Miami football program hindered by missing on South Florida QBs

Recruiting the State of Miami was a phrase coined by the godfather of the Hurricanes, national championship head coach Howard Schnellenberger. The theory was that the Miami football program had dominated recruiting in Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

Since being hired in December 2018 to replace Mark Richt as the head coach of the Miami football program Manny Diaz has re-emphasized making the “State of Miami” a priority in recruiting. If the Hurricanes can sign the majority of highly ranked recruits in Broward, Dade and Palm Beach counties success will follow.

Recruiting well in South Florida is most prevalent at quarterback. The tri-county State of Miami is not the hotbed at QB than it is in the other skill positions, particularly on offense. Even the Miami championship teams usually went elsewhere to find QBs. Only Craig Erickson who was the QB in 1989 came from South Florida.

When Miami became known as quarterback U in the 1980s and early 1990s all but Erickson matriculated at Miami from outside of Florida. Jim Kelly was from Pennsylvania, Bernie Kosar from Ohio, Gino Torretta and Ken Dorsey from California among the championship QBs in Miami football history.

Even the more recent Miami QBs have primarily come from other states. Current projected backup for the 2020 season N’Kosi Perry is from Ocala, which is in Central Florida. An article posted by Andy Staples of The Athletic highlighted the missed opportunities that Miami has had with QBs from South Florida.

"“It also hasn’t helped that Miami has whiffed on the good quarterbacks who have come out of South Florida. Teddy Bridgewater (Miami Northwestern High), Jacoby Brissett (Palm Beach Gardens Dwyer High), Jake Rudock (Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas), Lamar Jackson (Boynton Beach High) and Mike White (Davie Nova Southeastern University School) — the only current NFL quarterbacks from the three-county area — opted not to go to Miami.Bridgewater was committed to the Hurricanes, but the firing of Randy Shannon pushed him to sign with Charlie Strong’s Louisville program. Brissett signed with Florida out of high school.Jackson took an official visit to Miami in January 2015, but Golden’s Hurricanes decided to offer Jackson late in the process and couldn’t make up enough ground to flip Jackson from Louisville. Rudock and White weren’t offered by Miami.”"

The lack of development at QB has forced the Miami football program to dip into the transfer portal two offseasons in a row. Tate Martell who grew up in California and Nevada and transferred from Ohio State could not crack the two-deep depth chart at QB for Miami in 2019. Miami signed D’Eriq King from Houston last month.

King is the presumptive starter for his one season with the Miami football program in 2020. Behind King are Perry, Martell, rising redshirt freshman Peyton Matocha and incoming freshman Tyler VanDyke. The projection for 2021 is that Perry will start with VanDyke as the primary backup and then taking over in 2022.

None of the 10 QBs the Miami football program has offered scholarships to in the 2021 cycle are from Miami. That in and of itself is not the problem. There is not a QB ranked in the top 100 for 2021 from South Florida. Only six of the top 100 are from Florida and no one in the top 30.

Miami needs to sign QBs from the State of Miami when the opportunity is there. The Class of 2022 does not have any highly ranked QBs from Florida either. That puts a greater emphasis on signing QBs from South Florida when they are highly ranked. Miami can also assist in the development of young QBs in their camps.