ESPN believes Zechariah Poyser is Miami's "sleeper" for upcoming season

Trinton Breeze

Jul 5, 2025 2 min read

Is the Sleeper for the Miami Hurricanes Football Team on the Defensive Side This Year? ESPN Thinks So.

ESPN recently released their Top 25 rankings, along with a sleeper player for each team who could make a major impact this season. For the Miami Hurricanes, that sleeper comes from the defensive side of the ball — new safety Zechariah Poyser.

Poyser, a redshirt freshman, put together an impressive season last year at Jacksonville State. He recorded 75 tackles, three interceptions, and two fumble recoveries, earning an 80.1 defensive grade from Pro Football Focus — including a 76.1 grade in run defense and 80.1 in coverage.

Personally, I agree with ESPN on this one. Poyser has the tools to be an instant-impact player and sleeper for Miami. The Hurricanes struggled in the secondary last season, and Poyser’s arrival could play a big role in fixing that.

Here’s what ESPN had to say about Miami, which they have ranked No. 21 in the nation:

"You may have heard of Poyser, one of the top available players in the transfer portal this offseason. But he should still be considered a sleeper because of the impact he is projected to have in his first year with the Hurricanes. The 6-foot-2, 190-pound safety played his first two seasons at Jacksonville State, earning Freshman All-America honors last season with 75 tackles and three interceptions. His addition gives Miami an instant upgrade at safety, where they struggled at times last year. The Hurricanes made other additions in the secondary through the portal, but safety was the most glaring area of need — and it appears to be filled."

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Comments (19)

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FrancisSawyer

Jul 6, 2025

Poyser is one of the players that I'm very much looking forward to seeing this season.

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bacane

Jul 6, 2025

Glad to hear, but don’t take anything too seriously that ESPN post at this juncture. They’re pushing preseason stuff, NFL as well, to drive traffic. Most compiled by folks who spend their days in front of a computer - not at a practice, not talking to coaches, etc- and simply picked nuggets from a variety of websites and media reports.

grover

Jul 6, 2025

We desperately need him to be. We're playing him at Free Safety to provide cover, correct? If we have a Kam level year from Poyser to go along with our talented CBs, Hetherman will have the luxury to use that second safety closer to the line and wreak havoc. We could see a 2015 to 2016 level turnaround on our defensive production.

Ispyin

Jul 6, 2025

Wait, when did we go from dunking on ESPN every time we could to quoting them

grover

Jul 6, 2025

Ispyin said:
Wait, when did we go from dunking on ESPN every time we could to quoting them

When it suits our narrative.

caneforlifeforreal

Jul 7, 2025

Ispyin said:
Wait, when did we go from dunking on ESPN every time we could to quoting them

Pretty sure the second post said nah

In fact really only one close to positive reply and that was "I'm looking forward to seeing him play"

The site itself is gonna aggregate media posts. Take it up with @DMoney but Doesn't look like anybody is really sucking *** from the mothership really.

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NCCanefan

Jul 7, 2025

I thought he was the portal sleeper too until I read that's what ESPN thinks. Reconsidering.

MoneybaggCANES

Jul 8, 2025

I watched 4 game highlights of Jacksonville state football (Mid Tennessee, WKU, NMSU, & Liberty). He doesn’t make any impact plays in any of the games. He was a freshman last year so it’s early, but I see a JAG at safety.

Mid Tennessee game he gets beat by a TE for a 60 yard TD

JeffreyG

Jul 8, 2025

I guess you could say he is "Poysed" for a breakout year.

A
ageezy

Jul 8, 2025

MoneybaggCANES said:
I watched 4 game highlights of Jacksonville state football (Mid Tennessee, WKU, NMSU, & Liberty). He doesn’t make any impact plays in any of the games. He was a freshman last year so it’s early, but I see a JAG at safety.

Mid Tennessee game he gets beat by a TE for a 60 yard TD

so they lied about being frosh all american? his portal offerers were legit

MoneybaggCANES

Jul 8, 2025

ageezy said:
so they lied about being frosh all american? his portal offerers were legit

His film shows otherwise.

grover

Jul 8, 2025

MoneybaggCANES said:
His film shows otherwise.

A free safety doesn't necessarily have to make big plays to affect the game positively. But assuming your eyes weren't lying, that's the type of feedback that worries me bigtime. We know Beck, Lucas and Toure can ball because they did so in the SEC and BiG. But we're counting on Poyser and Blay to be dominant based on G5 play and if they're not, we're going to be in trouble. Liberty Daniels looked lights out, LSU Daniels did not (yes I know he was playing injured). Which one do we get?

Overall, I feel we have a very solid team and have no excuses not to win 10+ this season. But going into the portal, we knew we had problems at several positions, including DT and S where we plugged holes with G5 transfers. We have to hit on these guys.

MoneybaggCANES

Jul 8, 2025

grover said:
A free safety doesn't necessarily have to make big plays to affect the game positively. But assuming your eyes weren't lying, that's the type of feedback that worries me bigtime. We know Beck, Lucas and Toure can ball because they did so in the SEC and BiG. But we're counting on Poyser and Blay to be dominant based on G5 play and if they're not, we're going to be in trouble. Liberty Daniels looked lights out, LSU Daniels did not (yes I know he was playing injured). Which one do we get?

The thing is he was freshman, playing. He can improve and the game will slow down for him. I just don’t see Kam Kitchens out there. He’s not overly physical & wasn’t around the ball a lot. I’ll check out the Louisiana tech kids film next.

scrantoncane

Aug 27, 2025

@LuCane have you watched film on this kid? Should I be concerned about the safety room? (I am concerned, can you talk me off a ledge?)

scrantoncane

Aug 27, 2025

CANEFAN83

Aug 27, 2025

Did we recruit Poyser coming out of H.S.? How did he end up at Jacksonville State?

CANEFAN83

Aug 27, 2025

My hope is Bryce Fitzgerald can get on the field at safety eventually and start since safety is still a question mark until we see live action. Folks are saying he appears to be the real deal. We better hope Thomas and Poyser are solid players there or we are in trouble.

If Poyser was a solid safety coming out of H.S., why did he end up at J State? What happened with his recruitment? Was it grades?

LuCane

Aug 27, 2025

scrantoncane said:
@LuCane have you watched film on this kid? Should I be concerned about the safety room? (I am concerned, can you talk me off a ledge?)

I’ve not watched any of our safeties enough to have a fair opinion. Gonna be a total surprise. Ha. Can it be worse? Don’t answer that. I at least hope guys aren’t taking 2-3 missteps in the wrong direction post-snap.

scrantoncane

Aug 27, 2025

LuCane said:
I’ve not watched any of our safeties enough to have a fair opinion. Gonna be a total surprise. Ha. Can it be worse? Don’t answer that. I at least hope guys aren’t taking 2-3 missteps in the wrong direction post-snap.

I saw what I thought were a few false steps in that highlight film I posted, which is why I immediately thought of you lol.

There’s no safety depth and the starters are unproven. Poyser looks like a sure tackler so that is a plus. We’ll see if he is fast and athletic enough.