So, there’s a Hurricane coming. No, not figuratively like the nickname of the University of Miami football team, literally. Hurricane Matthew is bearing down on South Florida, and has probably hit by the time you’re reading this. I’ve talked about this in every daily News and Notes this week, and you can find more information from nearly any news outlet.

Official Visits Canceled by Hurricane Matthew

Now, spinning the focus to the Miami Hurricanes, this storm has caused Miami to cancel all Official Visits this weekend. This makes sense, as OV’s usually go from Friday evening-Sunday morning or Saturday morning-Sunday afternoon. With the path and impact of Hurricane Matthew yet unknown, it makes sense to cancel OV’s.

On top of that, the out of state players who were going to visit, whether officially or unofficially, have all canceled their trips to Miami. Some, like commits ATH DeeJay Dallas and OT Zalontae Hillery, will be down next week for their Officials.

Others who canceled visits:

• 4-star WR Jeremiah Holloman (Official)
• 4-star RB Anthony McFarland (Official)
• 3-star WR Kalem Reddix (Unofficial)

Plenty of recruits still visiting for Miami-FSU

Through the week, there had been various reports that nearly 100 top recruits, most of them 4-star or 5-star caliber players in their respective classes, would be in attendance for the marquee matchup between Miami and FSU. Obviously, some of them won’t be there —- just see the paragraphs above — but there’s a large contingent that will be. What, you want names? Here are some for you:

• Just recently, Alabama commit 4-star LB VanDarius Cowan (Palm Beach Gardens, FL) announced he will be in attendance for Canes-Noles. This is the 2nd time out of 3 home games he will be an unofficial visitor to Hard Rock Stadium. I’m not going to go too far on this, but this is something worth watching. If Cowan schedules an official visit to Coral Gables, then things might get real.
• 5-star OL Alex Leatherwood tweeted then later deleted a tweet saying “Miami might be the move...”, intimating that he may choose to visit Hard Rock Stadium on Saturday night since UF’s game is postponed, meaning he can’t take his official visit there as
• Commits WR Kevaughn Dingle, CB Trajan Bandy, DB Brian Edwards, LB Bradley Jennings Jr., S Billy Gibson, DT Jonathan Ford
• Michigan commit 4-star OT Kai-Leon Herbert, Louisville commit 3-star CB Kaheem Roach.
• Uncommitted players 4-star OG Tedarrell Slaton, 4-star CB Latavious Brini, who just decommitted from Georgia yesterday, 3-star S Amari Carter, 3-star LB De’Andre Wilder, 3-star DE Jordan Wright,

And that’s just the 2017 kids! Here’s a couple underclassmen names to know who will be attending the game as well.

• 2018 5-star CB Patrick Surtain Jr.
• 2018 5-star RB Lorenzo Lingard
• 2018 5-star DB Tyreke Johnson
• 2018 4-star Canes commits CB Gilbert Frierson, S Josh Jobe, and 3-star commits CB DJ Ivey and OL Delone Scaife
• 2018 4-star WR Mark Pope
• 2018 4-star CB Al Blades Jr.
• 2018 5-star DT Taron Vincent
• 2019 4-star commits LB Diamante Howard and CB Akeem Dent
• 2019 4-star RB Nayquan Wright
• 2019 4-star WR Breion Fuller
• 2020 RB Don Carey Jr. — a probable 4-star/5-star player in his class
• Plenty more. For more complete lists check out this link on InsideTheU ($), Miami’s 247sports site, and/or this link on CanesInSight.

So, even without Official Visits or many out of State visitors, Miami-FSU is going to be PACKED with recruits. Can’t wait to see the movement with them after the game.

Miami vs FSU recruiting battles

As I’m sure you know, Miami and FSU routinely battle for the same recruits. The list of players recruited by both schools is sizeable. Dalvin Cook. Stacy Coley. Matthew Thomas. Chad Thomas. And the list goes on and on.

In the 2017 class and the 2018 class, there are several UM-FSU recruiting battles worth watching, this week and through the rest of the cycle. A few worth noting:

• OL Navaughn Donaldson. One of the highest rated UM commits, schools around the country are trying to pry him away from the hometown Canes.
• DEs Jordan Wright and Owen Carney. Both Miami and FSU are looking to round out their DL classes, and the pair of Wright and Carney are held in high esteem by each school. Carney has said FSU leads, while Wright has held his recruitment closer to the vest.
• 2018 CB Patrick Surtain Jr. This elite player can pick any school in America. FSU has had success recruiting from American Heritage — Surtain’s HS — and looks to continue that, while Miami looks to use the connection to Mike Rumph, Heritage’s former coach, as the bridge to getting this elite player to Miami for college.
• 2018 RB Lorenzo Lingard. Elite. Amazing. Incredible. Game changing. Those are just some of the adjectives that can be used to describe Lingard’s game. He is another player who will have his pick of any school in America for college, with Miami and FSU looking to get him to their respective school.

There’s PLENTY more where that came from, but we’ll leave it there for now.

Suffice it to say that, no matter what, Miami and FSU will compete for the same recruits. For Miami’s sake, however, the Canes would like to start winning more of these battles in the future than they have in the recent past.

That’s it for today.

Comment away, fam!

Go Canes