Dominating South Florida recruiting key for Miami football staff
The virtual establishment of the “State of Miami” by former Miami Football Head Coach Howard Schnellenberger was a key in the Hurricanes rise as the nation’s best program in the 1980s.
Head Coach Mark Richt and Defensive Coordinator Manny Diaz are attempting to bring that back to the Miami Football Program. Appearing on the Joe Rose Show on Tuesday morning, Diaz discussed the key of recruiting South Florida to return Miami to a nationally elite program.
There are two generally accepted definitions of the State of Miami. One is anything South of Interstate Four. The other and more frequent one is Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties.
Ten players in the Miami football Surge ’19 Class are from the tri-county South Florida area. In Richt’s three recruiting cycles leading the Miami football program, 23 players have signed with the Hurricanes from Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.
While fans and the media often look at signing the four and five stars players, its often the lesser known three-star talents from South Florida that the coaching staff looks at to make an impact.
Freshman Defensive end Gregory Rousseau was a three-star player in high school. He played defensive line, safety and wide receiver in high school. The Miami Herald summarized Diaz’s appearance on Rose’s show. Diaz discussed the possibility that scouts from other football programs didn’t project Rousseau correctly.
"“I think that’s where most schools luckily missed out on projecting him…If you can play on these fields down here in Dade, Broward and Palm Beach County, you can play…It doesn’t matter how many stars you have attached to your name. It doesn’t matter what any magazine or the internet says about you. If you can prove yourself on the fields down here on Friday night, you can play and those are the guys we want to be Hurricanes.”"
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Securing the best players in South Florida is by design. Diaz spoke about that with Rose.
"“Some people want to dominate the recruiting rankings,…We want to dominate South Florida. You can see the intentions…History shows when Miami dominates South Florida, we dominate the world in the fall. Those are the only rankings we care about is where we get ranked the first weekend in January…We know the path to it because it’s been done before. If we continue on that path, good things are going to happen.”"
Miami is building on the success of the 2017 season in recruiting for the Surge ’19 Class. Diaz believes that those recruits have short memories and have forgotten the mediocrity during Al Golden’s tenure.
"“These kids now they were ninth-graders when coach Richt got here…These kids have short memories. That’s probably about what they remember of Miami football. … You can go from being a place where kids don’t want to go to a place where they do want to go quickly.”"
Winning the ACC Coastal Division, getting to the ACC Championship game and appearing in the Orange Bowl should all have an impact on players the Hurricanes are recruiting for 2019 and beyond.
Success at the next level is also important. Miami Basketball Coach Jim Larranaga said earlier this week that having two players selected in the NBA Draft will help in recruiting. That applies to football as well.
Miami has had 15 players selected in the NFL Draft following Richt’s first two years with the Hurricanes. Seven of those players came from Diaz’s defense. Depending who decides to leave for the NFL following the 2018 season, the Miami defense has the potential of nine players being selected in the 2019 NFL Draft.
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Success on the field by the Hurricanes and their alumni in the NFL are likely to have a big impact in recruiting in the future. With Richt and Diaz leading the way Miami should continue to do so. It’s rare to watch an NFL game and not see Hurricanes alums flashing the U during the introduction of the starting lineups on TV.