When Joshua Kaindoh, No. 18 in the ESPN 300, committed to Maryland on April 30, it was just the latest example of the Terps’ rejuvenated recruiting.

So, in his first few months on the job, new head coach DJ Durkin landed Maryland’s highest-ranked commitment since 2012. And it’s been Durkin’s energy that has infected the staff and is resonating with some top prospects.

“Our head football coach is unbelievably relentless when it comes to recruiting,” offensive coordinator Walt Bell said. “It’s something that we do every day, something we talk about every day and something we spend time on every day. He fosters that environment, making it important, demanding that it’s important to every coach and every grad assistant in the building that’s allowed to recruit.”

The recruits in the DC-Maryland-Virginia area have seen the change and no coach is mentioned more than Aazaar Abdul-Rahim, who was previously the head football coach at Friendship Collegiate Academy in Washington D.C.

To say Abdul-Rahim is well known in the area is an understatement and recruits think that hire was one of the biggest for Durkin to help secure the top prospects in the surrounding area.

ESPN 300 defensive back Deon Jones has known Abdul-Rahim since his days at Friendship and believes he could be a difference maker for the Terps in the future.

“Every time I talk to him he’s energetic and you can just tell he’s determined for a change at Maryland,” Jones said. “… My brother played for him at Friendship, so I’ve known him for awhile and I have that trust with him that what he says is going to go.”

Quarterback commit Kasim Hill is also crediting Bell’s work and youth with the quick spring turnaround.

“He has worked with other great coaches and he knows his stuff very well,” Hill said. “… I think with recruiting going forward, he will be huge because he’s a very good coach, a cool guy and him being at a young age in College Park when things take off will appeal to a lot of people on the offensive side.”

Bell, who has also coached at North Carolina, Southern Miss, Arkansas State and Oklahoma State, has taken a lot of what he learned at those places and combined it with what Durkin is teaching him now at Maryland. Bell now knows exactly what he’s looking for at Maryland, especially in a quarterback prospect.

“I think the most important thing is that he has to have one or more tools that you can build around to win with because the name of our game at this level is making the quarterback successful,” Bell said. “… inside the white lines are very secondary to personality types, the ability to learn and all the things you can’t see on tape that actually make a quarterback a good or bad football player.

“… If he can get the job done, I’m good.”

Now all the coaches have to do is put it together on the field and win. The Maryland coaches all feel that they are in the right spot at the right time and that they are moving in the right direction.

“If we can manage to keep some of the recruits home on top of being at a great university like the University of Maryland,” Bell said. “Everything is trending in the right direction due to foresight of our president, the athletic director and all the people that allow us to build this into a great place. We don’t get to choose when the timing is right, but I feel like we stepped in at a time where this thing is really trending in a direction that hopefully if we can hold this thing together for the first couple years, we can build something incredibly special.”