Lashlee looking for QB fit
OC’s prime recruiting target may be in Texas
The Miami Hurricanes do not have a quarterback prospect committed in the 2021 recruiting class, and that will be a focus for new offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee before next season begins, whenever that may be.
Among quarterback prospects UM is pursuing, a few reside in Texas, where Lashlee built recruiting inroads over the past two years at Southern Methodist.
“No matter who you are — you go national or you go local — you find the best guy,” said Lashlee of his quarterback recruiting philosophy in a Friday web conference with reporters. “It doesn’t really matter, and there’s going to be years that South Florida is going to have a lot of quarterbacks for many years and then it doesn’t. It’s the same way everywhere around the country.
“It probably didn’t hurt that I’ve been in Texas the last few years, so I had some familiarity, but we’re going to always try to, try to find the best fit at the University of Miami.”
A top priority could be four-star signal caller Garrett Nussmeier of Marcus High in Flower Mound, Texas. Nussmeier, ranked the nation’s No. 7 pro-style quarterback in the class, has been favored to land at LSU by recruiting services. He delayed an April commitment announcement, and the Hurricanes could be a team in play if they can get him to visit Coral Gables.
Miami is also pursuing dual-threat quarterbacks from the Lone Star State who are currently committed elsewhere: Texas commit Jalen Milroe of Tompkins High in Katy and Virginia Tech pledge Dematrius Davis of Houston’s North Shore, the same school that brought UM freshman linebacker Corey Flagg Jr. as an early enrollee in the 2020 class.
Preston Stone, another four-star prospect from Dallas’ Parish Episcopal School, announced his commitment to SMU at the All-American Bowl as Lashlee made his move from the Mustangs to the Hurricanes.
“I know if you can have a South Florida kid be the starting quarterback, that’s phenomenal, but I also know a lot of national championships have been won here with guys outside the state,” said Lashlee. “We’re always trying to find the guy who wants to be here, who wants to lead in a place like University of Miami where the expectations are high. It really doesn’t matter where they’re from if they’re the right fit.”
Texas, of course, is the state where Miami got its star grad transfer quarterback this offseason, former Houston signal caller D’Eriq King.
On the possibility of getting two quarterbacks this recruiting cycle, Lashlee said, “I’ll never say never.”
Athlete marketability
College athletes could soon be able to profit off of third-party endorsements, social media influence and their own business. This past week, the NCAA Board of Governors supported a proposed rule change allowing athletes to receive compensation for their name, image and likeness.
Lashlee was supportive of athletes in this venture, for how demanding their schedules are, but also wants the right balance to maintain amateurism in college athletics.
“There’s a lot asked of those guys,” Lashlee said. “They go to school and they play. I think a lot of times people see the glitz and the glamour, but they put a lot of work in, so I understand both sides of that equation.
“I think it’s always a fine line trying to find what’s fair and right for the studentathletes and also what keeps it up — you know, college football — the purity of what it is. Those guys will do a good job, and whatever they come up with, those are the parameters we’ll work with, make the most of it.”
Getting a chance to know his new players’ personalities over the past month, Lashlee was asked which Hurricanes he sees as most marketable.
“I have no idea who’s the most marketable,” he said. “I just hope, coming into this football season, that’s a good problem we have, that a lot of guys are marketable.”
The proposed changes would take place beginning with the 2021-22 academic year with voting to take place no later than Jan. 31.
Spring freshman experience
All 10 offensive members of Miami’s 2020 recruiting class were able to enroll early for the spring semester that is soon to be wrapping up at UM.
That’s always a major victory for college teams to get incoming recruits accustomed to college lifestyle, dorms, classes and the team through spring practices. Much of that experience was cut short in March with the coronavirus pandemic shutting down all college athletic activities and shifting classes to a virtual setting.
Lashlee, nonetheless, sees the benefit of the time those players spent on campus.
“It still is big,” he said. “They’ve been on campus. They they’ve gone to class. They got that kind of icebreaker part of college out of their system. They had four practices, so whenever we do get back to practice, they still would be ahead of where they would have been had they not.
“What we saw earlier was good, both from their just their mental ability to their attitude to, obviously, the skill sets that they had. So, we’re really excited about the class.”