Newest Miami football freshmen enrollees can have 2019 impact

Six more Surge ’19 signees for the Miami football team enrolled with the Hurricanes on Monday. Two of those players could have a big impact on the Hurricanes defense as true freshmen.

All three Miami football players from the Surge ’19 recruiting class that were early enrollees in January made an impact during spring football. Cornerback Christian Williams and linebacker Sam Brooks could both have chances to make an impact in 2019 as freshmen for different reasons.

Williams and Brooks officially enrolled at Miami on Monday. Four-star CB Williams signed with Miami after originally committing to his home state team, Alabama. Brooks Miami recruitment was tumultuous. In about a week span in December Brooks committed, de-committed and re-committed to the Miami football program.

The initial de-commitment occurred when now head coach Manny Diaz initially resigned as the Miami defensive coordinator to become head coach at Temple. Brooks re-commitment to Miami came before Diaz resigned after 18 days as the Temple head coach.

It had to be reassuring to Brooks that Diaz decided to stay home and take his dream job. With the limited depth at linebacker for the Hurricanes, Brooks has a good chance to see playing time this season.

Behind four-year starters to be, Shaq Quarterman, Michael Pinckney and Zach McCloud there is a lot of uncertainty because of injuries. Brooks and fellow freshman Avery Huff have high expectations for their Miami football careers. After this season they are both likely to become starters as true sophomores.

Williams will face a lot of competition to be the second CB opposite rising junior Trajan Bandy. He has a long way to go to catch up to rising sophomores D.J. Ivey, Al Blades Jr. and Nigel Bethel. Ivey has been projected as the favorite to start coming out of spring practice. Te’Cory Crouch is another freshman to watch this summer.

Williams provides Miami with excellent size on the outside at 6’1 182 pounds. He is the second highest rated player in the Hurricanes Surge ’19 Class and the highest rated defensive player in the incoming freshman class.

Williams was the 160th ranked player overall, the 20th ranked CB and seventh-ranked player in Alabama per 247 Sports composite rankings. Williams projects as the prototype CB in Manny Diaz’s defense. His size aligns with the corners that have played for Miami in recent years. He compares to former UM CB Michael Jackson.

Diaz praised cornerbacks coach Mike Rumph for his hard work getting Williams to sign with Miami as quoted by Barry Jackson in the Miami Herald on Monday.

"“Got to give the credit to Mike Rumph; did an amazing job finishing on Christian…We think Christian has unlimited potential in terms of the way he can factor into our defense.…Christian’s a highly competitive guy, he’s got great length, great ability to play the ball in the air…a very intelligent football player.”"

Many recruiting analysts feel that Brooks is better than his three-star rating and his ranking as the 751st ranked player overall, the 52nd ranked linebacker and 96th ranked player in the state of Florida in 2019.

Miami defensive coordinator Blake Barry told Barry Jackson that Brooks is slated to play the MIKE or middle linebacker position backing up Quarterman. Huff will start his college career at the will or weakside linebacker backing up Pinckney.