Miami Football Recruiting: Al Golden Setting ‘Canes Up To Survive

Harris stands 6’2, weighs 226 pounds, and he is projected as a defensive end at the collegiate level. The amount of stars assigned to him by the major recruiting services vary, but they generally agree about where he stands in the class -- Scout considers him the 21st-best defensive end prospect, Rivals has him at No. 22 and 247Sports has him at No. 32.

Harris is the latest addition to a strong Miami recruiting class built on the foundation of outstanding in-state talent. As things stand now, the Hurricanes are set to land one of the best classes in the ACC.

Jermaine Grace, a linebacker prospect from Miramar High School (FL), committed to Miami over Louisville, among others. Grace made several trips to Miami during his recruitment -- more there than anywhere else -- and that ended up paying dividends for Al Golden and his staff.

Grace is ranked as the 37th-best outside linebacker prospect by 247Sports and the 58th-best prospect in the state of Florida. Rivals is more bullish on him, as they consider him the No. 17 player at his position and No. 32 player in Florida.

Yes, there’s now a LSUFreek version:

1:35 Update: There may soon be a resolution to this story if Collins can track down his dad and have him sign the letter of intent to Arkansas.

The Miami Hurricanes added an excellent receiver to their 2013 recruiting class Wednesday, as Stacy Coley decided to play his college football in Miami instead of signing with the Florida State Seminoles, making the announcement live on ESPNU.

Coley is a consensus four-star player out of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Northeast High School. He checks in at 6’1, 175 pounds, and he’s on record with a speedy 4.5 40-yard dash. In addition to Miami and FSU, Coley also had 12 other offers from schools such as Alabama and Ole Miss.

The top uncommitted linebacker in the nation, Matthew Thomas, made his decision Wednesday, choosing the Florida State Seminoles.

Thomas, considered the No. 2 outside linebacker in the country behind Notre Dame’s Jaylon Smith, had left his recruiting open late in the process. Before his senior year, he considered Florida State the leader. After he won a state championship with Booker T. Washington High School, he had slightly changed his priorities: although the Seminoles were still near the top of his list, he also wanted to plan visits to Georgia, Alabama, and his hometown team of Miami. Seminoles blog Tomahawk Nation saw the consensus five-star as the key to a “Bobby Bowden-esque” close to the school’s recruiting class.

Defensive end Alquadin Muhammad, out of Ramsey, NJ, has signed a letter of intent to play football at Miami. He was recruited heavily by in-state Rutgers, but eventually decided to head south for warmer weather. Muhammad had his choice of any major program in the country as one of the top defensive ends in the class of 2013.

The Hurricanes were able to land Muhammad over offers from Alabama, Florida, Michigan, Ohio State, Notre Dame, USC, and others. He has a composite ranking as the fifth-best strong-side defensive end in the country, via 247 Sports. He stretched out his recruiting process a bit, waiting until one month before committing to Miami.

Update 9:20 p.m. -- Miami (Fla.) Booker T. High School head coach Tim “Ice” Harris is furious with the Hurricanes, and told his story to the Miami Herald.

Essentially, Harris is angry that Miami pulled Kirkland’s scholarship offer despite knowing that the lineman was planning to commit to them. He wanted to wait until Signing Day to announce on television, but according to Harris, Miami wouldn’t accept that and pulled the offer.

Alex Collins has had an interesting recruitment.

The top running back recruit in Florida, out of Ft. Lauderdale (Fla.) South Plantation High School, was originally committed to Miami, but often wavered. He decommitted before Christmas and named Florida State as his leader. Running back coach Eddie Gran then left Florida State for Cincinnati, which hurt the Seminoles’ chances. Long a fan of Wisconsin, the Badgers seemed to drop out of the race when its coaching staff left for Arkansas. That move put Arkansas in the race.

The news that James Coley has left Florida State for Miami has many Seminoles and Hurricanes fans wondering about the immediate recruiting impact for the 2013 class. Rightfully so, as Coley is known as an excellent recruiter.

It could be substantial, even with less than two weeks until Signing Day.

Jeremy Kerr, a jumbo tight end recruit from St. Petersburg (Fla.) High School, decommitted from the Miami Hurricanes and committed to the Florida State Seminoles Wednesday morning.

Kerr had originally committed to the Hurricanes on June 11. He is the second tight end recruit to decommit from Miami, joining Travis Johnson of Tampa (Fla.) Jesuit.

A late-night scoop from 247sports’ Tom Loy ($) -- five-star linebacker recruit Matthew Thomas plans to officially visit Miami Wednesday:

Thomas is thought to be a battle between Florida State, Miami and Alabama, with USC somewhat in the picture. Miami fans were hoping that Thomas would cancel his USC visit last weekend and visit Miami with the large group of recruits last weekend.

Top defensive tackle recruit Keith Bryant says he will no longer visit the University of Tennessee. Out of Delray Beach (Fla.) Atlantic High School, Bryant had originally planned to visit Tennessee on February 1 for his final official visit. Bryant is a consensus four-star recruit.

Bryant was once a commitment to the hometown Hurricanes, and visited Miami over the weekend. He is considered a strong lean to Florida State, where he visited Jan. 11.

Collins enjoyed his official visit, per 247 ($):

However, he still was uncertain about the prospect of continuing sanctions, saying it didn’t come up when he visited the school.

Beau Sandland, one of the top JUCO tight end recruits in the country, committed to Miami Wednesday over Arizona State. Out of Pierce College (Calif.), he was recruited by the top colleges in the country, including many SEC schools.

Sandland stands 6’6 and checks in at 250 pounds. He profiles as a receiving tight end, but he has the size to block, as well. Sandland is a consensus four-star recruit. He’ll be expected to contribute immediately.

Delray Beach (Fla.) Atlantic High School defensive tackle Keith Bryant has decommitted from the University of Miami. His new leader is Florida State.

Bryant is a consensus four-star recruit and one of the better defensive tackles in the state for the class of 2013. Both Florida State and Miami have recruited Bryant for a while now, and despite defensive coordinator Mark Stoops leaving Florida State for Kentucky, Bryant believes Tallahassee is his best option.

A.J. Turman, a top running back recruit from Orlando (Fla.) Boone High School, is set to make his college commitment Tuesday. Turman, a three- or four-star recruit depending on the service, has received interest from quite a few schools, including Georgia, Florida State, Tennessee, Auburn and Miami.

He spoke with ESPN about his upcoming decision:

With Wednesday’s news of a decommitment from Alex Collins, some Miami fans are wondering where the Hurricanes will turn. That’s not to say that Miami cannot regain Collins commitment, though that seems highly unlikely. But Miami does need a contingency plan.

The player at the top of the list is certainly Derrick Green. Here’s what I wrote on Green in Run on running backs coming:

As had been expected by Miami insiders for quite some time, running back recruit Alex Collins decommitted this morning from the Hurricanes. The news was first reported by 247sports.

Collins stars for Ft. Lauderdale (Fla.) South Plantation High School. At 5’11 and 208 pounds, Collins has the power to run over defenders, but also the athleticism to make them miss and eliminate angles. In a special year for running backs in Florida, some believe he is the best back in the state. Collins is a consensus four-star recruit and may soon be elevated to five stars by some services.

Head coaches Jimbo Fisher and Al Golden spoke about the recruiting battle Wednesday on the ACC coaches teleconference.

A win for Miami, as unlikely as it is (FSU is a three-touchdown favorite), would do wonders to wow recruits who haven’t seen a home ‘Canes win over the Seminoles since they were in the fourth grade (2004).

Maquedius Bain, a top defensive tackle recruit, announced Wednesday that he is no longer committed to Florida State. The move was not a surprise.

Bain had recently named a top five schools that did not include the Seminoles, yet maintained that he was still committed to FSU. So much for that.

The information for this Miami Hurricanes football recruiting National Signing Day preview is provided by the Seventh Floor Blog, SB Nation’s Miami Hurricanes site. The Seventh Floor will be providing updates on the recruits that Canes fans will be interested in. Join the Seventh Floor for what should be a fun time, and as always, you can keep abreast of Canes news and info through our Twitter page @TheSeventhFloor.

Miami is bringing in an enormous recruiting class. The ‘Canes will likely take their full allotment of 25 players for the current class, and have already been able to count back an additional eight to last year’s cycle, allowing Miami to enroll as many as 33 new scholarship players. To say that the face of this roster is changing would be an understatement.

A huge battle in the Sunshine State will come to an end Wednesday morning, as cornerback Tracy Howard is set to make his commitment to either Florida, Florida State or Miami. Florida is the long-time favorite. Florida State is the wildcard. And Miami is the hometown team, but also the newcomer. The Miramar (Fla.) High quarterback is 5’11”, 180 pounds, and is rated four- or five-stars by all of the major recruiting services. He’s almost certainly the best cornerback in the state. And there are legitimate reasons why he would, and would not, attend each school.

Florida has been there for Howard since day one. Most still consider the Gators to be the favorite. There’s a family connection to Gainesville. The Gators play in the SEC. And, perhaps most importantly, UF plays a lot of man coverage. Howard is thought to want to play in a predominantly man coverage scheme. Of his three finalists, only UF does so, as it is a key part of Will Muschamp’s scheme, Florida’s defensive-minded head coach. And Howard should be able to play early at Florida.

Here are the Seventh Floor’s thoughts on the pickups over the weekend. I should add that Jacoby Briscoe has the potential to be a stud. He has all the physical talent in the world, but has not consistently put it together. He did dominate in the state title game, however. Robert Lockhart really did Virginia Tech wrong after the Hokies stuck with him throughout his whole academic saga. But Virginia Tech’s loss is Miami’s gain over a division foe.

The Hurricanes currently have 31 commitments, which is inflating their recruiting class overall ranking to much higher than the true talent level.