Late on Monday night, the Miami Hurricanes added speed and depth to the 2018 recruiting class when Miami (FL) Northwestern 3-star WR/CB Nigel Bethel committed to the Canes.

At 5’11” 160lbs, Bethel is a slight player whose main asset is blazing speed. He’s among the fastest athletes you’ll see on a football field, and hopefully that speed will help him develop into a solid contributor over time.

Betel, who mainly played WR for Northwestern this past season, has experience at CB as well. It is on defense, and maybe special teams, that he will find his way onto the field at Miami.

The elephant in the room is Malek Young’s career-ending injury. Prior to that, Bethel was a backup plan who may not have had a spot in this class. Now with the loss of Young, who injured his neck in the Orange Bowl and will unfortunately not be able to play again, Bethel is a needed depth and development player at CB.

Also, let it be said that Miami will continue to recruit other players at CB — namely 5-stars Tyson Campbell and Patrick Surtain Jr. — even with Bethel now in this class.

A key member of Northwestern’s legendary track team, Bethel helped the Bulls to a 2017 track state championship. As seen in one of the tweets above, Bethel has run 10.78 in the 100, 21.57 in the 200, and was the anchor on Northwestern’s championship 4x100 relay team.

With the addition of Bethel, Miami’s 2018 class is now at 21 commitments. 19 of them have signed, with Bethel and DT Nesta Silvera being unsigned. Bethel is the 5th DB in this class, joining S Gurvan Hall, CBs DJ Ivey, Gilbert Frierson, and Al Blades Jr.

For a look at Bethel’s abilities on the gridiron, check out the highlights below:

Welcome to the U, Nigel!