Diaz: UM determined to keep South Florida stars at home
CORAL GABLES — Fort Lauderdale. Opa Locka. Coral Gables. Homestead. Miami. West Palm Beach. Hialeah.
The list of hometowns for some of the top-notch prospects that signed with the Hurricanes both during the Early Signing Period and on National Signing Day reads like a geographical map of cities stretching from deep in Miami-Dade County north through Broward all the way up to Palm Beach.
South Florida has long been the lifeblood of the Miami football program, and so, it’s no coincidence this recruiting class — the first top-10 class of the Mark Richt era — has a definite hometown feel, Hurricanes defensive coordinator Manny Diaz said Monday during an appearance on WQAM-560’s South Florida High School Sports.com Radio Show.
One of the key differences, now, though, Diaz noted is that the Hurricanes aren’t just content to pull talent from South Florida when filling out their roster. They’re targeting the best players at every position, specifically on the defensive side of the ball.
“I think that idea of understanding our identity as a defense, that’s completely based on what we can recruit out of these counties,” Diaz told host Larry Blustein. “If we continue to make sure we find the best defensive tackle in South Florida this year, which we did this year; the best defensive end in South Florida, which we did this year; the best linebacker in South Florida, which we did this year; the best safety out of South Florida, which we did this year and the best corners, we continue to do those types of things, [and] at UM, this is why you want to coach here, this is why you want to play here. You don’t have to guess. It’s been done before. You’ve seen it. If you can get the best kids from down here to stay down here, you can beat everyone that you play.
“Our job is to make sure the players understand they can be developed, they can be in a program with a head coach that’s going to do everything in a first-class manner, that’s why the facilities, the indoor facility, the new dorms that are being built at Miami, all those types of things are adding to our recruiting.”
The Hurricanes’ most recent recruiting class, which was ranked No. 8 in the nation by 247sports.com, features 23 prospects. Of those, 12 are from the tri-county area. Break it down even further and those 12 South Florida players feature eight fourstar prospects. Six of them — offensive guard Delone Scaife Jr., safety Gurvan Hall, defensive tackle Nesta Silvera, wide receiver Mark Pope, cornerback Al Blades Jr. and running back Camron Davis — are all rated among the top 15 players nationally at their positions.
All of that, Diaz said, will only help the Hurricanes take the next step forward as Miami tries to continue working its way back to national prominence. The program took major steps forward on that front this past season, with Miami winning its first Coastal Division crown and making its first ACC Championship Game appearance.
Freshmen defensive players like Trajan Bandy, Amari Carter and Jon Ford all helped make that happen, Diaz noted. His expectation is that this incoming group will continue that trend.
“When we got here two years ago, we made it our sole philosophy that we were going to recruit the best defensive players from Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties and we completely committed to that. We are gaining the benefits of that over time,” Diaz said. “The ‘16 class, just keeping that class together, the ‘17 class, which really, was important in was in terms of filling some numbers because of the holes we had on the roster [and now] the ‘18 class, by extension, really have some guys that we think can do some special things.
“Some guys are already on our campus, defensively, like a Greg Rousseau, defensive end, Gilbert Frierson and DJ Ivey, who are both just blowing it away on our campus right now in terms of our offseason program. Gurvan Hall, again, what we’ve done in Palm Beach County the last three years, in terms of what we’ve gotten out of there, it’s been the key to our success in recruiting.”
And early in the 2019 recruiting cycle, it’s clear Miami isn’t going to ease up on recruiting top-notch local talent.
The Hurricanes already have verbal commitments from 12 players, including six that hail from either Miami-Dade, Broward or Palm Beach.
That class is currently ranked tops in the nation by 247Sports.com.
ccabrera@ sun-sentinel.com; On Twitter @ChristyChirinos.