If you want a sign on WHEN to start taking this program serious, the canary in the coal mine is Miami’s OL and DL recruiting. Miami hasn’t had it since Butch Davis. We’re not talking about one good class, I’m talking about recruiting ringers year after year. I’d argue Randy Shannon made the closest attempt when he hired Jeff Stoutland, who recruited some absolute ringers AND could coach at OL but the program was already doomed then at the end of the Randy Shannon era and Jeff Stoutland wasn’t around long enough to stack enough classes. That and the DL recruiting / development wasn’t on par.
Regardless of all the other things that go down (AD, HC, etc etc). Miami doesn’t have a chance to return unless whomever is around puts utmost priority on OL and DL recruiting and development.
When Jimbo Fischer was first hired at FSU, you could see the monster that was coming because their very first class they killed it at OL and DL. The next year they did it again, and he kept absolutely stacking those position groups year after year pretty much every year he was there.
Miami always gets elite skill players, the difference has been we don’t have the OLine and Dline to take advantage of those players. We’re never going to look like a top 10 program until we hire a guy/guys that put that priority at the top of the board and have the recruiting/coaching skillset to consistently deliver.
I think this is rather obvious but this fanbase seems to forget it often, focusing on the elite skill talent in our classes and not understanding that doesn’t mean jack when we recruit the oline and dlines the way we have (especially Oline).
And in that light, quality AND quantity matter. Seems like we sign about 2-3 every year and they’re not the guys who usually end up in the SEC type of OL either. Why not sign 5-6 guys most years? Granted, we can’t find enough good ones to take, that’s part of the problem. This year, we have ONE man committed to play OL for us. That’s it. (not to mention only 9 on board and wondering who will bail by year’s end, but another matter) Now, I don’t know if Carswell is any good or has potential but he’s a Georgia player and UGA isn’t on him. So yes, it’s quality and quantity that we lack. So indeed, consider the pooch “screwed” for this year too. Not happy here.
4-6 every year on both sides. Push the kids that can’t cut it out the door. Back-fill if you need to with Portal kids. Until we sign 10 kids a year for the OL/DL, we will continue to have issues.
it does feel like OL recruiting has been an afterthought recently at miami which is mindboggling since OL is the first unit on the field that needs to get sorted out to get a program headed in the right direction. get a good OL going and there’s a trickle down effect with the RBs, QBs, and WRs.
OL recruiting and development has been trash especially under Diaz, Richt, Golden. look at these names:
taylor gadbois
sonny odogwu
hunter knighton
alex gall
nick linder
bar milo
jahair jones
brendan loftus (LOL)
hayden mahoney
tyler gauthier
tre johnson
kai-leon herbert
zalontae hillary
cleveland reed
adam elgammal (LOL)
jakai clark
chris washington
its no wonder we’ve been shit for so long… alot of those names i don’t think even saw the field.
