Don’t read into Jake Garcia’s move to Georgia that he’ll flip to Miami football

The Miami football fanbase in June started a movement of four-star quarterback Jake Garcia to the U. Two months later Garcia is transferring from California to Georgia for his senior season of high school and holding firm to his commitment to USC.

The 2021 Miami football recruiting class is currently ranked ninth in the country. Miami is still without a quarterback in the 2021 class. Four-star USC commit Jake Garcia announced his transfer from La Habra High School in Calfornia after the fall season was canceled, to Valdosta in Georgia.

Garcia is the top target at QB for Miami in the class of 2021. The Hurricanes are also recruiting Texas four-star commit Jalen Milroe. The move by Garcia from California to Georgia created hope for Miami football fans that his closer proximity to Coral Gables could be an indicator he could flip to the Hurricanes.

The weekly recruiting update by Ari Wasserman of The Athletic stated “no more hope for Miami fans with Jake Garcia” on Wednesday. Both Garcia and Milroe are extreme long shots to sign with the Miami football program as their recruitment currently stands. A lot can change between now the December early signing period.

Wasserman stated that part of the rationalization coming from the Miami fan base had to do with five-star athlete James Williams committing last month. Add five-star defensive tackle Leonard Taylor last week and Miami became one of only three programs with Alabama and Ohio State with more than one five-star commitment.

Wasserman stated that the view from the Hurricanes fan base was that everything is coming up right for Miami and thus the fanbase viewed Garcia’s move as an indication that he will eventually flip. The Hurricanes fanbase is more sophisticated than that. Miami lost two top 100 recruits to Florida over the weekend.

There is still a portion of the Miami fanbase holding on to hope that Garcia will eventually flip. Garcia did visit Miami twice in 2019. That included participating in Paradise Camp in June 2019. The movement of Garcia to the U began when USC added a second four-star QB commit, Miller Moss, in May.

Garcia at the time stated he knew that the Trojans were taking two QBs in the class of 2020 when former starter J.T. Daniels decided to transfer, eventually signing with Georgia. Garcia spoke to Wasserman about the connection he has with the four Hurricanes commits from Miami Northwestern.

"“I have a good connection with some of those kids down there at Miami Northwestern (High), so we’re really cool. I get on the phone with them and talk with some of those kids that are committed to Miami because I had met them when I was on my visit over there. Those kids really push it too.So like when they tweet out certain things, like that’ll blow it up some more, or just little things like that. So with fans knowing that I’m really cool with all the kids down there, that’s a big reason that this stuff tends to blow up so much. People are gonna have their own opinions.But my commitment is still solid with SC, and me moving down South doesn’t change anything. I told that to Coach (Clay) Helton. Me moving has nothing to do with me trying to get away from USC or anything like that. It’s just for me to be able to play in and have a full season of football in a competitive atmosphere.”“I think Georgia is the best opportunity for me to play,” he said. “If anyone is going to play, it’s going to be the state of Georgia.”"

Wasserman concluded by stating that Garcia needs to get in a full season as a starter. The highly regarded signal-caller has not played a full season since eighth grade. Garcia has had to sit because of injuries and transfers throughout his high school career. Garcia chose Valdosta partly because of family in Atlanta.

Valdosta is about 230 miles southeast of Atlanta near the Florida-Georgia border. Garcia’s family in Atlanta is how he knew about Valdosta’s program. Garcia will ironically play this season against three-star Miami defensive end commit Thomas Davis. That adds another level of intrigue to the Garcia’s recruitment.