Miami football bringing back the State of Miami

Manny Diaz and the Miami football staff is bringing back the State of Miami by securing the majority of commitments for the 2021 recruiting class from Dade and Broward Counties.

The 2021 Miami football recruiting class is currently heavily made up of players from Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Fifteen of the 18 players currently committed to the Hurricanes reside in Dade or Broward. Two of the other three commits to Miami have lived in South Florida at some point in their lives.

Manny Diaz and his staff have done an exceptional job trying to recreate the fence around Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties that Howard Schnellenberger created more than 40 years ago. If the Miami football program can continue to secure the majority of top players from their own region success should follow on the field.

The top five players committed to the Miami football program for 2021 come from Dade or Broward county. The last few commits, defensive end Jabari Ishmael who commited Friday, safety Kamren Kinchens who commited July 11 and wide receiver Romello Brinson who commited in June are all from Dade county.

Also important to the level of success for the Miami football program in the future is the amount of blue-chip players the Hurricanes are receiving commits from. Nine of the 18 commits in the Miami 2021 Class are four-star players. The Hurricanes are recruiting at a championship level.

The commitment from Ishmael on Friday put Miami at 50 percent of the commits at the blue-chip level. Bud Elliott of 247 Sports has examined championship rosters in the past few seasons and having 50 percent of the roster as four and five-star signees is critical to a team becoming a college football playoff contender.

Diaz and his staff signed the 13th best class in 2020 then added four-star offensive lineman Issiah Walker to the Miami football team after he transferred following one semester at Florida. If Walker had initially signed with Miami the Hurricanes would have had the 11th best-recruiting class in the nation in 2020.

That doesn’t account for the addition of any of the talented transfers Miami added in 2020. Quarterback D’Eriq King, Kicker Jose Borreagles, DE Quincy Roche and offensive tackle Jarrid Williams were arguably the best players at their position available in the transfer portal. Only Borregales is from South Florida.

Miami is not done recruiting high-level talent from Dade and Broward counties in the 2021 class. Five-star DT Leonard Taylor, five-star athlete James Williams who can play anywhere defensively, five-star cornerback Jason Marshall and four-star safety Corey Collier all have Miami among their finalists.

If Diaz and his staff are able to sign one of the five-star players from South Florida the Hurricanes would likely finish in the top 10 recruiting classes nationally and that would make a big statement in the present and future about the Miami football program. Diaz is making it a priority for Miami to sign the most talented local players.