When Manny Diaz was hired just over 14 months ago to replace Mark Richt as the head coach of the Miami football program one of his edicts was returning the Hurricanes recruiting to emphasizing the State of Miami.
Howard Schnellenberger coined the State of Miami in the late 1970s as the emphasis to create a virtual wall around Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties and secure as many recruits from the area to sign with the Miami Football program. It worked in helping building Miami into a college football dynasty.
Miami head coach Manny Diaz wants to return the Hurricanes to that emphasis as much as possible within the current landscape of college football. Within the state of Florida, Miami is off to a good start in the 2021 recruiting cycle against its main state rivals, Florida and Florida State. Miami has the most blue-chip in-state commits.
National Recruiting expert Bud Elliott of 247Sports noted in article posted Tuesday that Miami has four commitments from four and five-star players in-state, Florida has three and Florida State only one. All 10 of Miami’s commits in the Class of 2021 are from South Florida. Elliot gives the edge for 2021 to Florida.
Miami is in danger of losing one of their 2021 four-star commits, defensive tackle Savion Collins to the Gators. Although he is committed to Miami, the only two crystal balls for Collins have him projected to sign with Florida in December. The Gators are currently second in the 2021 recruiting rankings, Miami sixth and FSU 25th.
All three schools have been damaged by the trend of players from Florida signing elsewhere to play college football. The number of high school players leaving the state to play at the next level has increased at an alarming rate since 2005 according to Elliott. Miami has to re-establish its own turf to improve the football program.
The importance of recruiting successfully in Florida cannot be understated to the success of any college football program. Elliott conducts what he calls a Sunshine State Scorecard every year. On Tuesday he posted his most recent findings. Using a four-year average, Elliott looked into the Blue Chip Players in Florida.
"A rolling four-year average also provides an interesting look.2005-08: 60% of Florida blue-chips stayed in-state.2009-12: 52%2013-16: 47%2017-20: 47%Again, a rolling four-year average also provides an interesting look.2005-08: 66% of Florida top-100 recruits stayed in-state.2009-12: 58%2013-16: 56%2017-20: 44%"
The last four years are telling. More top 100 players in Florida have left than have signed with Florida, Florida State or Miami. In the 2000s and 2010s when all three schools combined to win National Championships, this would have been unheard of. The rising success and re-establishment of blue blood programs have hurt.
Winning the battle for four-star safety Avantae Williams over Florida was a huge boost for the Miami football 2021 signing class. It can hopefully set a precedence that Manny Diaz and his staff are able to recruit against the more currently established programs to acquire talent. Miami still has some big battles in 2021.
The biggest will be former commit, five-star safety James Williams. Williams did not name Miami as one of his top three, but the Hurricanes are still in the running to sign the South Florida native. If Manny Diaz and his staff can somehow flip Williams who is currently 100 percent crystal balled to Georgia he would be a monumental signing.