The Miami football program joined Alabama, Georgia and Ohio State as the only programs to sign top 15 players in the Class of 2021.
The signing of defensive tackle Leonard Taylor, the 10th ranked player in the Class of 2021 and safety James Williams, the 13th ranked player in the class joined the Miami football program with Alabama, Georgia and Ohio State as the only classes to have two top 15 players signed on Wednesday.
Taylor is the top-ranked DT and Williams the top-ranked safety in the Class of 2021. Alabama is the only program with three players in the top 15 for 2021. Oklahoma could join the list as they are favored to sign offensive tackle Tristan Leigh who is the 11th ranked player nationally. Miami is competing with elite programs.
Williams and Taylor are the pair of first-star signees in the same Miami class since 2008. The addition of four-star quarterback Jake Garcia moved the Hurricanes 2021 signing class up 10th nationally. This is the highest-ranked Miami signing class since the Hurricanes finished eighth in 2018.
The 2021 Miami signees were 61.9 percent blue chip. Blue-chip signees are any players ranked as four or five-stars. Having 50 percent or more of a roster be blue-chip players are an important measure by 247 Sports for determining which college football programs have a chance to reaching the College Football Playoff.
David Cooney, Miami's Director of Recruiting is speaking with reporters.
— Christy Chirinos (@ChristyChirinos) December 17, 2020
On getting the class to stick the way it did: "I think it was a collection of things...kids want to be part of a winning culture and our team did very, very well throughout the course of the season."
Eleven four-signees inked National Letters of Intent with the Miami football program on Wednesday to join Taylor and Williams. The signees include specialists. Andres Borregales, the brother of current Miami kicker Jose, is the third-ranked kicker in the Class of 2021, but a three-star signee.
Building a program of four and five-star signees is critical for the future success of the Miami football program. Miami currently has the 18th most talented roster in college football according to 247 sports. Miami is below 50 percent with 46.8 percent of the former signees on the roster four or five-star players.
That list includes transfers. Defensive end Jaelan Phillips was the number one signee nationally in the Class of 2017. Miami has elite players who turned into stars like DE Greg Rousseau and transfers Quincy Roche and QB D’Eriq King but have had a number of former four-star players who never made an impact.
Manny Diaz and his staff did an exceptional job signing a top 10 class in 2021 in the middle of a pandemic. The Hurricanes kept most of the top-ranked 2021 signees in South Florida at home. Miami has to continue to sign classes full of blue-chip players. If that can continue to happen success on the field should follow.