Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Recruitment at FAU still thriving
Despite COVID-19-related limitations, Owls managing to score big in recruiting
FAU hasn’t allowed the NCAA’s temporary recruiting dead period — which was enacted in response to the coronavirus pandemic — to slow down its recruiting efforts.
The Owls have flourished on the recruiting trail over the past three months despite the ban on in-person contact between coaches and prospects, landing 15 verbal commitments as of Monday for the 2021 recruiting class. FAU’s 15 commitments leads Conference USA, and 247 Sports ranks the Owls’ 2021 recruiting class as tops in the conference so far based on total-points rankings.
While there’s an uptick in earlier verbal commitments throughout the nation, with coaching staffs spending more time recruiting since the time with the players on their rosters is limited, all of FAU’s pledges have come since the recruiting dead period was enacted in mid-March.
New FAU coach Willie Taggart credited his staff ’s previous relationships with prospects and electronic communication with recruits as reasons for the team’s early success.
“Our coaches are doing a great job of building relationships with these young men and getting them to believe in our philosophy and vision of what we want with our program,” Taggart said. “A lot of these kids want to be a part of what we’re doing here.
“Our [coaches] have done a great job showing our campus through Zoom,
walking [them] around and giving them a campus tour. Our guys have taken a lot of time doing that, and it’s paid off quite a bit.”
Despite their recruiting success so far, the Owls have had to alter how they’ve evaluated players.
“Usually, you get out and see players practice once, possibly twice, but we have had to rely heavily on film and relationships with coaches to get all the information you need on a kid,” Taggart said. “Typically, the film doesn’t lie. That’s been an adjustment, but we’ve done a great job of evaluating.”
When Taggart first took the FAU coach job in December, he said he viewed Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties as the Owls’ in-state recruiting base and emphasized his staff would make it a priority to go after local players. FAU has been successful at this so far.
Seven of FAU’s pledges are from the South Florida area: Deerfield Beach linebacker Justice Cross, Miami Palmetto defensive end Dwight Dassaw, Deerfield
Beach wide receiver Frederick Eaford, Cardinal Gibbons offensive tackle Anthony Earle, Fort Lauderdale wide receiver Jahmal Edrine, Northwestern offensive linemen Okino King and Northwestern running back Zuberi Mobley.
FAU’s eight commitments outside of South Florida are:
■ Eau Gallie (Melbourne) defensive end/ outside linebacker Julius Barfield
■ Gadsden County High School (Havana) linebacker Jeremiah Brown
■ Robert E. Lee High School (Montgomery, Ala.) running back Reginald Davis
■ Federal Way High School (Federal Way, Wash.) safety Jatavious Magee
■ Winder-Barrow High School (Winder, Ga.) defensive end Jacob Merrifield
■ Tampa Catholic twin-brother offensive linemen Jaden and Jordan Sandlin
■ Dr. Phillips High School (Orlando) safety Jadai Smith
“We have things in place in what we’re looking for,” Taggart said, “We find young men that fit what we’re looking for and we go all-in on them by selling them on our vision, our program and how they fit. It’s been going well for us.”