He bears the same last name as one of the most successful NFL coaches of all time.

That’s because Craig Parcells, one of 17 football recruits who signed a National Letter of Intent to attend the University of Maine Wednesday, is the nephew of new Dallas Cowboys coach Bill Parcells.

Bill Parcells formerly coached the New York Giants, New England Patriots and New York Jets and won two Super Bowls with the Giants.

Craig Parcells’ father, Don, played college football at Army and another Parcells brother, Doug, played on the offensive line at the University of Virginia. Bill Parcells played at Colgate and Wichita State.

Parcells is a 6-foot-6, 270-pound tight end from Short Hills, N.J. who chose Maine over the University of Maryland and the University of South Carolina.

“He had a lot of people come around early. They were all over him. But when it came time to put up or shut up, Maine put the [scholarship] offer on the table. They really wanted him. And I’m glad he took it,” said Don Parcells.

“Craig visited Maine. He liked it. He liked the coaches. They did a really good job with him,” added Don Parcells. “It’s a good school and I think he’ll be happy up there. He’ll have a shot to contribute right away, which is great.”

Parcells, who also played defensive end at Milburn High School, was a first team All Northern Hills Conference selection and was chosen to the Super 100 all-star team in New Jersey.

“We knew the bloodlines were strong,” said Maine football coach Jack Cosgrove. “But we recruited him on his ability, not because he was Bill Parcells’ nephew.”

Cosgrove admitted he was surprised Parcells didn’t wind up at a I-A school instead of I-AA Maine..

“Size and ability-wise, we feel he’s a notch above our level of play,” said Cosgrove, who certainly isn’t complaining.

“He is a big, physical and skilled tight end,” said Cosgrove. “He’s very similar, physically, to our present tight end, Danny Fusco.”

There were three Maine natives on the list: Bangor High School kicker Nick Achorn and offensive linemen Shawn Demaray from Livermore Falls High School and Jacob Folz from West Paris and Oxford Hills High School.

“Nick has a tremendous amount of potential,” said Cosgrove. “He is further ahead of [2001 kicker] Chris DeVinney at this stage of his career because DeVinney was more of an athlete and less of a kicker while Nick is a true kicker.”

DeVinney, 8-for-10 in field goals in 2001, suffered a hamstring injury last fall and Mike Mellow (10-for-18) replaced him.

Both will be juniors in the fall.

Cosgrove said the 260-pound Demaray and 250-pound Folz attended the university’s summer football camps.

“They have demonstrated a strong work ethic and we think they’re going to develop into two good offensive linemen down the road,” said Cosgrove.

The other offensive line recruits include 280-pound Northern Valley Old Tappan (N.J.) teammates Dimitri Vallis and Matthew Dogali and 270-pound Rome, N.Y. native Bryce Baldwin.

The other incoming freshmen are defensive backs Manauris Arias (Union City, N.J.), Derrick Hall (Jeannette, Pa.) and Daren Stone (Lockport, N.Y.); defensive ends Alexzander Gomez (Hyde Park, Mass.) and Patrick McCrossan (Sparta, N.J.); linebackers Dustin Ziacik (Saxonburg, Pa.) and Anthony Hicks (Newark, N.J.); wide receiver Arel Gordon (Rochester, N.Y.), quarterback Anthony Cotrone (Valley Stream, N.Y.) and fullback Kenneth Henry (Forked River, N.J.).

“We had 20 kids visit the campus and 17 committed to us,” said Cosgrove. “It used to take us 55 visits to get 15 kids.

“We have a lot of athletic ability in this class and a lot of toughness. We look for that. We want guys who want to scrap and play football the way it was meant to be played.

“There’s a lot of durability. A lot of these guys played more than one position,” added Cosgrove, who is coming off back-to-back Atlantic 10 championships and NCAA Tournament berths.

His Bears have gone 20-6 the last two seasons, including two NCAA Tournament wins.

He praised his assistants, administrators, faculty members and students at Maine for their contributions to the recruiting effort.

All National Letters of Intent signings are contingent upon admission to UMaine and compliance with NCAA rules, including registration with the NCAA Clearinghouse.