Five-star defensive tackle Leonard Taylor named the Miami football program in his top five on Sunday. Taylor would be the second highest-rated DT signed in Hurricanes history.
Five-star defensive tackle Leonard Taylor who is the nation’s 27th best player overall, the fifth-ranked DT and fifth-ranked player in Florida according to the 247Sports.Com composite rankings named the Miami football program as one of five finalists on Sunday. Taylor would be the second highest-rated DT in Hurricanes’ history.
Taylor graded with a 0.9838 rating according to 247Sports. Marcus Fortson who signed with Miami in the Hurricanes now-infamous top-ranked recruiting class in 2008 is the highest-rated DT coming out of high school in Miami history. Forston received a ranking of 0.9940 as the top-ranked DT in 2008.
Fortson was the 11th ranked player overall and second-ranked player in Florida out of Miami Northwestern. Forston was one of six Northwestern players to sign with Miami in the Class of 2008. After finishing with 18 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss and three sacks in 2008, Fortson was named a freshman All-American.
Forston missed the 2009 season with an ankle injury. Fortson returned as a redshirt sophomore in 2009 and recorded 37 tackles, 12 TFLs and three sacks. After suffering a knee injury in the fourth game of the 2011 season as a redshirt senior, Forton suffered a season-ending knee injury against Bethune-Cookman.
Dreams coming true ✅ @PantherPride305 pic.twitter.com/VA4mCTcYao
— Leonard Taylor ⁵⁶ (@56reasons_) May 24, 2020
Forston finished the 2011 season with five tackles, one TFL, one sack and one forced fumble. After the 2011 season, Fortson declared for the NFL Draft. Fortson finished his Miami football career with 60 tackles, 17.5 TFLs, seven sacks, one interception, one pass breakup and one forced fumble.
After being the highest-rated DT in the country coming out of high school in 2008, four years later, Forston was not selected in the NFL Draft. Forston played the 2011 and 2012 seasons with the New England Patriots backing up another former Miami DT, Vince Wilfork. In four career NFL games, Fortson had three tackles and two TFLs.
Fortson was listed at 6’3 286 pounds coming out of high school. Taylor is currently 6’4 255 pounds with plenty of time to grow into that body. Miami strength and conditioning coach David Feeley has done wonders with the current players on the Hurricanes roster in the 16 months since being hired in Coral Gables.
Taylor might be able to take a tip from Fortson who told Heather Dinich of ESPN in 2008 that Miami was his“dream college right around the corner from my house.” Northwestern is about 10 miles from the Miami campus in Coral Gables, Palmetto is just over five miles to the U.
Current Miami rising junior DT Nesta Silvera said that he wanted to make the crib great when he signed with the Hurricanes in 2018. Signing Taylor is going to be a longshot for Miami. All four-crystal balls on 247Sports projected Taylor to sign with the Gators.
In February all 15 crystal balls projected safety Avantae Williams to sign with Florida. Williams flipped from the Gators to the Hurricanes to become the highed rated signee in the Miami class of 2020. Miami has a lot of work to do to sign Taylor. They have to have an outstanding season to sign their highest-ranked DT since Fortson.