Miami Football Tied for Seventh for Most Alums in NFL
The NFL released an extensive breakdown of the NFL Rosters with a list of which colleges they attended to start the season. With 34 alums of Miami Football on NFL rosters, the Hurricanes rank seventh in the country.
The 34 players Miami Football has in the NFL tied the Hurricanes for seventh with rival Florida State. With three punters in the NFL, Miami tied with Tennessee for the most at that position.
The Seminoles lead the list with two kickers and eight linebackers. In-state rival Florida leads the NFL with three centers, five tackles and ten defensive backs.
The only ACC team ahead of Miami and Florida State is Clemson. The Tigers are in a three-way tie for fourth with Florida and Ohio State. They all have 34 alums in the NFL.
The list included 20 schools. No other ACC Schools are on the list. Notre Dame who is in the ACC for every sport except football ranks 11th with 28 alums in the NFL.
The Palm Beach Post’s Matt Porter did a great job breaking down the former Hurricanes on NFL rosters as the 2017 season began. Using Porter’s list, Miami should also be tied for the most tight end and most defensive ends with five each.
NFL.Com list Notre Dame and Stanford with five each. Arkansas, Penn State and USC are listed as leading with five defensive ends each.
The remainder of the list breaks down with one quarterback (Brad Kaaya-Carolina), two running backs, (Duke Johnson-Cleveland and Lamar Miller-Houston), four wide receivers, three guards, one offensive tackle (Ereck Flowers -NYG), three linebackers, two cornerbacks and three safeties.
Perhaps the most surprising thing from the list is the lack of Miami Football alums at some of the skill positions in the NFL. The 2001 National Championship Miami Football team more had double the amount of NFL running backs on their roster that are currently in the NFL now.
That team had Clinton Portis, Frank Gore, Willis McGahee, Najeh Davenport and Jarret Payton. All of them spent time in the NFL.
For a school that was known as quarterback U in the 1980’s Kaaya being the only quarterback is somewhat troubling. Stephen Morris’ NFL career is probably over after three years as a backup.
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Current quarterback Malik Rosier is not likely an NFL talent. It remains to be seen if Freshman N’Kosi Perry will eventually have what it takes to become an NFL quarterback. Artur Sitkowski who is a verbal commitment for 2018 might be the most likely future NFL quarterback from Miami.
The strength of the defense in the NFL is similar to the current Miami strength. The front seven is the strength of Miami’s defense in 2017. With six defensive linemen in the NFL the alums are no different.
What is a surprise is that only one of those defensive linemen is a tackle. During the Miami football program’s run of greatness, the Hurricanes always dominated on the interior defensively.
Jerome Brown, Russell Maryland, Cortez Kennedy, Warren Sapp and Vince Wilfork are among the great defensive tackles that wore a Miami football uniform. The amount of players that are in NFL from Miami with a decade of mediocrity is impressive.
The new staff under Mark Richt should have these numbers rise. It’s also likely that there will be more running backs headed to the NFL from Miami. Mark Walton has a good chance to be in the 2018 NFL draft.
Next: Three Miami Hurricanes Nominated for Pro Football HOF
Richt sent running backs Knowshon Moreno and Todd Gurley to the NFL from Georgia. Nick Chubb who Richt recruited to Georgia will likely be the next Bulldog headed to the NFL.