Pittsburg quarterback commits to Miami

Pittsburg quarterback Jaden Rashada, who will be a senior this fall, announced Sunday that he will play his college football at Miami.

The 6-foot-4, 185-pounder, ranked the fifth-best QB and 29th overall recruit in the country by 247Sports, picked the Hurricanes over SEC schools Florida, LSU, Mississippi and Texas A&M.

There’s a history of highly regarded Bay Area quarterbacks picking Miami, although it has been a while since one did. The others include 1992 Heisman Trophy winner Gino Torretta (Pinole Valley), Ken Dorsey (Miramonte-Orinda) and Kyle Wright (Monte VistaDanville).

“It’s a huge relief, because now I get to go get better and go start learning the playbook, and stop dealing with the recruiting piece of football,” Rashada told 247Sports.

Rashada will compete Tuesday through Thursday in Los Angeles as one of 20 finalists in the Elite 11 showcase for top-rated quarterbacks. He is coming off his first full prep season, completing 146 of 256 passes for 2,220 yards, 27 touchdowns and five interceptions for the Pirates (9-3), who lost 35-7 in the Division 1-A Northern California title game at Liberty (Bakersfield).

Rashada made national news in December when he became what is believed to be the first high school football player to sign an NIL (name, image, likeness) deal. He reportedly agreed to a fourfigure contract with AIR (Athletes in Recruitment), a college recruiting app.

Rashada started his high school career at Liberty-Brentwood, then transferred to IMG Academy (Bradenton, Fla.) — where he opted out of the 2020 fall season before returning to Northern California at Pittsburg for a sophomore season that was moved to the spring of 2021 due to COVID-19.

He reportedly had more than 30 college offers and visited all five of his finalists. He went to Ole Miss on April 22, then Texas A&M ( June 3), LSU ( June 5) and Florida ( June 7). He visited Miami on Tuesday.