Bud Elliott of 247Sports.Com rates a college football playoff contender as a program that has at least 50 percent of their roster as blue-chip players defined as four and five-star recruits. The Miami football roster is right around that number.
In an article posted on Wednesday, Ben Kercheval of CBS Sports wrote about “Six college football teams with championship-caliber rosters that can return them to greatness.” The Miami football program has the model of 50 percent of a championship roster be made up of four and five-star players.
Kercheval and Bud Elliott of 247Sports looked at what the blue-chip ratios are for rosters. The six teams outside the obvious top four of Alabama, Clemson, Georgia and Ohio State were Texas, Oklahoma, Penn State, Florida, USC and Texas A&M. Texas has the highest blue-chip ratio of that half dozen at 64 percent.
Texas A&M and USC are the lowest at 50 percent. Kercheval measured recruiting cycles from 2016-20 to come up with his half dozen teams with championship rosters. The examination does not include transfers or walk-ons. That hinders Miami a bit as it eliminates D’Eriq King, Quincy Roche, Jaelan Phillips and Tate Martell.
The 50 percent benchmark according to Kercheval is more of a guide than a steadfast rule. Coaching and development are also key factors in determining a team’s future success. Using the CBS threshold of the players currently on the Miami football roster who signed with the Hurricanes, 50.7 percent were four-star signees.
The lack of production and playmakers for Miami, particularly on offense has hindered the Hurricanes. It is not unlike the issues of the six schools listed with maybe the exception of Oklahoma. Kercheval noted that Texas has had issues in the draft that are similar to Miami. No Texas players were drafted in 2014.
The lack of playmakers on offense has also hindered Florida according to Kercheval. When accounting for the recruiting classes from 2016–2020 Miami is at 48.1 percent with 51 out of 106 signees as four or five-star players. That shows the power of the transfer portal in upgrading the roster.
If recent Florida transfer Issiah Walker, who was only with the Gators for one semester, would have signed with Miami out of high school that number would go nearly a half a percent to 48.6. Miami is close. Manny Diaz has done a good job in the 16.5 months since becoming the head coach of upgrading the roster.
The additions of King, Phillips and Roche are crucial for Miami in 2020. Even Martell who has paid dividends for Miami is critical to the formula Kercheval and Elliott have used in determining playoff-caliber rosters. By their own guidelines, Joe Burrow of LSU, Justin Fields for Ohio State and Jalen Hurts would not have counted in 2019.