2014 Cardinal Newman ATH Travis Rudolph has had a busy past month with 7-on-7 football and training. The Miami commit detailed what he’s been doing.
“The offseason is going well. I’m on the South Florida Blur 7-on-7 and after school I work out with my basketball coach doing plyometrics and I work with my football coach too,” said Rudolph.
Although Rudolph sounds confident in his abilities, there are some parts of his game that he is currently working on improving.
“I feel like the only thing I need to work on is polishing my route-running and hands. Sometimes I have lack of concentration and drop passes that I shouldn’t miss. I don’t want any dropped passes.”
As far as recruiting goes, Rudolph has been committed to the ‘Canes since last summer, but his pledge isn’t the strongest to say the least.
“The commitment with Miami is a soft commitment right now. They all know. The whole staff knows that I’m just exploring my options and I want to go through the whole recruiting process. I’m not worried about the whole process. I’m just doing me and working hard.”
The versatile playmaker was this close to backing off his commitment before a Miami coach and his mother talked him out of it.
“To be honest with you, I was planning on de-committing with that one phone call I had with Coach Franklin, but he talked to me for three hours and was just telling me not to de-commit. Then I talked to my mom about it overnight and she told me not to do it either because she said as long as they know you’re exploring your options, Miami is not a bad program.”
What was the staff’s reaction when he expressed the commitment was not very solid?
“I only talked to Coach Franklin about it and he wasn’t upset about it because he told me he wants me to go through the whole process. He wants me to go on visits and advises me to because it will show how much I love Miami. He wasn’t mad at all, he was just encouraging me.”
The major issue that Rudolph has now with Miami is a misunderstanding over the position he will play for the ‘Canes.
“Well I told Coach Franklin this and I’m pretty sure the whole staff knows now. They were recruiting me as a DB and I don’t wanna play DB at the next level, I want to play receiver. They were all being inconsistent with me because Coach Franklin was telling me ‘you’re the next Andre Johnson,’ but the head guy, Coach Golden, was telling me he wanted me at cornerback alongside Tracy Howard and Deon Bush and all of them. So I said ‘Wow, that’s some inconsistency right there’ and that’s why I felt like I couldn’t trust them and was iffy about it.”
Rudolph is unsure about what it will take for him to earn trust in the Miami staff.
“I don’t know. That’s a tough question, but I guess time will tell. If I feel like I can’t trust them 100%, then I’m not gonna be there.”
There were recent reports that Miami’s in-state rival, UF, had taken over the top spot on Rudolph’s list.
“Yes, that is the case. I do feel like Florida is the leader at this time.”
Rudolph described what drives his interest in the Gators.
“What I like about UF is I went up there for an unofficial visit for a junior day and their whole staff is consistent with everything. I sat down with Coach Muschamp in his office and the offensive coordinator and they broke down everything like what they see me as at UF and how I would be a big playmaker if I went there. I could just see myself in an orange and blue jersey.”
Did he notice any differences between the junior days at Miami and at Florida?
“It’s just the little details like when I went to Miami’s junior day and they give you these name tags that identify you and below your name it has your position. They didn’t have ‘athlete’ for me, just strictly cornerback so that right there ****ed me off because they were telling me receiver and then they had cornerback on there. So it’s little details that are red flags for me.”
“The offseason is going well. I’m on the South Florida Blur 7-on-7 and after school I work out with my basketball coach doing plyometrics and I work with my football coach too,” said Rudolph.
Although Rudolph sounds confident in his abilities, there are some parts of his game that he is currently working on improving.
“I feel like the only thing I need to work on is polishing my route-running and hands. Sometimes I have lack of concentration and drop passes that I shouldn’t miss. I don’t want any dropped passes.”
As far as recruiting goes, Rudolph has been committed to the ‘Canes since last summer, but his pledge isn’t the strongest to say the least.
“The commitment with Miami is a soft commitment right now. They all know. The whole staff knows that I’m just exploring my options and I want to go through the whole recruiting process. I’m not worried about the whole process. I’m just doing me and working hard.”
The versatile playmaker was this close to backing off his commitment before a Miami coach and his mother talked him out of it.
“To be honest with you, I was planning on de-committing with that one phone call I had with Coach Franklin, but he talked to me for three hours and was just telling me not to de-commit. Then I talked to my mom about it overnight and she told me not to do it either because she said as long as they know you’re exploring your options, Miami is not a bad program.”
What was the staff’s reaction when he expressed the commitment was not very solid?
“I only talked to Coach Franklin about it and he wasn’t upset about it because he told me he wants me to go through the whole process. He wants me to go on visits and advises me to because it will show how much I love Miami. He wasn’t mad at all, he was just encouraging me.”
The major issue that Rudolph has now with Miami is a misunderstanding over the position he will play for the ‘Canes.
“Well I told Coach Franklin this and I’m pretty sure the whole staff knows now. They were recruiting me as a DB and I don’t wanna play DB at the next level, I want to play receiver. They were all being inconsistent with me because Coach Franklin was telling me ‘you’re the next Andre Johnson,’ but the head guy, Coach Golden, was telling me he wanted me at cornerback alongside Tracy Howard and Deon Bush and all of them. So I said ‘Wow, that’s some inconsistency right there’ and that’s why I felt like I couldn’t trust them and was iffy about it.”
Rudolph is unsure about what it will take for him to earn trust in the Miami staff.
“I don’t know. That’s a tough question, but I guess time will tell. If I feel like I can’t trust them 100%, then I’m not gonna be there.”
There were recent reports that Miami’s in-state rival, UF, had taken over the top spot on Rudolph’s list.
“Yes, that is the case. I do feel like Florida is the leader at this time.”
Rudolph described what drives his interest in the Gators.
“What I like about UF is I went up there for an unofficial visit for a junior day and their whole staff is consistent with everything. I sat down with Coach Muschamp in his office and the offensive coordinator and they broke down everything like what they see me as at UF and how I would be a big playmaker if I went there. I could just see myself in an orange and blue jersey.”
Did he notice any differences between the junior days at Miami and at Florida?
“It’s just the little details like when I went to Miami’s junior day and they give you these name tags that identify you and below your name it has your position. They didn’t have ‘athlete’ for me, just strictly cornerback so that right there ****ed me off because they were telling me receiver and then they had cornerback on there. So it’s little details that are red flags for me.”
