Welcome back to Official Visit season, recruitniks!

The Official Visit is the mother of all recruiting events. Teams pay to fly players (and sometimes selected family members) in for a packed itinerary of curated events and experiences. This is all in the effort to get the player to decide to pick the school and join the roster for the future.

With no further ado, let’s look at the players coming to Coral Gables (and some going elsewhere) this weekend. REMINDER: recruiting is a fluid situation, so changes to the list can happen, and unofficial visitors — players paying their own way to Miami to visit campus and interact with coaches, players, and other recruits — can happen as well. The named players are expect to attend as official visitors.

Official Visitors

Windsor (CT) Loomis Chafee 4-star OL Olaus Alinen. The Finnish native moved to Connecticut to pursue a path in football. And it’s worked out well for the 6’6” 315lb Alinen, who has offers and interest for many of the top programs in the world of college football. Alinen makes his first visit to Coral Gables this week before trips to Alabama, Georgia, and Ohio State to roudn out the month. Told you he had high caliber interest.

Pittsburgh (PA) Brashear 4-star EDGE Ta’Mere Robinson. The latest addition to this recruiting weekend, Robinson is a talented player who could slot in at several defensive positions. Robinson is coming off of a knee injury that cut his junior season short, but he’s the caliber of talent who can be a major addition to the Canes roster down the line.

Jersey City (NJ) St. Peter’s Prep 3-star S Jayden Bonsu. Bonsu is an interesting prospect, and one who will probably see his ranking rise of the course of this cycle. The 6’2” 205lb S will make his visit to Coral Gables this weekend, with future trips to Michigan State, Ohio State and Texas on the board.

Miami is reportedly also trying to get 5-star RB Cedric Baxter Jr. to make a return trip to the Gables for an unofficial this weekend, according to Steve Wiltfong of 247sports. That visit has not been finalized as of the writing of this piece.

Away Games

While Miami is hosting prospects here, other teams are getting players on their campuses as well. Here’s a quick list of some visits elsewhere to note.

5-star DL David Hicks - Michigan State

5-star EDGE Jayden Wayne - Michigan State (unofficial)

5-star WR Brandon Inniss - Alabama

4-star OT Payton Kirkland - Oklahoma

4-star ATH Collins Acheampong - LSU

4-star WR Nathaniel Joseph - Clemson. Miami is pushing hard for the Clemson commit, so this visit is definitely worth watching.

4-star OL Madden Sanker - Michigan State

4-star TE Riley Williams - Alabama

4-star S Daemon Fagan - N.C. State

4-star LB Tony Rojas - Clemson

And with that, the table is set for the first major Official Visit weekend of the year. And with it, we bring back the OV weekend poll, and we’ll be watching the movement unfold for Miami and others in the weeks and months to come.

Go Canes