Avantae Williams Caps Off Strong Finish For The 2020 Miami Recruiting Class

If I were to tell you a month and a half ago, that the Hurricanes would finish off the 2020 recruiting cycle by improving their class ranking and adding perhaps the best safety in the nation, would you believe me? I wouldn’t either. And yet, Manny Diaz and his staff somehow pulled it off.

At the end of national signing day on Wednesday, UM had the 13th ranked recruiting class in the country, and capped it off by landing Avantae Williams, who’s considered by many to be the best safety in the 2020 cycle.

Though he was labeled as a lock to commit to the Florida Gators, Avantae chose the Hurricanes, which set off a celebration by the Miami faithful. Williams committing to UM was the cherry on top of what had been a great ending to the 2020 recruiting cycle for the Canes.

While they concluded the 2019 season with losses to FIU, Duke and Louisiana Tech, resulting in a 6-7 record for the year, that didn’t stop Diaz and the staff from selling what the future holds for the Hurricanes.

Williams was the third commit for the Canes since the beginning of the new year, along with 4-star cornerback Isaiah Dunson and wide receiver Keyshawn Smith. More good news, Smith and fellow 2020 signee Marcus Clarke received a bump to a 4-star ranking from 247Sports.

And it wasn’t just commits out of high school that the Canes were able to secure, but just like in 2019, Miami struck gold in the transfer portal. UM added quarterback D’Eriq King, defensive end Quincy Roche and also kicker Jose Borregales.

And if you look back a year, Miami improved drastically when it came to the overall class rankings for recruiting. In 2019, UM finished ranked 27th in the nation for their class, and like we said earlier, the Canes finished the 2020 cycle ranked 13th.

Adding former Hurricane great Ed Reed as chief of staff also came in handy this past week as well. I’ve said it before and I'll say it again, Coach Diaz and the Miami staff deserves a ton of credit for how they’ve been able to turn this program around within the past month, and their recruiting efforts was leading that charge for UM.