A six-pack of Miami Hurricanes notes on a Monday:
If Manny Diaz ever gets a chance to meet with UM’s new yet-to-be-hired athletic director and make a case to keep his job, he can cite UM’s great 2021 recruiting class and suggest that the Canes might be at risk of losing some of those players if he’s fired.
But he would have a difficult time citing potential losses in the 2022 class, because this currently stands as UM’s lowest-rated class — on paper — in many years.
The Canes — whose 2022 class is rated 61st by Rivals.com — have eight players committed and not a single one from South Florida.
Of the top South Florida 2022 prospects, UM might have the best chance to land Miami Central linebacker Wesley Bissainthe and four-star Fort Lauderdale Dillard defensive lineman Nyjalik Kelly, though both have plenty of attractive suitors.
Among other top prospects, 247 Sports predicts defensive linemen Shemar Stewart and Anthony Lucas will end up with Texas A&M, five-star cornerback Jaheim Singletary will sign with Georgia and four-star linebacker DeMario Tolan will go to Florida State. UM remains somewhat in the mix for the five-star Stewart but isn’t considered a favorable.
The Canes aren’t at all in the mix for four-star Plantation American Heritage standouts Earl Little Jr. and Marvin Jones Jr. and are long shots for Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas interior lineman Julian Armella.
Four-star Hollywood Chaminade-Madonna edge rusher Kenyatta Jackson (Ohio State) and four-star cornerbacks Trevell Mullen (Indiana) and Jacolby Spells (West Virginia) have committed elsewhere.
Diaz said Monday that UM had “big-time” recruits at Saturday’s game who he believes are “on the cusp of committing.”
So why has UM struggled with local recruiting this year after landing a bunch of top South Florida players last year?
Lack of winning is one factor. Little, a position coach at American Heritage, said UM’s approach with freshman high school players — in some cases — has not helped.
“The problem is, they didn’t offer kids early,” said Little, whose son is no longer considering UM. “That’s way before Earl. Patrick Surtain Jr., Anthony Schwartz, the Wilson brothers, all that talent they had. They don’t get on these guys early. When they get on them, it’s almost too late. Now they offered one of our running backs who’s a freshman this year and offered a couple defensive backs. So that’s a good sign.”
Regarding his son, Little said: “I told Miami, a couple coaches can tell you, I told them back in 2019, I wanted Miami to have one foot in the door ahead of everybody else for the simple fact that I went to Miami. The most important thing I told [UM coaches] is, ‘You guys have to recruit him just as hard as everybody else.’”
And did they?
“No they didn’t,” Little said of his son. “It’s very very disappointing, when our rivals, Florida and Florida State recruited him harder than the school I played ball for and graduated from.
“Some people thought he was automatically going to school there because I went to school there. The rumor is at Heritage, we don’t want to send kids to Miami. Foremost, we don’t send kids anywhere. As long as I’ve been coaching, I’ve never tried to force a kid to go somewhere to a school because that’s between that kid and his parents.”
Among Heritage players, UM landed Heritage’s best prospect in the 2021 class (Williams) and a top 2018 prospect in Silvera, but lost out on Surtain to Alabama; Tyson Campbell and Sony Michel to Georgia; Brian Burns to FSU; Marco Wilson to Florida, and others.
They didn’t aggressively pursue Anthony Schwartz (Auburn) and Isaiah McKenzie (Georgia), and both of those players — like everyone in the previous paragraph — are in the NFL.
They won’t get Jones, Little or Spells from this class.
Would Little have strongly considered UM if the Canes had pursued him more strongly?
“I think he would have given them a shot,” Little said of his son. “It comes down to building relationships. That’s one thing I learned from coach [Butch] Davis on the recruiting aspect, building relationships. I see the other schools high on him, they’re building a relationship with them. I told [cornerbacks coach DeMarcus] Van Dyke this. They were texting me and, I said ‘Reach out to him. I had my time at Miami. Get to know him.’”
But even if UM recruited him harder, keep in mind that Little’s father said: “Earl never, ever told me he wanted to go to Miami. That ship has sailed. He listed his top three, Alabama, Oregon and Florida State.”
Why Miami chose not to aggressively pursue Little is unknown; perhaps the Canes have a valid reason. UM at one point had four defensive backs committed for 2022 and now has three.
Diaz and his staff deserve credit for landing Williams and strong local recruiting classes in 2020 and 2021. But the 2022 class remains underwhelming and incomplete.
Diaz likely would have lured top South Florida players in the 2022 class if UM had won more.
“Those kids want to win,” Little said. “They did a great job with the 2021 class. It goes back to winning. A lot of these kids want to visit other schools. Losing is tough.”
I asked UM off-field defensive analyst Bob Shoop what positions defensively that the Canes need to add more elite players, in his opinion.
“We’ve done a decent job in the front four stopping the run,” he said. “Our defensive ends have done a good job putting pressure on the quarterback. We need more depth at linebacker. Corey Flagg is playing too many snaps.
“Keontra Smith has played too many snaps. All [the linebackers] probably have played too many snaps. With injuries and departures in the secondary, depth has been an issue there. [And] not too many teams are playing two freshman safeties.”
With regard to front seven players, Shoop mentioned defensive tackle Leonard Taylor, linebacker Deshawn Troutman and linebacker/striker Chase Smith and said “it’s really important we help them take the next step to help be the defense we want to be.”
Shoop noted that “it’s easier than it’s ever been before to improve your roster in the offseason. You’ve got recruiting and the portal. Most importantly, it’s improving players on your roster.”
Shoop — a former defensive coordinator at Penn State, Tennessee and elsewhere — noted that he “coached on units where if we gave up more than 17 points, likely we wouldn’t win. We’re fortunate that if we hold teams to 21 to 24 points, there’s a pretty good chance Rhett [Lashlee] and the guys on offense will put up points. That is the [high-scoring nature of the] ACC right now.”
UM is allowing 29.9 points per game, which ranks 91st among 130 FBS schools.
Saturday’s 38-26 win over Virginia Tech marked the first time this season that the Hurricanes didn’t allow 30 points to a Power 5 team.
Playing time notes on offense from the Virginia Tech game: Behind starting running back Jaylon Knighton, UM gave more snaps to Thad Franklin (17) than Cody Brown (four), partly because of Franklin’s recent good work in practice…
Fullback/H back/tight end Michael Parrott played a lot more than usual (10 offensive snaps)…
The freshman receivers played more, too. Romello Brinson logged 21 offensive snaps, Jacolby George 20 and Breshard Smith five. Freshman tight end Elijah Arroyo played 18 snaps, more than typical for him.
Playing time notes on defense from the Virginia Tech game: Linebacker Ryan Ragone played 24 snaps — the exact amount he had played in the first 10 games — and played well….
In a surprise, senior defensive tackle Jon Ford didn’t play at all. UM announces all suspensions, and he was not suspended…
Though Taylor continues to play well, his snaps remain fairly modest, even with Ford not playing. He played 20 on Saturday (the same amount as Jordan Miller) and less than Nesta Silvera (45) and Jared Harrison-Hunte (38)…
With James Williams out for the year, Amari Carter moved back to safety and logged 25 defensive snaps, while freshman safety Kamren Kinchens played 77 of Miami’s 79 defensive snaps and Avantae Williams played 56.