When Howard Schnellenberg began the process of building the University of Miami football team he coined the term “the State of Miami” in regards to where he wanted his staff recruiting.
In an article dated January 1, 1984, on the eve of Miami’s shocking upset of then number one Nebraska in the Orange Bowl to win the National Championship, Michael Janofsky of the New York Times stated that Schnellenberger “interprets as that part of (South) Florida below an imaginary line drawn eastward across Florida from Tampa.”
Janofsky went on to quote Schnellenberger as saying ”Eighty-five percent of our recruiting time is spent on kids in the state of Miami…And 85 percent of the kids on our team are from the state of Miami.”
Schnellenberger also said that he wanted to ”return the school to national prominence within five years.” Previous to Schellenberg’s arrival the UM athletic department coined the phrase ”Pipeline to the Pros” about the Miami football program. Schnellberger took that to far greater heights.
Jimmy Johnson continued to use Schnellberger’s formula to capture another National Championship four years later and set the foundation for two more titles under Dennis Erickson.
Stormin in Norman
Recruiting in South Florida is much more difficult these days. Building depth requires more work. When Schnellenberger made his pledge in the late 1970’s, the only other Division I-A schools in the state were Florida and Florida State.
Now Central Florida, South Florida, Florida International and Florida Atlantic all have programs in what has evolved into the Football Bowl Subdivision.
Richt has set his program’s goal as having two-thirds of his signees each year from the entire state of Florida.
The most recent Miami recruiting class has 16 out of 24 signees from Florida. Richt discussed Schnelleberger’s fence of the State of Miami/South Florida during his press conference when discussing the signees in the 2017 class in February:
"“Everyone talks about putting a fence around South Florida. But there may be 120 guys going D-1. You take 15-20 a year on average. You can’t get every great player in the tri-county area. It’s impossible. The goal is to get a high percentage of those. You’ve got to make sure you are creating those relationships with those players. I went to close to 20 youth parks and started trying to spread the love right away. It takes a lot of time to create those relationships.”"
Richt’s predecessor Al Golden was from the Northeast and would frequently send his staff there to recruit. Richt changed all that. Sun Sentinel columnist Dave Hyde when discussing the Miami signees in February said that:
"“Richt cut the state of Florida into nine pieces for his assistants upon arriving a year ago. They had a national territory, too…Defensive backs coach Mike Rumph, for instance, had parts of Broward and Maryland…Richt re-trenched everyone closer to home after a few months. Then again a few months later. Rumph’s final territory: Okeechobee and parts of Broward.”"
Rumph told Hyde:
"“I’d go to practices in Maryland and be the only coach…I’d go to Miramar and there’d be eight coaches from other schools with me. Everyone knows where the players are.”"
The recent commitment from four-star recruit Mark Pope from Miami Southridge cemented the Hurricanes spot at the of the 2018 composite recruiting rankings.
Pope is the listed by 247 sports as the 91st best recruit in the class of 2017, the 19th best wide receiver and 24th best player in the state of Florida.
Miami is getting a lot of praise and rightfully so for their presently top-ranked class of 2018. We won’t know for almost ten months if this will remain the top-ranked class. Perhaps more amazing is what Richt is doing in South Florida or the “State of Miami”. Eleven of the Hurricanes 15 2018 commits are from Dade, Broward or Palm Beach Counties.
Next: ESPN’s Football Power Index Predicts Miami Hurricanes Will Finish 11-1
In an era of far more competition than when Schellenberger initially led the Hurricanes to unprecedented heights, Richt is re-establishing the State of Miami and has the Hurricanes on the precipice of once again becoming a National Power.