New Hurricanes enrollees have big ambitions, some colorful tales to tell
Former Miami Palmetto receiver and new Hurricane Brashard Smith said he once jumped on James Williams’ back trying to bring him down during a high school football game. And believe him when he says that dude was “real big.’’
Williams, also a new Miami Hurricane and 6-5, 227-pound former Plantation American Heritage safety who last week was named the Gatorade Florida Football Player of the Year, had nabbed an interception during the play.
“We played him like three times,” Smith told the Miami Herald last week. “He went against me. The first game we beat them and the last two they beat us. He didn’t stick me but he was at safety. He caught an interception, but it wasn’t intended for me. I jumped on his back. He’s huge!” Smith said, laughing. “Other people jumped on his back, too. He’s really good.
“You’re definitely going to see a change with our class. These 2021 guys, we’re all different in every way — size and speed included.”
More odds and ends from Miami Herald interviews with the newest Hurricanes, who are from the 2021 signing class and began college classes Monday.
Smith, a high school
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All-American and consensus four-star prospect, said top Canes receiver Mike Harley, a senior, was one veteran who talked to him before he began classes. “He told me something about the early morning workouts,” Smith said.
“You gotta wake up at 5 in the morning. That’s crazy. I never wake up that early. I wake up at 6, but I don’t go work out.”
Former Miami Central ● offensive lineman Laurence Seymore’s nickname for years has been
“Big Baby” because I was always the biggest kid on the field,” said Seymore, who is 6-1 and 320 pounds and turned 18 in February. But he’ll be working on losing some of the extra baggage and knows there will be plenty
others who stand taller.
So while he’s at UM, at least for now, he’d like to keep it simple. “I want to be called Laurence,” Seymore said.
Romello Brinson, the ●
6-2, 185-pound four-star wide receiver from Miami
Northwestern (along with tight end Kahlil Brantley and early enrollee safety Kamren Kinchens), said he’ll be wearing jersey number zero this season because his high school No. 1 already belongs to UM starting quarterback D’Eriq King.
James Williams told CaneSport he’s wearing zero on defense.
“They said, ‘Are you cool with zero?’ ” Brinson told the Herald. “I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll take it.’ ”
Brinson described himself as “a playmaker.”
“And once you make plays,” he said, “you get people’s attention.”
Brantley, the former
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Bulls tight end, said he will be very serious about his academics. “I know I’ve got to stay on top of it,” he said. “School comes first before everything. Football is a privilege. When asked his “Plan B” when football ends, no matter how far in the future, Brantley said, “I’d probably become a police officer. I just want to better my community and help the people who need it.”