Maryland offers 2024 On3 top-15 QB Jake Merklinger
Savannah (Ga.) Calvary Day School four-star quarterback Jake Merklinger received an offer from Maryland on Tuesday night. He announced the news over social media.
Merklinger is the No. 79 overall prospect and No. 9 quarterback in the 2024 cycle, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He is also the No. 14 player in Georgia.
On3 rates Merklinger higher than other recruiting services, according to the Industry Comparison. Per the 2024 On300, he is the No. 15 overall prospect, No. 2 quarterback and No. 1 player in Georgia.
According to the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine, Michigan State is leading for Merklinger’s commitment at 35.8%. Florida has the next-best odds at 23.7%.
RPM was released to the public in December. The On3 engineering group teamed up with Spiny.ai to create the industry’s first algorithm and machine learning-based product to predict where athletes will attend college.
It factors in machine learning, social sentiment, visits and historical trends. However, expert predictions are still a big piece of the RPM equation.
The 6-foot-2.5, 195 pound signal-caller recently spoke with On3’s Chad Simmons about his recruiting timeline. He is planning to take his official visits around April.
“I’d like to take my officials around that time,” Merklinger told Simmons. “Hopefully, I can make a decision during the spring. If something does permit where I have to back it up, I said I probably won’t commit early, but if I just feel like it’s the right time, I might do it earlier. But I imagine it’ll be during the spring.”
Maryland does not have any commitments in its 2024 recruiting class. Meanwhile, the Terrapins have a quarterback pledge in their 2023 class from Fairfield (Conn.) St. Peters Prep three-star Robert Long.
Merklinger has an On3 NIL Valuation of $71K. The On3 NIL Valuation is an index that looks to set the standard market value for both high school and college-level athletes. The NIL valuation does not act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals an athlete has completed to date. It rather signifies an athlete’s value at a certain moment in time.