Assuming Mensah, Brokate are in…Will add in any further portal additions or departures. Will add thoughts to this in the next few days/weeks. 1st group is guys I think can start or be high on the 2 deep for pretty much any schoo, or at least 95% of schools in the country
(The two walk-ons I believe to be put on scholly are Nick Kelly a DB from Cali who plays on ST…And Ruskavich the TE from VA…I may be wrong or there may be others, there are also two long-snappers I BELIEVE both to be on scholly, one is form Indiana an incoming frosh, one from NC) . There may be others, but they are included in these numbers
I have also including Chase Smith back for a 6th year, which I don’t know yet is the case but the rumors are this is so (would definitely ease the loss of Aguirre), I will delete him if this is wrong.
11 out of my top 25 are portal…Same as we ended this past season with (11 portal +1 juco to end '25). And love that (my) top 4 players on this team are local kids including 2 young’s which will help moving recruiting locally moving forward. Also fwiw, first time no IMG kid on the roster in a few years.
Skeeter, that seems like a pretty small South Florida group. Do you think it’s just due to lower numbers of top players we are going after, more kids looking elsewhere, or Miami having a more national target approach?
We didn’t replenish much this year from Sofla…Small class with only 2 additions (woulda been 3 but Toney bumped up a year and the rest is history!). I would expect bigger in the future but who knows with these kids.
Also the South Florida net from the portal (everyone is portaging nowadays but surprise South Florida kids have way way way too much pride to sit on UM’s bench an extra year), but we were net -4 from the Tri County in the portal this cycle (added Weinberg, Hampton, Hussey and lost 7 kids). I mean look at those loaded Chaminade teams, besides the big dog Jeremiah Smith, UM had 3 Chaminade kids get on the field early (Patterson and Trader from 24, Simpson from 25)…They are all gone now, one is pretty much a bust, and another Trader is dangerously flirting with (In all fairness even in December interview Trader seemed like a great kid). I’m not close to the South Florida scene, but that overall South Florida diva mentality and in the case of Chaminade kids, being treated like gods for being a good high school player already seems to be a very real thing?
I like that Cristobal has put his foot down both while these kids are being recruited, AND after they get on campus. We already have what 4 commits from next year’s cycle from Sofla? So I think we will be fine, but you can only coddle these Sofla kids too much. We are at the point right now where we LITERALLY DON’T need to beg them, we are a top 8-10 program that just played for the damn ship.
Recruiting ain’t what it used to be and sometimes you only need one person in a kid’s ear that he needs to take just a little bit extra money and it’s disrespect that UM doesn’t want you more than this team 2000 miles away.? If we stay at around 90-95 kids I think you will see that number creep up in the 25 range, but it’s actually just fine and dandy that we are leaving no stone unturned nationally
I used to say about 33% of the roster being from Sofla and about 55-60% from the state of Florida is important to UM. I think 25 and 50 works just fine now.
There is also something to be said about look how much these Fla kids are transferring, it’s happening all over the country, but it’s ridiculous now in Florida. My Sofla list in the other thread. What is there 4 or 5 from Dade out of 35? Because most of them are at the 3 big private schools in Broward and many of those kids are on their 3rd school already? So really they aren’t loyal in high school, so why do we expect them to be loyal (and again this is me speaking as a fan, honestly the world is smaller now and many kids just want something new) in college choice or staying after a year or two.
First letter is current grade of starters and high 2 deep, 2nd letter is depth, 3rd letter is where we finished last season (the end season version of the 1st number)
As of right now I’m thinking this team would be around a 5 pt underdog to where we ended the season, but this is very very early. Will learn more in spring, etc
QB A-/ B-/ A-
RB A/A+/A
WR A/ A/ B
TE C+/C+/C+
OL B/ B-/ A
DT A-/ B/ A
DE A-/A / A+
LB B/ C/ B+
CB A-/A / B+
S B+/ B/ A
K B+/B
P B+/B+
Nickles Graded with Safeties
Entire Secondary grades would be
A-/ B+/ A
DL is with Blount as a DE and K.Davis as DT… But both those two and couple others can move around. Whole DL grade is probably more important and that would be
A-/ A- / A
The OL is where the big falloff COULD be obviously…But outside of early FIU train wreck and his 1st season at UM. I’ve never known Cristobal to field anything worse than a B+ maybe even A- OL…So that may be the one position group you don’t mind coming into a season with inexperience and question marks at.
Yeah, I think our OL will be better than we think, not as good (maybe?) as last year, but not a terrible unit. We do have some talent on that line and also on the bench. As long as MC and Mirabel are here I don’t see us getting beat up in the trenches. We mauled some tough SEC teams and OSU last year. Loved it!
Yeah, TE is a ? and our LB depth isn’t good either.
Post spring bump… Just going by others’ reports, and the highlights, clips I’ve seen mixed in with some coach speak.
If I get to watch more spring game and see anything I need to re-adjust I will.
Frosh I bumped up from unknowns… Cantwell, Congdon, Dunnigan (Those 3 are by far the frosh talked about the most). They seem to be guys that are definitely players with Cantwell starting and Dunnigan going to get a lot of time.
Some other frosh I’ve heard have stood out early:
Mallory
Wingo
Paris (late in camp, was injured early on)
Woodrow
Nagle
Charles
Campbell
Jennings
Portis
Players that have seemingly had solid camps (obviously the spring hype and Greentree reports aren’t the be all/end all)'=
Nickle
Anderson (not sure if either makes us feel good as a future starter, Nickle had the edge as the #2 throughout all camp, but Anderson supposedly better spring game, both improved)
Upshaw
J.Moore (leg injury during spring game, doesn’t sound major)
Jacobs
Wilkerson
Buchanon
Scroggins
K.Davis
Blount (I believe mostly inside, but still playing DE and DT)
Hampton
Names I’ve either read some negatives or would have liked to hear more from:
Lofton
Rodriguez
Minaya
Wiley
Lowe
Bonner (Backup LB is very cloudy right now behind our 14 year starting combo)
D.Brown (Supposedly injured AGAIN)
From what I have read here and there, twas not a lot of unexpected news from the end of training and the spring game. The usual healthy portion of coachspeak pro or con. After years of paying attention I am not really sure the spring does much more than help newer/younger players acclimate to the playbook. Dunnigan does seem to have risen above the pack. Besides meaningful injuries not a lot gets learned by the casual fan. I suppose if one is local it could be nice to go to the spring game. Seems like a good way to build brand allegiance with youngsters. Otherwise, it’s an exhibition like an all-star game.
