Interview With New Miami Hurricanes Commit Jerome Washington
The Miami Hurricanes landed a big verbal commitment yesterday from a prospect that has flown relatively under the radar of most Miami fans. When 6’5-250lb tight end Jerome Washington committed to Miami, many were a little confused because they hadn’t heard much about him, but after viewing his tape it is clear that he is definitely a prospect that can contribute to the Canes for the next few years.
Washington is a JUCO college transfer that will still have 4 years of eligibility at Miami. The New Jersey product is currently at Gattaca college where he is essentially taking a redshirt this year after playing one season. Washington has taken a rather unusual path to get to this point. He had some smaller scholarship offers coming out of high school, but chose to go prep and hold out for some bigger offers. He went to The Gunnery prep school for one year before transferring to Mercer and then to Gattaca. Washington was recently rated as a 4 star prospect by Rivals.com and had been hearing from some other major college programs like Alabama, Nebraska, and Rutgers, but chose to commit to the Canes just a few days after receiving an offer. I spoke with the newest Cane commit today to discuss his commitment and his skill set.
Jerome Washington said that “Committing was definitely a big weight off of my shoulders, it’s something I’ve really been working at for the last 4 years. Now I’m ready to go and start my career at Miami.”
When asked about what Miami coaches have been coming after him Washington replied “Coach Larry Scott and Coach Baez. They’re both really nice and I feel like they’ll push me to the best of my abilities, which is definitely something I want. I feel comfortable playing for them and I just like them overall. They’re just good people and that’s what is most important.”
Brad Kaaya is not only catching the eye of fans and analysts, but is also impressing many of the offensive recruits.
I asked Jerome if he was excited to play with Brad Kaaya and if it influenced him at all, his response: “Yeah that is definitely something that I looked at when I was committing. The scheme fit and the pieces that they have in place right now will definitely create a lot of competition and that’s when people play at their best. I’m definitely looking forward to playing with a lot of their players.”
Washington said he is most similar to Gronkowski adding “I do a lot of the stuff that he does, he is really big and really good at boxing people out. He is my favorite tight end and I look at him kind of as a role model as a player. I really appreciate the way he plays and he is who I try to model my game after, but at The University of Miami I just want to do whatever the coaches ask of me.”
Jerome said that he wants to work on being more consistent “At this level you have to give 100% every play and that really comes down to conditioning. I want to work on my conditioning and I know that I’ll definitely be doing that in the spring so that I can come in ready to play.”
Washington will be visiting Miami from December 5th until December 7th to check out the school and the facilities.
Washington added that “I really want to meet with some of my teachers that I will have in my classes for freshman year and get a feel for how it is academically. Then I want to meet with some of the players and get a feel for how they operate throughout the day.”
Jerome Washington will enroll at Miami in January so he will be able to get a jump start on his preparation for next season.
Finally, I asked him for his prediction on the big match up between Miami and FSU next Saturday: “I see Miami winning that game. It is going to be a crazy atmosphere and I just see them winning. I’m not really sure on a score yet, but they’re going to win that game.”
You can check out Jerome Washington’s highlights by clicking here.
Welcome To The U Jerome!!!