The Maryland football team added a monster to its defensive line when Frankenshaw committed to the program Monday morning.
David Shaw, as he's more commonly known, a junior from Spring Grove, Pa., is the fourth commit in the Terps' 2014 class and the first defensive recruit in the class.
The 6-foot-6, 275 pound defensive lineman brings a combination of speed and strength to the line in addition to his work ethic. Shaw's nickname, Frankenshaw, came about when Spring Grove assistant Greg Bowman watched Shaw do a drill called "Frankensteins," where he lifted one leg forward, touched his toes and switched to the other leg.
Shaw comes from a family of Division I athletes, as his brothers, John and Jim, both played at Penn State and his father, James, played at Colgate. Shaw played nose guard for Spring Grove for the past two seasons and helped the Rockets rebound from a 1-9 season in 2011 to win the district championship in 2012.
Spring Grove coach Russ Stoner, who was an assistant at Central York (Pa.), coached against John and Jim before accepting the Spring Grove coaching job in 2011. Stoner sees many similarities in Shaw's play that he did when he coached against his brothers, especially a "tremendous" work ethic that is "bred throughout their family."
"David, in my opinion, is a combination of the two," Stoner said. "Jimmy was a defensive player that was just a very aggressive defensive lineman that caused a lot of problems in our area. Johnny was a bigger offensive lineman that was a pretty good technician. So I think David basically has the makeup of both of them. … I see him as a dual threat — he's big, he's fast, he's quick and he's got a little bit of something from his brothers."
Though Shaw got some attention from other Division-I programs, the connection with Maryland was always there. Terps coach Randy Edsall grew up in just 10 miles from Spring Grove and played for Susquehannock (Pa.) and Stoner was teammates with Maryland offensive coordinator Mike Locksley at Towson.
Shaw plans to enroll early in the spring of 2014, which Stoner says will continue his development and help ease the transition from high school to college football.
"I think he has every right to play young there," Stoner said. "He's a big, physical, strong, athletic player and he plays extremely hard and it'll give him the opportunity to play early at the University of Maryland."
cnthomas@baltsun.com