MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — When Georgia Tech canceled the regular-season finale with the Miami Hurricanes, there was the silver lining for UM that coaches and staff no longer had to juggle game prep with recruiting leading up to college football’s Early Signing Period.
There’s a new downside now, however, as high school football players can begin signing with the colleges of their choice on Wednesday in the three-day early period that precedes National Signing Day on Feb. 3. The final impression prospects will have of UM (8-2, 7-2) is Saturday’s ugly 62-26 defeat against Atlantic Coast Conference foe North Carolina.
But is it a concern for Miami coach Manny Diaz in closing time for the signatures of much of the 2021 recruiting class?
Diaz finds solace in that all of his 20 committed prospects this cycle pledged with the Hurricanes before their 8-1 start to the season when Miami didn’t appear that desirable after a 6-7 season in 2019.
“The majority of this class committed before we had even played a down of football this year,” Diaz said. “It’s recruiting time. It’s obviously closing time. That’s always an important time of year, but heck, if I was a recruit and I saw that, I’d double-down on why I’d want to come and feel like there’s some great opportunities to do something similar to the 2020 class to get in here and make a difference.”
While the 2021 prospects largely committed during the offseason or earlier, the current UM freshmen in the 2020 class stuck with the program despite a brutal finish to the 2019 season that saw losses to FIU, Duke and Louisiana Tech.
Issues for Miami that were exploited by North Carolina seem to be addressed in this recruiting class with their five-star prospects.
They were pummeled for a school-record 554 rushing yards allowed. Miami Palmetto’s Leonard Taylor, the No. 1 defensive tackle in the nation, according to 247 Sports, is coming.
Safeties took poor angles and couldn’t tackle in the secondary to limit UNC running backs when they got to the second level. The Hurricanes also have 247′s top safety nationally, James Williams out of American Heritage.
UNC and Miami don’t necessarily overlap much in where they recruit, so it’s not like a bunch of Hurricanes commitments out of South Florida will suddenly flip and decide they want to play college ball in Chapel Hill.
Still needing a quarterback in this class, UM seems to be the team to beat for star recruit Jake Garcia out of California after playing his senior season in Georgia. The Hurricanes also need another cornerback to go with Fort Myers Bishop Verot three-star prospect Malik Curtis in the class. Diaz said this past week that Miami can sign up to 24 prospects in the early period.
With Miami’s loss on Saturday, it likely bumps the Hurricanes down a tier in the bowl game they’ll be heading to, which they’ll learn in a week after conference championship games are played. The Cheez-It Bowl in Orlando, previously known as the Camping World Bowl, is one possibility. On Sunday, UM plummeted to No. 19 in the AP and Coaches polls. Previously No. 10 in the College Football Playoff rankings, the Hurricanes await Tuesday night’s reveal to find their new place there.
Calling UM’s effort on Saturday “completely unacceptable,” defensive end Quincy Roche said, “We have another game left, and we’ll bounce back and redeem ourselves.”
Said Diaz: “Thank goodness that we have a chance to play another game and end 2020 on the right note.”
Hurricanes players vow to remain connected in pursuit of what would be just the program’s second bowl victory since 2006.
“It’s paramount for us to stay together,” defensive end Jaelan Phillips said. “It’s the key for us as a football team, connectivity and togetherness, so I think we’ll need to regroup, assess what happened and focus on the next game.”
How does Diaz view this 8-2 regular season despite Saturday’s demoralizing result?
“We are who we are,” Diaz said. “We learned a harsh lesson [Saturday] night. It’s worth one loss in the standings. We still have the ability to decide what we do next.
“How long have we been in this tug-of-war of ‘where do we stand?’ We’re not really interested in all of that because it doesn’t matter. What matters is how we continue to improve the program. Obviously, we have to coach a lot better than we did [Saturday] night. We have to continue to recruit a lot better and get our guys competing. I’m still going to look at the end of the season and the totality of the entire year. There is a lot of be proud of. … Something caught up to us [Saturday] night. I did not recognize the football team that I saw on the field tonight and I bear the responsibility for that.”
