Staying near home convinced 5-star DT Taylor that UM was right choice
Of course, coaches weren’t going to stop calling and trying to recruit Leonard Taylor after he orally committed to the Miami Hurricanes in August.
He’s a top-10 overall recruit and the No. 1 defensive tackle in the country, and schools across the country had hoped they’d be able to lure him out of South Florida before he finally decided to stay home in the summer.
Those recruiting calls are still coming in “all the time,” Taylor said, from teams like Florida State and Florida, but no one is swaying him from his decision.
“I try not to feed into all of that. I’m locked in to where I’m at,” Taylor said Thursday. “I ignore them. I try not to answer because my phone’s blowing up all the time.”
Instead, Taylor is more focused on adding to Miami’s Class of 2021, which currently ranks No. 11 in the 247Sports.com composite rankings.
On Tuesday, Maason Smith put the Hurricanes in his top five. Right after he saw the news, Taylor texted the fellow five-star defensive tackle to make his pitch.
“I’m trying to get Maason,” Taylor said. “I’m like, come join the fam.”
He’s also focused on his abbreviated senior season in Pinecrest. Miami Palmetto is one of five Miami-Dade County public schools opting into the Florida High School Athletic Association’s state series and going for a state championship.
Palmetto has been building to this season with a group of seniors — including two five-star prospects, two four-star recruits and another AllAmerican. Panthers coach Mike Manasco said his players were adamant about going for a state title in 2020, rather than playing in for a makeshift tri-county championship
Taylor admitted he’s still trying to get fully back in shape by the time the regular season begins Oct. 30, but he was active throughout the summer even when COVID-19 was preventing him from working out with his team.
He took to running around his neighborhood with a weight vest to keep his cardio up and was able to lift weights from time to time.
The COVID-altered summer was also when his relationship with Todd Stroud started to take off and the relationship is ultimately what sold him on Miami. Stroud texted or called him nearly every day and he felt the defensive line coach truly cared about his well-being.
“It took off during quarantine,” the 6-foot-4, 255-pound defensive lineman said. “He was texting and calling all the time, making sure I’m alright. He’ll show me where I stand on the defense, how much playing time I’m going to get, where I’ve got to work harder.
“They’ve been going crazy. Coach Stroud’s been making sure they’ve been eating . ... We’re going to be alright.”
Taylor doesn’t think it’s a coincidence the Hurricanes did such a good job recruiting players across the Miami metropolitan area while the coronavirus was forcing people to stay home.
The Hurricanes have landed eight blue-chip recruits or All-Americans since the start of April and Taylor said the time at home made him realize it was important to him to be near family in college.
Any time he discusses why he picked Miami, Taylor mentions his mother somewhere in the first sentence.
“Being able to come watch me play,” Taylor said, “and then being able to come play, and then being able to come home and get in my own bed after a game, instead of a dorm, eat her cooking and not my own cooking.”
Florida’s most persistent recruiters, though, might be some of his own teammates. Taylor has two teammates committed to the Hurricanes — four-star defensive tackle Savion Collins and three-star wide receiver Brashard Smith — and two committed to the Gators.
It makes for constant trash talk both ways, as blue-chip defensive backs Jason Marshall and Corey Collier try to stump for the Gators. Taylor has a pretty simple response to anything they do.
Said Taylor: “I just laugh at them.”