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Miami Hurricanes Recruiting Radar: news and notes 12/10

With plenty happening in the last 2 weeks, your (semi) regular recruiting update is back and packed with info.

By Cameron J. Underwood
Are the Canes making a move on 4-star WR Da'Vante Phillips?
Are the Canes making a move on 4-star WR Da'Vante Phillips?
247Sports

Let's jump right in. The water's fine. Trust me.

Official visitors

This weekend, Miami hosted several players on Official Recruiting Visits.

In addition to those listed, Canes commit Scott Patchan took his Official Visit this weekend.

And, it seems that he's still 100% solid to Miami.

Another commit, JUCO TE Jerome Washington, also enjoyed his visit.

Patchan and Washington even took a picture together on their visit.

Then, for good measure, here's a picture of Golden and Coley on a home visit with Washington

Big Fish on Campus

The main development this weekend, however, was 4-star Miami Central WR Da'Vante Phillips taking an official to Miami. I talked about this in the Official Visitors preview article on Friday. The main point: Phillips and Dalvin Cook are incredibly close. So close, in fact, that Phillips lives with Cook's mother. While Official Visits are one of the main positive events in the recruitment of a given player, I still struggle to see Phillips coming to Miami and not following Cook to FSU.

More Visits upcoming

Several targets are still on the board, and they will be taking visits to Miami in the upcoming weeks as this recruiting cycle continues.

4-star Canes RB commit Dexter Williams will be visiting Coral Gables this weekend.

Williams, fresh off a visit to Louisville, is said to have "loved" his visit there and is "reevaluating" his commitment to Miami. This may be because his friend Jalen Julius, another 2015 recruit, was on the visit with him to Louisville and may end up on the Cardinals' team. (100% of Julius' Crystal Ball predictions have him to Louisville).

In any event, a good visit can overcome the gains that Louisville made last weekend.

Joining Williams on campus this week will be a several high caliber players: 4-star S commit Jaquan Johnson, 3-star ATH/S target Tim Irvin, 3-star CB target Carlton Davis, and 3-star ATH Javarius Davis (misread his tweet, did not visit last weekend).

Upcoming Visits

3-star Booker T. Washington CB Davante Davis will be visiting Miami in January. The 6'3" 200lb Davis is the kind of big corner that many teams are now looking to play. He currently lists FSU and Texas as his co-leaders, so Miami has some ground to make up here.

Another Corner who is high on the Canes wishlist is 4-star CB Marcus Lewis. While Lewis will be visiting in January, the coaches didn't wait for that visit to be the next time they got face time with the Under Armour All-American player.

While many are after Lewis, the Canes' biggest competition for his LOI may be coming from a surprising school.

Woking in Miami's favor here: 1. Lewis took his Official Visit to Washington State back in October and, 2. His last official visit will be to Miami just before National Signing Day. I like our chances here, but there's still work to be done.

UPDATE: Lewis put out his top 3 schools on twitter on Tuesday night, and, lo and behold, Miami and Washington State both made the cut. Along with another school that kind of took me by surprise.

Canes LB commit Jamie Gordinier will be visiting in January. Gordinier, who attends the same High School that Al Golden once did, recently won a State Championship in New Jersey.

3-star DE Austrian Robinson will be visiting the same weekend as Gordinier. Robinson is a prime 3-4 DE candidate, as he stands 6'6" 255lbs. He could end up being another valuable player from New York, in the same vein as RB Gus Edwards has been.

Also visiting in Jaunary will be 4-star DT Kendrick Norton. Everyone knows our need for DTs, so getting Norton on campus for a visit will be big. We haven't had much success recruiting players from his HS though, so Al Golden and co. will need to step up their game in order to get this talented player to sign an LOI to Miami.

Decommitments

I've long said that attrition happens in every recruiting cycle. No matter the school, somebody is bound to change their mind. Recently, 3 players did just that, dropping out of the Canes' 2015 and 2016 classes.

From 2015, OL Geron Christian and WR Emonee Spence both decommitted recently. Christian has since decided to follow his brother to Louisville, while Spence's recruitment is now back open.

Spence was the 2nd best WR recruit in the 2015 class in my opinion. Terrell Chatman was and is the best player committed. Therrell Gosier II is a raw player who some like. I, however, do not.

In any case, we need another player at this position in this class, which makes our pursuit of Da'Vante Phillips all the more important. There are other options out there who are on the level of Spence or better, and we need to close on at least one of them.

In addition to Christian and Spence, 2016 WR Dredrick Snelson changed his mind and decommitted from the Canes.

Snelson is the latest player from American Heritage who (for now) it seems will not be coming to Miami. Our trouble closing on players from this school is well chronicled over the past 2 classes, with the likes of Sony Michel, Isaiah McKenzie, Torrance Gibson, and Tarvarus McFadden all electing to go to schools other than Miami. For a program with a former Cane as Head Coach (former DB Mike Rumph), this is incredibly troubling to many.

With this decommitments, the 2015 recruiting class stands at 19 commits, and the 2016 class (still rated #1 in America) has 7 commits. Who are they? This is who:

2015 Commits
Position Name Rating
QB Dwayne Lawson 4-star
RB Jordan Scarlett 4-star
RB Dexter Williams 4-star
RB Mark Walton 4-star
WR Terrell Chatman 3-star
WR Therrell Gosier II 3-star
TE Jerome Washington 4-star (JUCO)
OL Bar Milo 4-star
OL Tyree St. Louis 3-star
OL Brendan Loftus 3-star
OL Tyler Gauthier 3-star
OL Hayden Mahoney 3-star
DE Richard McIntosh 3-star
DT Ryan Fines 3-star
DE/OLB Jamie Gordinier 3-star
DE Scott Patchan 3-star
LB Charles Perry 3-star
CB Michael Jackson 3-star
S Jaquan Johnson 4-star

2016 Commits
Position Name Ranking
QB Jack Allison 5-star
WR Sam Bruce 4-star
WR Dionte Mullins 4-star
WR Ahmonn Richards 4-star
LB Michael Pinckney 4-star
LB Zach McCloud 4-star
LB Shaquille Quarterman 4-star

With 19 commits, and a couple of them set to enroll early, there are several spots still open in this class. Golden has repeatedly said that we'll be signing "a full class" this year, which is 25+ depending on the number of early enrollees. We'll take a look at this further as the cycle progresses.

All about the RBs

RB commit Mark Walton exploded for 5 total TDs in his last HS game, leading Booker T. Washington to a 54-35 win in the 4A State Championship game. The more I watch Walton, the more I like his game.

Fellow RB commit Jordan Scarlett is leading St. Thomas Aquinas into the 7A championship game this weekend. There has been plenty of chatter about Scarlett recently. Some have said that he's looking to flip to FSU or UF. Others say his commitment is solid as a rock. I'd say take all that you read with a grain of salt.

I've already discussed Dexter Williams, but if you missed it, scroll back up a bit.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE DTs, BRO?!?!

And, lastly, a question (kinda):

The reasons that We're bringing in all these RBs are: 1. we need depth, 2. you can never have too many playmakers, 3. they're the best players we have committed in this class, 4. they're really, REALLY GOOD, 5. they all have different styles and athletic traits, so there's no redundancy in bringing them all in.

The flaw in this thought is that by bringing in RBs/having them committed it means we're NOT after DTs. That couldn't be further from the truth. We already have a DT committed (Ryan Fines) and we're after plenty of players at the position. Some of the DTs we're after right now: Rasheem Green. Joseph Wicker. Kendrick Norton. JUCO DT Joshua Nijman (#1 JUCO DT in the country, by the way). And there's probably more we don't know about.

According to 247 sports, we've offered more DTs (27) than all but 3 positions (OL, WR, and CB). Only having 1 DT committed isn't from a lack of trying. The coaches are aware of the lack of top talent at that position, and are working to get more players in at that spot.

So, basically, be patient.