't taken long for Maryland football to transition from a painful season to offseason fireworks. After signing one of program's its best high school recruiting classes in recent years, Mike Lockley pulled off a shocker on Saturday in the commitment of five-star junior Zion Elee.
It hasn't taken long for Maryland football to transition from a painful season to offseason fireworks. After signing one of program its best high school recruiting classes in recent years, Mike Lockley pulled off a shocker on Saturday in the commitment of five-star junior Zion Elee, a defensive end from Baltimore ranked No. 1 at his position and second overall in the 2026 class.
Because he's only a junior, Elee's commitment is verbal and Maryland will have to fend off other schools until next year's signing day, which would give them their highest-rated signee in the program's history.
"St. Frances made the trip down to Florida to play Clearwater Central Catholic, which is a heavy run team with veer concepts and Elee looked really good against the run. The arrow continues to point up for him and it's easy to see why every school in the country wants him," 247Sports' Recruiting Director Andrew Ivins wrote. "Any other cycle, if we didn't have a quarterback like Faizon Brandon at the top of the board, Zion Elee would be our No. 1 player."
What does it mean for Maryland? What was the public reaction? More below:
More Ivins on Elee
"Elee made the transfer to Baltimore's St. Frances Academy before his junior season and has stepped up to the challenge of playing a national schedule. He's leveled up in competition and in the game against Duncanville (Texas) he was in Keelon Russell's face all game. Elee tests off the charts, his broad jump at the Under Armour Baltimore camp is one of the freakiest things I've seen since I've been in this role, and he's starting to put the pieces together as a well-rounded defender."The Elee file
Zion Elee is a 6-foot-3, 220-pound pass rusher with elite wingspan and athleticism.As a sophomore at Joppa town (Md.), he burst onto the national recruiting scene with 64 tackles and 13 sacks. After transferring to St. Frances, he piled 17 sacks as a junior.
Elee announced a final list of Alabama, Oregon, Penn State, Georgia and Ohio State last fall, but reopened his list and visited others, including Maryland. He sits atop Maryland's all-time commitment list as their highest-rated recruit, passing Stefon Diggs.
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More on the way?
It didn't take Elee long to begin making promises. Shortly after his commitment, he tweeted about two more locals joining him at Maryland."MY GUYS STAYING HOME TOO @3edwardbaker@immanueli24," he wrote, referring to five-star Georgetown Prep (Md.) offensive lineman Immanuel Iheanacho and Elee's fellow St. Frances Academy lineman, Edward Baker.
Like Elee, Iheanacho is an ultra-elite recruit, ranked the No. 2 tackle and No. 5 player overall in the 2026 class. The idea of Maryland signing two top five prospects in football is a foreign one, but they have traction with Iheanacho, who visited for multiple games this season.
Washington weighs in
Newly signed blue-chip quarterback Malik Washington's commitment paid dividends in the 2025 class, and Maryland was hoping that cool factor would carry over with the top locals in 2026."Yea I'm super excited, we are just getting started with the 26 class and that's a hell of a way to start it off," Washington told Sam Jane.
There was some speculation based on the timing of his commitment that he could reclassify to the 2025 class, but he told 247Sports' Brian Dohn he's not rushing to college.
"I'm staying in 2026," he said.
Visit helped seal the deal
One of those visits was to Maryland in October."This visit, in general, changed my view of Maryland ... From the coaches, the events, and the game, I now have heavy interest in Maryland and it's one of my top schools," Elee told Brian Dohn afterward.
"[Locksley] really talked about how he wanted me to stay home," Elee said. "How they are trying to build something with the local guys."
Maryland football's 2026 class ranking
Elee's commitment catapulted Maryland to No. 13 in 247Sports 2026 composite class rankings. It's way early, but Locksley has the , behind Oregon (No. 1 nationally) and Penn State (No. 3 nationally). Two of Maryland's three other commits are his teammates at St. Frances, tight end Damon Hall and cornerback Khmari Bing. They also have a commitment from Florida defensive lineman Brian Harris.Locksley had made huge strides at St. Frances. the national powerhouse in Baltimore that consistently lands high in the national rankings and cranks out loads of four and five-star recruits. For years, the Terps couldn't get anyone from the school. Then they began to get some solid but mostly three-star players from now. Now they're racking them up, with Elee and his teammates this year, and four-stars Kevyn Humes and Dejuan Williams last year.
Zion Elee's high school highlights from the first half his junior season
The 247Sports scouting report"One of the more complete edge prospects in recent memory at this stage of the evaluation process ahead of his junior season. It feels as if he was built in a lab to get after the quarterback, verified hovering around 6-foot-4, 220 pounds with elite length measurements and a combine testing profile that could be mistaken for a field-stretching X receiver. Verified athletic markers are good enough to compare favorably against Top247 caliber senior edge rushers from the past two recruiting cycles.
"Outside of the athletic traits, has a natural feel for the position that allowed him to rack up 13 sacks in only nine games, even though his bag of pass-rushing moves isn't deep at this stage of his development. Building blocks of his game are his lightning-quick first step, closing burst, and ideal reactionary athleticism. Laterally explosive and can quickly move gap-to-gap or chase down ball carriers from the weak side. Motor consistently runs hot, and there might not be a better edge rusher in the 2026 cycle at quickly redirecting to wrap up evasive quarterbacks."
