The Miami football program is pushing Clemson for the best 2023 recruiting class in the ACC. Clemson has signed the best ACC recruiting class in the ACC for the last five years. Florida State in 2017 was the last program other than Clemson to sign the best class in the ACC. Miami could be a game changer in recruiting under Mario Cristobal.
Clemson currently has the fourth best 2023 class and Miami is ninth. The Miami football 2023 class is projected to pass Clemson with the players currently projected to commit to the Hurricanes. Several blue-chip prospects who are projected to commit to Miami will make their announcements through the end of July.
Miami is favored for commitments from offensive lineman Olaus Alinen, linebacker Malik Bryant and safety Jayden Bonsu this week. Pending commitments to other programs, those three would move Miami past Clemson and Penn State into third for the best 2023 recruiting class. Notre Dame is first and Ohio State second.
Miami has not finished ahead of Clemson in the recruiting rankings since 2017. The Hurricanes signed 24 players in 2017 to only 14 for the Tigers. Clemson had an average of 92.10 per 2017 signee. Miami signees averaged 88.68 in 2017. The 2017 Miami class finished 12th nationally with Clemson finishing 16th.
Clemson has 17 commits with an average of 92.33 in the 2023 Class. The 14 Miami commits average 92.38 for 2023. Cristobal averaged a class of 10.5 nationally in his four years as head coach at Oregon. Miami is on pace to sign its best class in program history during the era recruiting sites that began in the early 2000s.
The 2008 Miami recruiting class finished first overall. The 2023 Miami class is on pace to finish with more recruiting points than 2008 per the 247 Sports composite rankings. As expected Cristobal has become a recruiting force being based in South Florida. Miami should become more consistent recruiting under Cristobal.
Miami has had elite classes in the past but lacked an ability to sustain that consistently. The Hurricanes signed the 12th ranked class in 2021. The 2022 class ranked in the forties when Crisotbal was hired in December. Miami finished with the 16th ranked class nationally when the 2022 cycle was completed.