Miami football creating a Texas recruiting pipeline

The Miami football program is creating a recruiting pipeline to Texas. The addition of Oklahoma transfer wide receiver Charleston Rambo on Tuesday will make him the seventh or eighth player on the Miami roster in 2021 who played high school football in Texas. Offensive tackle Jarrid Williams has not announced his 2021 intentions.

Williams transferred to Miami last spring following his former Houston Cougars teammate quarterback D’Eriq King. Williams played high school football in the Dallas suburb of Cedar Hill. King played at Manvel High School in Houston. Four other Miami football players and one 2021 signee are from Texas.

Linebackers, freshman Corey Flagg and redshirt sophomore Ryan Ragone and redshirt freshman quarterback Peyton Matocha are all from Houston. Redshirt junior backup kicker Turner Davidson is from San Antonio and 2021 four-star tight end signee Elijah Arroyo is from Frisco, outside of Dallas.

King was the savior for the Miami football program at QB in 2020. In his first year leading the Hurricanes offense, King completed 64.1 percent of his passes for 2,686 yards, 23 TDs and five interceptions while running for 538 yards and four TDs. King has a long offseason ahead of him rehabbing a torn ACL.

If he can return healthy as expected there are a lot of expectations from King and the Miami offense in the second year under offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee. Miami finished 26th averaging 34 points per game and was 29th in passing offense averaging 277.3 yards per game.

The offense improved greatly over 2019 when Miami was in the lowest quarter in most categories nationally under previous offensive coordinator Dan Enos. Miami will return almost everyone on offense except for tight end Brevin Jordan. Junior Will Mallory should be able to produce the numbers Jordan did.

The scouting report on Arroyo is high on his ball skill ability, talent with running after the catch and skills in the red zone. Arroyo should team with Mallory to give Miami a strong duo at TE. Lashlee came to Miami from SMU and is credited with Arroyo signing with the Hurricanes. Lashlee will be a good pipeline to Texas for Miami.

Williams was a key player on the Hurricanes offensive line, starting all 10 games he played. Williams has not announced if he will return to Miami for the 2021 season. The 2021 season would be Williams’ seventh in college. Williams has the option to return with 2020 fall sports athletes’ eligibility frozen.

Former Miami Co-defensive coordinator Ephraim Banda who recently left for Utah State is a Texas native who signing Flagg was attributed to. The connections Banda had to Texas will be missed on the Miami staff. Flagg has good instincts at LB who had 16 tackles as a true freshman in 2020.

Davidson had a chance to be the Miami kicker in 2019, Ragone has been a key player to add depth for Miami over the last couple of seasons. Ragone had 14 tackles, three tackles for loss and one sack during the 2020 season. Miami has a few offers out to Texas players in the Class of 2022 as they try to keep the pipeline open.