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Recruiting Radar: Looking at numbers in the 2018 Class for Miami

Let’s start to lay the framework for Miami’s 2018 recruiting class.

By Cameron J. Underwood
Let’s get started on looking at the landscape for the 2018 recruiting class for the Canes.

Welcome back, recruiting fans! With National Signing Day 2017 in the rearview mirror, it’s time to turn our attention to the 2018 recruiting class for the Miami Hurricanes.

Miami already has several commits in this class (some very good players, to be honest), but we’ll look at them later.

Today, we’re going to look at the numbers for this class as Miami looks to continue to build a championship caliber roster.

Numbers for the 2018 recruiting class

This will be at the forefront of people's minds: how many players is Miami going to take in 2018? There are a couple factors to consider. And they are:

  1. The number of scholarship players currently. Miami sits at 83 players by my count in The Football Scholarship Matrix.
  2. How many players Miami took in 2017. There were 24 signees, 10 of which were early enrollees, which means there were 14 regular incoming recruits for the last cycle. We'll touch on this again in a minute.
  3. How many seniors are on the roster. There are 12 seniors on the roster by my count in the previously linked roster count.
  4. How many players leave early next year. Mark Walton? RJ McIntosh? Gerald Willis?
  5. How many players are dropped/cut/told to transfer. Dead weight from the previous regime is still culled from the roster, and how many, and WHEN that happens will impact the number of players Miami brings in with this class.

After considering the above facts, there are 2 things I can confidently say:

  1. There is room for 11 early enrollees. I don't think that Miami takes 11 EEs next cycle — especially after taking 10 EEs in 2017 — but based on only having taken 14 regular signees last cycle, that room exists.
  2. With 12 seniors, that would take the roster down from 83 to 71. Which means, there would be room for 14 total signees, regular or otherwise, before hitting the 85 scholarship cap.

So, while there's hypothetical room for a good sized class including up to 11 early enrollees, without transfers/cuts/attrition/players leaving/whatever to lower the overall roster number further, Miami's ceiling for signees is 14.

Miami still needs to optimize the roster, so more than 14 incoming players will be needed. I’m going with a a couple assumptions to create room in this class. They are:

  1. 1 of the non-starting QBs transfers
  2. At least 2 players leave early for the NFL draft
  3. At least 4 players transfer for lack of PT (attrition) or other reasons

Add those 7 spots to the roster — reasonable and entirely possible — and Miami has room for 21 players in the 2018 class. That’s the number I’m going to be working with from here on out. I’ll leave the “Best Available” slots in case extra spots open in this class.

Class Numbers Breakdown

Here’s my chart for the scholarship allocation in the 2018 recruiting class that I’ll bring back throughout the Class Breakdown series for the 2018 cycle:

Miami Hurricanes 2018 Class Numbers

QB RB WR TE OL DE DT LB CB S K Best Available
QB RB WR TE OL DE DT LB CB S K Best Available
1 2 4 2 4 1 2+ 1 3 2 1 (Any extra spots not filled)

A couple notes:

  • My #1 recruiting rule is that you have to, MUST, have a QB in every class. Period. Pulling a top QB might be tough if we start a freshman (N’Kosi Perry, is my personal hope) at the position this year. We saw this struggle to get a QB in 2015 after Brad Kaaya started as a freshman in 2014. But, hopefully this staff has a better plan for this than the last staff did (which I fully expect they will).
  • Miami has needed a 2 RB class for the last 4 years. Maybe this is the year that finally happens. AND WE’RE OFF TO A GREAT START HERE.
  • DB depth and talent in SoFLA in 2018 is legendary. Seriously. This is the best DB class in more than a decade locally. Miami needs to, can, and should, close on a good number of these players.
  • Likewise with WRs. Miami has a chance to add several top players at this position, which would be a good thing after signing 4-ish WRs in 2017. Another 4 will remake this group completely in the lat 3 years, and hopefully have the Canes be able to move on from several.....uh.....players who could be better served at another, lower caliber program than Miami.
  • Good thing Miami loaded up on OLs in 2017 because the 2018 crop is not as talented.

It’s offer season!

Over the last several days, Miami has offered a plethora of 2018 players, and 2019 players are sure to get offered soon as well.

There are new names popping up on the radar every day, and that will continue through the Spring Evaluation period (a couple months from now). We’ll touch on the names shortly, but trust me when I say Miami is in the process of building their 2018 recruiting board right now.

That’s it for today. We’ll take a look at the current commits, and top targets for Miami in the coming days.

Go Canes