Miami Mentions: 2020 Top247 July Update

Jul 23, 2019

The newest update of the 247Sports Top247 for the 2020 class was just released today.

And there was plenty of movement in the most recent version of the rankings, as there were tons of movers and shakers after another round of camps and evaluations revealed new insight on the rising junior class.

How did Miami and Category20 do? Well, from the last update in spring, Miami's total stayed the same at 4, as they added DE Chantz Williams to the fold but lost WR Bryan Robinson. However, each of Miami's 4 commits in the rankings fell, although they were all relatively minor changes. Williams dropped the most with a 27 spot fall, while RB Don Chaney continues to pace the class and is the highest ranked commit at #60 overall.

There were also plenty of Hurricanes' targets that made an appearance on the Top247, reflecting yet another deep pool of talent that Miami is in on this year.

Without further delay, here's a handy, dandy list of the Miami commits and targets in the newest Top247.

Miami Commits (New Rank/Old Rank/Change)

RB Don Chaney: 60 <-- 51 (-9)

DE Chantz Williams: 76 <-- 49 (-27)

WR Marcus Fleming: 127 <-- 115 (-12)

OT Jalen Rivers: 232 <-- 231 (-1)

Miami Targets (New Rank/Old Rank/Change)

LB Justin Flowe: 6 <-- 6 (N/A)

CB Elias Ricks: 9 <-- 9 (N/A)

ATH Darnell Washington: 20 <-- 17 (-3)

TE Theo Johnson: 75 <-- 243 (+168)

S Avantae Williams: 110 <-- 118 (+8)

OT Issiah Walker: 114 <-- 72 (-42)

RB Jaylan Knighton: 132 <-- 167 (+35)

ATH Ladarius Tennison: 152 <-- 148 (-4)

TE DJ Rogers: 221 <-- 220 (-1)

LB Ruben Hyppolite: 224 <-- NR (N/A)

Thoughts

**Two targets I've been high on and vocal about getting a raise in the rankings finally got their bumps in TE Theo Johnson and LB Ruben Hyppolite. Both prospects experienced a massive re-rank, with Johnson moving up 168 spots into the top 75 overall and Hyppolite hopping into the rankings with an over 200 spot jump and landing his 4th star. Johnson proved he was an elite TE at the Opening Finals earlier this month with both top-notch production at the event as well as freak-like testing numbers. Hyppolite has slowly climbed up the charts as an underrated linebacker with blazing speed and instincts, so he's finally getting the respect he deserves. Both prospects are on record telling CIS recently that they are planning a fall official visit to Miami.

**The summer re-rank wasn't without a few head-scratchers. 247Sports was clearly going off of more than just the prospects' performances at the Opening Finals, as both RB Jaylan Knighton and S Avantae Williams moved up in the rankings, despite Knighton sitting out most of the event with an injury early on Day 1 and Williams not even participating. Meanwhile, a guy like OT Issiah Walker, who performed relatively well at the event and showed up in improved physical condition, got knocked down 42 spots. I'd have to strongly disagree with that ranking, as I see Walker as a top 50 overall player in the class now that his strength and size have caught up to his athleticism and quickness.

**A drop I did agree with though was DE Chantz Williams, something Miami fans might not want to hear. It's something I predicted after the Opening Finals, as Williams struggled with some of the elite linemen in the country. A 27 spot fall was fair, as I don't think he's complete enough to be a top 50 overall player, but his upside warrants a top 100 overall ranking no doubt in my mind.

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Comments (143)

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H
hoover437

Jul 23, 2019

TheOriginalCane said:
Stop arguing 20 years of history with a "no kid ever" type of challenge.

You are wrong. You are. Go read THE ENTIRE Gaytor Tears thread. The UF writers/moderators CONSTANTLY lobby Rivals and 247 to "bump up" the Gaytor recruits. We have screen shots.

Nobody is saying that IN TWENTY YEARS not one single solitary UM COMMIT has EVER gone up. A few have. What people are ACCURATELY arguing is that Miami COMMITS, kids who choose Miami well before National Signing Day, tend to get bumped downward.

Now, you can go and svck Wilfong's dong and claim that "nobody is biased against Miami" and that Wiltfong is "only giving bumps to 10 other kids", but the outcome is the same. SEC writers/moderators lobby Wiltfong to "bump up" their recruits, and Miami writers/moderators do not do the same thing, thus our COMMITS are constantly leap-frogged by SEC recruits.

It's been happening for 20 years. People have been observing it for 20 years. Yet you come here to tell us that our eyes and our memories deceive us.

Go away.

Listen I understand why some of the top recruits are not choosing our school, but I do know that the ranking system just like the ncaa is against us. It’s going to take some serious commitment by the school to turn things around on both fronts

grover

Jul 23, 2019

Glad Manny's staff doesn't give a **** about these so-called "analyst" rankings, and does its own evals. Coker's and to some degree Golden's staff fell into the trap of thinking these sites know anything about projecting kids at the next level. Anyone can see Flowe is a talent. It's finding the Garvins and Malik Youngs that will separate us in terms of filling out a full class of Miami-level kids.

Last edited: Jul 24, 2019

Mike41

Jul 23, 2019

MikeCane18 said:
I get that and good for Theo, he deserves it. But somewhat strange on other guys rising that didn't participate in the camps or were limited (Knighton and Tae Williams). That is somewhat difficult to explain. IF they were rated low to begin with fine, then wait til they participate in games and practices to raise them up. It makes no sense to drop guys that did and have been participating. Basically saying this whole thing makes no sense.

The whole group that decides on stars is on crack

Hoyacane1620

Jul 23, 2019

Been seeing a bunch of posts by players and coaches too. 247 lost credibility for sure on this rankings update...... Supposedly they're going to publish notes from their meetings.. LOL

some player reaction - and these are good players:

M
mirvin88

Jul 24, 2019

Flowe and Elias not moving one way or another means we still have a punchers chance

SayWhat

Jul 24, 2019

Recruiting ranking generally reflect interest from schools. The top schools typically land the big fish and big shocker here, they play in the big bowl games.

Even if you subscribe to the thought process that becoming a recruit will lower your ranking, so be it. Please show me where in the last decade and a half we've played to the level of our class rankings. We've consistently recruited in the top 20, but how many times have we we finished the season ranked in the top 20? Crickets.

So if anything, we have a bias of recruits being regarded too highly.

Canesfan1899

Jul 24, 2019

One thing I’ve always wondered about is you see kids making bigger jumps based on camp performances with no pads on versus showing out during there season. Seems to me that should have more impact on rankings but at the end of the day these camps and recruiting sites are big business.

Cuban-Cane

Jul 24, 2019

TrueFloridian said:
Brevin would've been a 5 star had he committed to a top SEC school, OSU, Mich, or FSU. You can bet your Ar$e.

Brevin Jordan was the number 1 TE in the country. Not sure you can argue he was ranked too low

canesthing3

Jul 24, 2019

KrazyCane said:
Walker decommits and rumors to be favoring Miami and now he’s 42 spots worse than he was before lol... this shxt so fake it’s hilarious.

*I guarantee if Don Chaney was committed to Alabama they would have him shoot up 40 spots minimum regardless if he deserved it or not.

That can’t be true. Dwin said that since Theo Johnson rose in the rankings, there cant be any Miami bias.

We literally go through this every year with the same posters saying the same ****. 247 obviously undervalues our commits for whatever reason, bottom line. I really don’t care tbh but if you can’t see the bias, then idk what to tell you. You have to be a SEC

swinger to argue otherwise.

kryptonite

Jul 24, 2019

SayWhat said:
Recruiting ranking generally reflect interest from schools. The top schools typically land the big fish and big shocker here, they play in the big bowl games.

Even if you subscribe to the thought process that becoming a recruit will lower your ranking, so be it. Please show me where in the last decade and a half we've played to the level of our class rankings. We've consistently recruited in the top 20, but how many times have we we finished the season ranked in the top 20? Crickets.

So if anything, we have a bias of recruits being regarded too highly.

I think you've got that all backwards. We haven't finished in the top 20 because our coaches haven't developed kids to their potential, not because the kids were overrated.. Rankings are based off what the kid has done and what he is projected to do in the future and we've sucked at getting kids to that projected future. You can see this when you look at the NFL. Guys who didn't do that much in college are still getting drafted because NFL teams see the potential and know they can develop it.

SayWhat

Jul 24, 2019

kryptonite said:
I think you've got that all backwards. We haven't finished in the top 20 because our coaches haven't developed kids to their potential, not because the kids were overrated.. Rankings are based off what the kid has done and what he is projected to do in the future and we've sucked at getting kids to that projected future. You can see this when you look at the NFL. Guys who didn't do that much in college are still getting drafted because NFL teams see the potential and know they can develop it.

I think that is taking it a bit far.

Someone would have to do a statistical analysis, but a lot of the guys we've had drafted were three stars. There are tons of three stars in the NFL. So naturally, we are going to hit on some of those.

The idea that they should be ranked higher runs into another road block here. You don't see our guys going high in the draft. That again supports the 3 star rankings on some and with higher rated recruits, it suggests also that they were ranked too high.

Sure, coaching has some play in this discussion. It doesn't explain away losing to a ton of lower ranked recruiting classes with coaching staffs that aren't anywhere close to elite. We have an elite attitude due to the past, but have been getting anything but elite results. Talent should be enough against some of these inferior (based on stars) teams with mediocre coaching staffs.

Sorry, I just don't see this bias. Bias comes into play when you overplayed your hand. We aren't doing that, rather we haven't been. Hopefully that changes.

J
jw410

Jul 24, 2019

TrueFloridian said:
So Pope's a clear 5 star and not Brevin? You guys crack me up. Pope was a 170lbs soaking wet. What stood out to me was the AA game. He had multiple chances to shine and did nada. He got beat on 50/50 balls by an Oky commit that wasn't a take for UM. Pope didn't explode on the scene like Coley or Richards as a frosh. He was rated higher than them both. Pope was beat out by Lawrence Cager and Dee Wiggins. Pope's got a TON to prove.

Pope has a S H I T ton to prove. He wet the bed and then flirted with Uif.. I hope he shuts me up this year. I will never be a fan of a kid who flirts with my enemy. But hey this bread of humanity is so soft now.

Cookie917

Jul 24, 2019

BTW Marcus Clarke got bumped up almost 450 spots....

Umbra

Jul 24, 2019

AllAboutTheU said:
It seems wild to "random placeholder" a Top 50 spot to a guy who just reclassified. They're driving up the price so he can the SEC bids that he's looking for.

Good. Let him be a bust that doesn't contribute to that team for a few years, if at all. It takes up a spot on the roster of a bag school and gives us the ability to take another kid that they might have taken instead.

ScharfCane

Jul 24, 2019

jw410 said:
Pope has a S H I T ton to prove. He wet the bed and then flirted with Uif.. I hope he shuts me up this year. I will never be a fan of a kid who flirts with my enemy. But hey this bread of humanity is so soft now.

Nesta flirted with UF too... it's part of recruiting.

Jul 24, 2019

kryptonite said:
I think you've got that all backwards. We haven't finished in the top 20 because our coaches haven't developed kids to their potential, not because the kids were overrated.. Rankings are based off what the kid has done and what he is projected to do in the future and we've sucked at getting kids to that projected future. You can see this when you look at the NFL. Guys who didn't do that much in college are still getting drafted because NFL teams see the potential and know they can develop it.

kryptonite

Jul 24, 2019

SayWhat said:
I think that is taking it a bit far.

Someone would have to do a statistical analysis, but a lot of the guys we've had drafted were three stars. There are tons of three stars in the NFL. So naturally, we are going to hit on some of those.

The idea that they should be ranked higher runs into another road block here. You don't see our guys going high in the draft. That again supports the 3 star rankings on some and with higher rated recruits, it suggests also that they were ranked too high.

Sure, coaching has some play in this discussion. It doesn't explain away losing to a ton of lower ranked recruiting classes with coaching staffs that aren't anywhere close to elite. We have an elite attitude due to the past, but have been getting anything but elite results. Talent should be enough against some of these inferior (based on stars) teams with mediocre coaching staffs.

Sorry, I just don't see this bias. Bias comes into play when you overplayed your hand. We aren't doing that, rather we haven't been. Hopefully that changes.

The lower ranked teams

SayWhat said:
I think that is taking it a bit far.

Someone would have to do a statistical analysis, but a lot of the guys we've had drafted were three stars. There are tons of three stars in the NFL. So naturally, we are going to hit on some of those.

The idea that they should be ranked higher runs into another road block here. You don't see our guys going high in the draft. That again supports the 3 star rankings on some and with higher rated recruits, it suggests also that they were ranked too high.

Sure, coaching has some play in this discussion. It doesn't explain away losing to a ton of lower ranked recruiting classes with coaching staffs that aren't anywhere close to elite. We have an elite attitude due to the past, but have been getting anything but elite results. Talent should be enough against some of these inferior (based on stars) teams with mediocre coaching staffs.

Sorry, I just don't see this bias. Bias comes into play when you overplayed your hand. We aren't doing that, rather we haven't been. Hopefully that changes.

Those guys don't go high in the draft because they didn't show much in college. The fact that they go at all is a testament to their talent. And the teams we lose to have generally had better coaching than we have.

Look, it's obviously more than one thing, but you have to see the coaching angle is bigger than the talent. We're talking about kids who were not only 3*/4* rated, but had legit offers from legit teams. It's not like our coaches were fooled by nonsense rankings, everybody offered these kids.

Bottom line is that rankings aren't perfect, but they are made by people who know what they're doing. I'm sorry that people on here think they see more/less in this or that kid than 247 does, but those guys are pros. They miss some evals, but everyone does. I think people concentrate on a couple kids who's evals they disagree with or who didn't pan out in college and ignore the majority who produce about how they were expected to produce.

kryptonite

Jul 24, 2019

jw410 said:
Pope has a S H I T ton to prove. He wet the bed and then flirted with Uif.. I hope he shuts me up this year. I will never be a fan of a kid who flirts with my enemy. But hey this bread of humanity is so soft now.

LOL, how many Miami players can you name who never showed any interest in uf/fsu?

S
SSCane

Jul 24, 2019

Liberty City El said:
Michael Redding, Don Chaney & Issiah Walker were 3 of the best performers at the Opening & all 3 dropped. Knighton didn't even participate & got bumped.

It's not the camps, it's who the scouting directors at 247 DECIDE they want to move up or down & it's based on who the player is committed to or which team is interested in them.

Michael Redding should be a top 10 WR in the nation, look at the kids they have ahead of him, some of them are not anywhere close to as athletically gifted as he is, there's not one single thing the kid doesn't do well but he's still not being properly ranked.

These ratings don't change my opinion on any player or commit we got, Idgaf if they're dead last or first, I know what a good football player looks like regardless of what the sites say. But the point is, the recruiting sites are more political than they are objective & fair and it's obvious.

Can't up vote this enough. Absolutely spot on!