Miami football 10th in 5 year 247 Sports development rankings

In addition to the four previously mentioned type of players who are removed from the list, 247 Sports stated that if a player stays three years in a program, they are counted against that team even if they transfer somewhere else. The advent of the transfer portal era will make that more difficult.

Per 247 Sports, 13 percent of the 2021 Top 247 transferred before their second season. Players who transfer and are drafted will count towards the program he was with immediately prior to being drafted. It was acknowledged by 247 Sports that the data is not fully accurate how well a program develops its players.

The 247 rankings only included program that had 10 blue chip players between 2013 and 2017 that qualified under their parameters. To put into perspective the 23 blue-chip players Miami had between 2013 and 2017, Alabama had 67, Ohio State 63 and LSU 50 in those five years compared to the Hurricanes’ 23.

Alabama had 50 percent of their five-star signees drafted between 2013 and 2017. Programs other than Alabama had only 18.3 percent of their five-star players drafted between 2013 and 2017. It was impressive Miami was able to develop Thomas, but they have to sign more five-star prospects in the future to be elite nationally.

After Thomas was only five-star signee for the Miami football program from 2013 through 2017, the Hurricanes  signed five-star Running back Lorenzo Lingard in 2018 and defensive tackle Leonard Taylor and safety James Williams in 2021. Lingard was impressive as a true freshman before a knee injury stunted his career.