In a bit of news that was shocking to no one who follows recruiting, Miami has dropped former ATH commit Jalen Patterson. This move was reported by Andrew Ivins of 247sports, as you can see below in the embedded tweets.
Some recruiting news: I’m told that Miami has parted ways with longtime ATH commit Jalen Patterson. https://t.co/JhwCmdfzPc
— Andrew Ivins (@Andrew_Ivins) April 6, 2017
Patterson committed to Miami back in ’15 when Al Golden was in place. Since I have been on the beat, he hasn’t visited Coral Gables.
— Andrew Ivins (@Andrew_Ivins) April 6, 2017
A standout from Citra (FL) North Marion, Patterson has talent. He was a 1st team All-State player at CB in Florida’s 5A classification. When Patterson committed to Miami, however, he was taken at RB by all reports.
Since Mark Richt has taken over at Miami, Patterson has not been mentioned even tangentially, and, as Ivins said, has not visited Coral Gables or Hard Rock Stadium once. In recruiting, a general rule is “follow the visits” and, well, there were none for Patterson to Miami.
This move — dropping Patterson from the 2018 recruiting class — is something that has been fairly apparent to those who follow recruiting. It opens up another scholarship slot for a top player, something that Miami has been stacking in this class seemingly every day.
This will go down as a “decommitment”, sure, but this is entirely a Miami-directed move. It’s been known for quite some time that Patterson wasn’t in the plans for this class. He’s not going to be one of the RBs in this class — 5-star Lorenzo Lingard and 4-star Camron Davis have those spots locked down — and there are far bigger fish to fry at DB (5-star Patrick Surtain Jr, 4-star Tyson Campbell, 4-star Al Blades Jr, 4-star Asante Samuel Jr, and 3-star (will be 4-star) Jamien Sherwood to name a few off the top of my head).
You know the term “addition by subtraction”? This is that. 100% a good thing for all parties involved.
Weird though it may sound, this is a step forward for Miami’s 2018 recruiting class. Don’t believe me, just watch.