Miami Hurricanes freshman WR Jeremiah Payton ready to make impact

The Miami Hurricanes wide receiving corps has a lot of uncertainty behind expected starters K.J. Osborn, Jeff Thomas and Mike Harley. Freshman Jeremiah Payton is expected to come in and challenge for playing time.

Jeremiah Payton is the highest rated player in the Miami Hurricanes Surge ’19 recruiting class. Payton was a consensus four-star signee in the 247Sports composite rankings. He is the 54th ranked player nationally, the 10th ranked wide receiver and ninth-ranked player in Florida.

Payton gives offensive coordinator Dan Enos and wide receivers coach Taylor Stubblefield adds another playmaker to the Miami Hurricanes offense. The Hurricanes brought in an exceptional group of wide receivers in the Class of 2018. None of them made a significant impact as Freshmen.

Payton’s maturity suggests he can be different. Miami freshmen have made an impact at wide receiver over the past few years. Thomas was dynamic touching the ball as a Freshman in 2017. He averaged 21.7 yards every time he touched the ball during his freshman year.

Ahmmon Richards broke Michael Irvin’s 31-year old freshman receiving yardage record in 2016. Miami has too deep of a talent corps for Payton to equal what Richards did. He can have an impact on offense in 2019 however.

Christy Chirinos of the Sun Sentinel and Susan Miller Degnan of the Miami Herald both profiled the Miami Hurricanes’ top freshman on Wednesday. The prevailing theme in both articles is Payton’s maturity. He is an early enrollee who will not turn 18 until August. Head Coach Manny Diaz discussed Payton’s maturity.

"“Mature, right? [That’s] probably why he’s doing well on the field and kind of fitting in. If you didn’t know he was a 12th grader right now — which is really, what he should be — you’d feel he’s just one of the guys.And the hardest part is just taking that step up in terms of competitiveness. The pace of practice, college guys going up against you, he doesn’t look out of place, which kind of, again, shows who he is inside.”"

Rising sophomore wide receiver Brian Hightower was an early enrollee in 2018. Hightower shined last spring and scored a touchdown in the season-opening loss to LSU. He knows the difficulty of transitioning from high school to college. Hightower discussed how smoothly Payton has adapted to college.

"“He’s doing great. I was an early enrollee, so I know how it feels to be an early enrollee. He’s come in and he’s dominated. He’s done everything he’s supposed to do and he’s playing up to our level. He’s competing just like me and just like every other receiver in that room. I’m proud of him.”"

Several of the upper-class wide receivers have helped Payton adapt to college. That includes Osborn,

Harley

and rising sophomore

Dee Wiggins,

who led Miami’s freshmen in receiving last year, have all been mentors to Payton. Payton discussed what he has learned through the first seven spring practices.

"“They know I’m coming in young, coming in early…It’s all fast. And just having somebody sit you down and tell you that you’re going to be fine, [that] you’ve got the talent to play with anybody. Knowing you got backup like that is amazing.“It’s like learning to do anything else. You’ve got to sit down and take your time and go through it. You know you gotta learn it if you want to play…But once you learn how to do it, then that’s when you say you can play hard, play fast, play physical. And that’s when it all comes into play.”"

The key for Payton will now be taking what he has learned and applying it to the field. Wide receiver is the deepest position unit that the Miami Hurricanes have. Other than the top three, Miami is still young. Stubblefield and Enos are going to have to be patient with their pass catchers and QBs.

The young Miami offense will have a chance to grow together in Enos’ system that is new to them. Payton can learn from the upperclassmen and use his skills should allow him to compete for playing time. We will find out more during the three scrimmages scheduled for the next three Saturdays.