Happy Monday, Canes fam! Yeah, I’ve been a bit AWOL with some life/secret day job stuff, but we’re byke in action! So, let’s get caught up on the last little bit, shall we?

Miami adds All-American DE Cyrus Moss to the 2022 Recruiting Class

A dynamic 6’6” edge rusher, Las Vegas (NV) Bishop Gorman 4-star All-American Cyrus Moss committed to Miami over Alabama, Arizona State, Oregon, and USC at the All-American Bowl on Saturday afternoon.

A finalist for All-American Man of the Year, Moss is the 10th commitment for Miami’s 2022 recruiting class, and the highest ranked commit in the group. And, if you’re a person who lives by the maxim “I don’t get excited until the player signs, not when he commits”....THEN GET EXCITED! Moss has already sent in his NLI and has been officially announced by Miami Athletics as a member of this class. The fact that Miami has announced Moss is important; the school can’t mention a player by name unless/until he’s officially signed.

Moss is a talented bookend to fellow All-American DE Nyjalik Kelly in this class.

The quest to find more talent in the 2022 class continues, but getting Moss in the boat is a big deal!

Miami’s Coaching Staff coming together

In case you missed it (and I haven’t been gone THAT long), but Miami hired Mario Cristobal as Head Football Coach on December 6th. At the same time (and even before that), there were multiple reports that Miami would no longer be cheap, and instead commit substantial financial resources to hire Cristobal away from Oregon and build a top-notch assistant staff.

With Cristobal leaving Oregon for a better job here at Miami, there’s been plenty of chatter and discussion about who would be joining Cristobal on his inaugural Canes coaching staff. There were some no-brainers, and there were some question marks. The certainties have been announced. And they are:

OL Coach Alex Mirabal

Wherever Cristobal goes, Mirabal follows. Friends since high school, the pair have worked together for many years once Cristobal got into coaching. He returns home to Miami along with his good friend, and will coach OL, as well as having the title of Assistant Head Coach.

DL Coach Joe Salave’a

A former standout NFL lineman, Salave’a has made a name for himself as a DL coach and recruiter at the collegiate level. He follows Cristobal from Oregon to Miami, and picks up the additional titles of Associate Head Coach (defense), and run game coordinator.

WR coach Bryan McClendon

One of the best and most dynamic recruiters in the country, McClendon will reprise his role as WR coach for Cristobal here in Miami. He coached for Cristobal the last few years at Oregon, but has experience at Georgia and South Carolina on his resume as well. McClendon adds the title of Co-Offensive Coordinator as well.

I know some are wondering why these coaches have all of these additional titles on their postings. But c’mon guys. You know why.

Since I like lists, here’s the list of the Canes’ coaching staff at present:

• Head Coach Mario Cristobal
• OC - ?
• QB - ? (likely same person as OC)
• Co-OC/WRs - Bryan McClendon
• RB - ?
• TE - ?
• Assistant HC/OL - Alex Mirabal
• DC - ? (will likely coach LBs or DBs depending on who it ends up being)
• DL/Associate HC/Run Game Coordinator - Joe Salave’a
• LB - ?
• CB- ?
• S - ? ‘
• ST - ?

Mirabal, McClendon, and Salave’a being on Cristobal’s staff was a certainty from jump. But there’s plenty of other assistants to bring in/hire/(retain?) so the fun is really just starting here. In the same way that roster building interests me as an exercise in talent acquisition, building the coaching staff is a fascinating pursuit to me.

Miami will always be able to recruit — and likely will even elevate the level of recruiting with Cristobal running the show — but using that talent and developing that talent have been quite poor here recently. With that as the backdrop, I’m very, VERY interested to see who the 7 individuals are to join the already-announced trio of assistants on Cristobal’s staff.

Player Departures

As with any season, some players have elected to not return to Miami. A quick list, shall we?

• DT Nesta Silvera - Transfer Portal
• S Bubba Bolden - NFL
• OL Navaughn Donaldson - NFL
• RB Cam Harris - NFL

Obviously, we wish all these young men the best in their future endeavors. And, there will likely be more turnover on the roster. It makes sense. There’s a new coach who will probably run something similar to, but different from, what the previous coach ran. And, there’s the interpersonal dynamics of changing leadership as well. Turnover happens.

All the best, gents!

Recruiting Season heats up this week!

The dead period for recruiting ends in a few days and that means visits, both for coaching going to see prospects and for prospects to visit Miami’s campus either unofficially (on their own dime) or officially (on Miami’s dollar) are about to start happening again in earnest.

Mid-year enrollees can start visiting schools on Tuesday. Normal enrollees (as in not-in-January) can start visiting schools starting Friday.

Dates of note insofar as early enrollees for Miami: Spring semester starts Tuesday, January 18th. The final day to register for classes for Spring 2022 is Wednesday, January 26th. So, if a player is going to enroll early/for this semester at Miami, it will need to be done by end of business on 1/26 or not at all. Keep this in mind if there’s someone rumored to be joining the class/roster now to see if they make it under the wire, like WR Key’Shawn Smith did a couple years ago.

While there are 10 HS recruits and 1 transfer (USC DL Jacob Lichtenstein, a South Florida native) in this class for Miami, there are other players on the radar and plenty of work to be done to add talent to the roster for the Canes. We’ll have more about that in the coming days and weeks, but just know, things are about to pick up in the world of recruiting, just like they are in the world of coaching hires for the Canes.

Canes Hoops Beats Duke!

In a huge early season test, the Canes went to Cameron (great name) Indoor Area to face the #2 Duke Blue Devils. And the Canes emerged from the game the same way they entered it: undefeated in conference and atop the ACC standings after fighting their way to a key 76-74 win!

Our former hoops-focused writers have since left SOTU to seek other endeavors, but intrepid football scribe Justin Dottavio dusted off the keyboard for a gamer on this key win for the Canes.

Coach L is now 7-7 against Duke, an incredible feat when you consider Miami was 2-15 in the previous 17 games against the Blue Devils prior to Larrañaga’s arrival in Coral Gables.

IT’S GREAT!

TO BE!

A MIAMI HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRICANE!!!!

Make it a great day, everybody!

GO CANES