Miami Hurricanes DC Manny Diaz rebuilding the state of Miami

"the best linebacker in South Florida, which we did this year; the best safety out of South Florida, which we did this year and the best corners, we continue to do those types of things, [and] at UM, this is why you want to coach here, this is why you want to play here. You don’t have to guess. It’s been done before. You’ve seen it. If you can get the best kids from down here to stay down here, you can beat everyone that you play. “Our job is to make sure the players understand they can be developed, they can be in a program with a head coach that’s going to do everything in a first-class manner, that’s why the facilities, the indoor facility, the new dorms that are being built at Miami, all those types of things are adding to our recruiting.”"

The players that Diaz were talking about are defensive tackle Nesta Silvera, defensive end Gregory Rosseau and safety Gurvan Hall. It’s difficult to ascertain which linebacker he is talking about as the Hurricanes did not sign any.

Miami signed 23 players in the Storm ’18 Class. Twelve of them are from South Florida. Eight are four-star signees. This is the highest ranked class in the Richt era. After being in the top five for much of the 2018 recruiting cycle, Miami wound up eighth.