Miami's recruitment of 5-star Kaden Henderson takes a disappointing turn

It's rare that Mario Cristobal walks away from a five-star prospect, but it happened Thursday after EJ Holland reported the Miami Hurricanes will no longer pursue top linebacker Kaden Henderson.

Henderson, who took an official visit to Miami on May 29, was at Texas A&M last weekend and is scheduled to visit Notre Dame on June 19. Those three schools were reported to be ones in his final group. It's a surprising move from Cristobal and the Hurricanes, who were pushing Henderson to commit after his official visit, but he chose to stick with a July 1 announcement date. 

All things seem to be pointing to Henderson becoming the fifth five-star prospect to join the Hurricanes class and help them achieve a No. 1 national ranking. Miami was originally the team to beat, but a rash of predictions for Texas A&M have been posted in the past day. The Aggies are currently at a 75% chance of landing Henderson on the Rivals/On3 predictor.

READ MORE: Miami rightfully getting 'greedy' with 5-star LB Kaden Henderson a top priority

Texas A&M continues to be a thorn in Mario Cristobal's side

If the Aggies are the choice for Henderson, that would be the second time Mike Elko swooped in and grabbed a five-star prospect that looked like a lock to the Hurricanes. Last month, it was offensive tackle Mark Matthews, who had long been the top target for Miami in this cycle, and now it appears that Elko is ready to do it again with Henderson. Clearly someone isn't taking that playoff loss well. 

The Aggies and Hurricanes have the top two recruiting classes in the country and fans from both sides will boast that their team's class is the better of the two. It will play out in due time and if both classes are as good as advertised, maybe Cristobal and Elko can settle it on the field again in December or January. 

Miami has some pretty darn good linebackers in the class already

The Hurricanes wouldn't back away from this recruitment if Cristobal didn't feel good about the guys currently in the fold. Four-star recruit AJ Randle looks like he's going to be the truth, and he shot up nearly 100 sports on 247Sports' updated rankings to 54th nationally and the second-highest rated linebacker in the country. He is a pure off-ball player that can go sideline to sideline and also come off the edge and get to the quarterback. There are plenty of reasons to be excited about Randle and the star potential he has. 

Noah Glover is the other four-star linebacker committed to Miami, and he could project out to be more of the thumper of the two and do most of his damage as a box defender. With those two players committed, linebacker became less of a need. This isn't to mention who might be on the radar in the 2028 recruiting class. The Hurricanes are already at 18 commits and there's a good chance Cristobal won't take more than 20 in this class. Henderson is going to be a heck of a player in college, but it likely won't be at Miami.

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