Larry Washington

A new four-year contract in pocket and a bowl bid in the bank, Joe Krivak has further parlayed the relative hot hand of Maryland's 6-5 football season into recruiting success.Yesterday's coup of Larry Washington brought to five the number of blue-chip recruits who have committed orally to Maryland.Where that puts the Terps in the eyes of at least one East Coast scout is third in the Atlantic Coast Conference recruiting season, behind Georgia Tech and North Carolina.It's barely a month old, but 1991 already looks like a good year for the Terps and Krivak, their coach.

Maryland has so many quality running backs that coach Mark Duffner might switch former Wilde Lake High star Raphael Wall to another position."We're awfully strong there, so we might move one or two," Duffner said. "Wall can play a number of positions -- running back, slot back [receiver] or defensive back."With the varsity players not due to report until Aug. 13, Duffner said the coaching staff is "still making decisions and nothing [is] final yet." But, he added, Wall, because of his versatility, has "great possibilities."

COLLEGE PARK -- Larry Washington, a sophomore running back from Randallstown, and Kevin Washington, a redshirt freshman receiver out of Dunbar High, have been suspended indefinitely from Maryland's football team for violations of team rules.Three other players also were missing from the Terps' first full-squad workouts yesterday.Coach Mark Duffner declined to disclose the length of the suspensions and the nature of the team rules violations by the Washingtons (who are not related), saying only they had been sent home and were no longer in the Dorchester dormwhere the squad is staying during preseason camp.

COLLEGE PARK -- Larry Washington entered Maryland under the burden of great expectations. That pressure hasn't lessened, and last year it was intensified by events that affected his family, his health and his future as a college football player."

COLLEGE PARK -- The University of Maryland coaching staff has seen enough of freshman running back Larry Washington during the season to decide he's ready for prime time.Roll the Washington highlight film, please:The first time Washington, from Randallstown High, touched the ball, he returned a kickoff 30 yards in the third game of the season. Two weeks ago, against Pittsburgh, he swept around right end, hurdled one defender, went through another while airborne, landed on his feet and ran 5 more yards for a 13-yard gain.

A 19-year-old and three juveniles were arrested yesterday on charges of murdering Tiffany Artina Fouts, 15, a Joppatowne High School student who authorities said was raped at a party Nov. 11 before dying in a nearby woods of alcohol intoxication and exposure.The youngest of the suspects, a 14-year-boy whose townhouse on Charlestown Drive in Edgewood was the site of the party, was charged as a juvenile with second-degree murder.The others, all from Edgewood, were charged as adults in indictments returned Thursday by a Harford County grand jury.

Moments after his team had come from behind in the second half to beat a tough Westminster squad, 22-14, Randallstown coach John Buchheister gathered his exhausted, third-ranked Rams (3-0) for a pep talk. In his first year at Randallstown, the coach and his players are still learning about each other, and Buchheister wanted to reinforce their confidence."This is what football is all about . . . We haven't lied to you yet," he said several times."We told them [Westminster] would be tough and they were," he explained later.

Randallstown High running back Larry Washington, The Sun's 1990 Player of the Year, is expected to announce today he will attend the University of Maryland, said sources close to Washington and within Maryland's athletic department.Washington has scheduled a news conference at 1 p.m. today to announce his decision.The commitment to Maryland, along with one from Wilde Lake High running back Raphael Wall on Thursday, would give the university probably the two best running backs in the state, as well as two of the best in the country.

Steve Kelley's future grows brighter with every handoff. He's No. 1 among area rushers, has scored all but three of Kenwood's 25 touchdowns, and is being compared to one of the best high school running backs the state has ever produced.But Kelley himself says his senior season is more about a lesson learned than status acquired or yardage gained. Every score is a swipe at erasing some bad memories.Kelley, a transfer from Chesapeake, had amassed more than 500 yards and four touchdowns last year.

When Eugene Marshall decided four years ago to attend Cardinal Gibbons High, it certainly wasn't because of the reputation of the school's football program. The Crusaders just had completed an 0-9 season in 1987 and had not had a winning season since 1982.But the basketball program at Cardinal Gibbons was top-notch. Twenty-win seasons were common under coach Ray Mullis. And college scholarships were certainly possible if you played basketball at Gibbons.That's what Marshall decided he wanted.