Maryland football accused of tampering to add transfer kicker

Yahoo

23-05-2025

Former Richmond kicker Sean O'Haire headlines Maryland football's under-the-radar transfer portal additions this offseason. The Ireland native went 12-for-12 on field goal attempts this past season, only playing in four regular-season games as a true freshman to preserve eligibility, meaning he can play four seasons for the Terps.
O'Haire is a quality addition for coach Michael Locksley's squad, but Richmond coach Russ Huesman isn't pleased with how he says the recruiting process transpired.
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'Maryland tampered with our kicker and gave him $50,000,' Huesman told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. 'They came in, they tampered. The kid had zero interest in transferring, they offered him money. It happens all over the country, and there's nothing the NCAA's going to do about it.'
Huesman says there was no previous inclination that O'Haire planned to transfer. He believes Maryland reached out while O'Haire was still on Richmond's roster in hopes of luring him into the portal, which would break NCAA rules.
'He's got an unbelievable future,' Huesman said. 'This was not on him. This was on Maryland. This was on [O'Haire's] handlers. It was on a lot of other people that I'm not real happy with.'
Maryland's athletic department declined to comment on Huesman's statements when asked by The Baltimore Sun.
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This isn't the first time Huesman has teed off on the transfer portal this offseason.
In December, Huesman bemoaned the current state of college football. His starting quarterback Camden Coleman and his top two receivers (former Terp Nick DeGennaro and Landon Ellis) left the Spiders for in-state program James Madison. Star safety Matthew Traynor joined Wisconsin, and running back Zach Palmer-Smith left for the University of Louisiana Monroe. Offensive lineman Keith Gouveia will play for Pittsburgh in 2025.
'There's no loyalty anywhere in the country,' Huesman said. 'It's absolutely ridiculous with what's going on out there in college football. I'm disappointed that loyalty doesn't play a part of it.
'Every one of these kids we recruited said the Richmond degree was a big reason why they came here. And so now it's not quite as big a deal. We sign them. We develop them.'
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It's not a major shock to see Richmond have defections within its football program, especially to schools like Maryland.
The players left the program as the Spiders are set to move from the Coastal Athletic Association to the Patriot League. The CAA is regarded as a more prominent Football Championship Subdivision, receiving four bids into the 2024 postseason. The Patriot League was just a one-bid league.
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Traynor and Gouveia left Richmond for Power Four programs, while the three James Madison commits joined a program that's 28-9 in three seasons since moving up to the Football Bowl Subdivision. Their new destinations offer increased name, image and likeness opportunities. Maryland opted into the proposed House settlement, with plans to share revenue annually with football players. Richmond also opted into the settlement, but outlined that it plans to share revenues with the men's and women's basketball programs, rather than prioritizing football.
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The higher level programs also offer more exposure than Richmond, which rarely appears on national TV. Maryland's 2025 schedule includes notable games against Wisconsin, Nebraska, Indiana and Michigan. With a strong Big Ten career, O'Haire could potentially propel himself into the NFL. Before O'Haire, kicker Chad Ryland transferred to Maryland after four seasons at Eastern Michigan and was drafted in the 2023 fourth round. Since 2021, all 10 kickers taken in the NFL draft played at a Power Conference school.
O'Haire's situation is not unique to college football, either. In 2024, former Alabama coach Nick Saban acknowledged on ESPN's 'College GameDay' that he tried to get Toledo cornerback Quinyon Mitchell to join his program despite the future first-round draft pick never entering his name in the transfer portal.
Still, Huesman has been miffed by the transfer portal's negative impact on his program. The Spiders added freshman kicker Jackson Bonser after O'Haire's transfer, and the coach made a tongue-in-cheek comment that his new kicker could soon be on his way out the door, too.
'We got to see him in the spring, signed him, and probably in a year or two, Maryland will come back and cheat and steal him,' Huesman said of Bonser. 'That's the way it goes out there.
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'It's not just Maryland. It's everybody.'
Have a news tip? Contact sports editor Bennett Conlin at [e-mail], 410-332-6200 and x.com/BennettConlin.