We spend so much time on recruiting, but we rarely take time to look back. This series examines every class for the past five coaches- Manny, Richt, Golden, Shannon, and Coker. As Mario’s first class enters Year 4, what are the trends he needs to avoid if he wants to break the cycle?
Of course, bad coaching and development played a massive role in our downfall. But for this exercise, I wanted to focus on pure talent acquisition. That’s why I use NFL numbers. The NFL has the most standardized and competitive talent-evaluation process in football. It’s also really hard to get there- only 2% of CFB players and only 22% of four-stars make the league. And far fewer are able to stick around. As expected, our NFL decline mirrored our decline on the field.
Four-year winning percentage- 61% (+2 from the prior year)
Total enrollees- 17
NFL players- 9
NFL games- 373
Day 1 Picks- 1
Day 2 picks- 0
Pro Bowls- 0
FOUR STARS
Al-Quadin Muhammad (New York City suburbs, NJ)
Artie Burns (Miami-Dade, FL)
Jamal Carter (Miami-Dade, FL)
Ufombu Kamalu (Nigeria/Atlanta, GA)
Sunny Odogwu (Nigeria/Baltimore, MD)
Hunter Knighton (Philadelphia, PA)
Ray Lewis III (Orlando, FL)
Alex Figueroa (Washington DC)
Walter Tucker (Broward County, FL)
WHAT HAPPENED: This was the most depressing signing day ever. The week started poorly when we missed on South Plantation RB Alex Collins. His mom tried to steal his signing papers, but he followed through with Arkansas. Then on signing day, we missed out on local OLB Matthew Thomas and Fort Pierce DT Jaynard Bostwick. The CanesInSight forums were melting down. When WR Stacy Coley put on the SWAG hat and signed with Miami, it felt like pure relief.
It turns out this class was pretty good. A whopping 53% of the signees made the NFL. For perspective, less than 25% of four stars make it across the country. This class included three players from the New York City metro, two players born in Africa (Odogwu-Nigeria and Edwards-Liberia) and a third who grew up in Nigeria (Kamalu). In an effort to make up for a weak signing day, Golden signed three lottery tickets with questionable grades in DE Devonte Bond, WR Derrick Griffin and ATH Ryheem Locksley. None made it on campus.
Some of the perceived “whiffs” turned out to be character flops. OLB Matthew Thomas looked like a can’t miss at Booker T. Washington, but he dealt with suspensions and injuries at FSU and never made an impact. Atlantic DT Keith Bryant plateaued as a high school junior. Well-traveled local DT Travonte Valentine struggled with grades and weight.
The real losses were kids who dropped us early. St. Thomas Aquinas DE Joey Bosa never considered us due to the state of the program. We were late to offer lifelong Canes fan Jalen Ramsey, a five-star DB from Nashville. He was the best player on the field a couple years later when we lost to FSU. Overall, this class lacked truly elite talent at the top.
CanesInSight was in full swing by 2013, and posters were begging the staff to offer LB Skai Moore (University School) and DT Deadrin Senat (Immokalee). Moore made All-SEC for South Carolina, and Senat was drafted in the 3rd Round out of USF. Eddie Jackson (Boyd Anderson) was a late-rising DB in Broward County, but Alabama somehow jumped on him before we did. He made two Pro Bowls for the Chicago Bears. Finally, Clemson continued to make inroads in Florida by landing former Cane commit DB Jayron Kearse (Fort Myers) and CB Mackensie Alexander (Immokalee). Both spent many years in the NFL.
This class is sad for another reason- Collins, Bryant and Ray Lewis III have since passed away.
BEST PLAYER: CB Artie Burns had an unusual recruitment for this era. He was a blue-chip Alabama commit from South Florida who actually flipped to the Canes. If we won more battles like that, these Golden classes would be in a different stratosphere. Burns was an elite hurdler (broke the junior indoor USA record in the 60M) and he led the ACC in interceptions in 2015. The Pittsburgh Steelers picked him in the first round.
BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT: There is only one choice- QB Kevin Olsen. The brother of legendary TE Greg Olsen, Kevin already had the nickname “Baby Jesus” on this board before Malachi Toney turned six. His ranking is puzzling in retrospect- Olsen didn’t have the size or athleticism of his brother and his arm was only average. But we weren’t saying that at the time. One red flag that I did post about was his behavior after the Under Armour game. He struggled and pouted badly on camera after the game.
It turned out to be a sign of things to come. Olsen got a careless driving charge before he enrolled, earned multiple suspensions at Miami, transferred to Towson, got kicked out, and then picked up a rape charge (which he beat) at Charlotte. He appears to be doing better now working with his brother on TV.
BEST EVALUATION: There were two three-star hits in this class with RB Gus Edwards and DL Ufombu Kamalu. Unfortunately, neither made much of an impact here. Kamalu only had two years of eligibility, which were wasted in Mark D’Onofrio’s disastrous defense. Edwards ran high at Miami and never found his footing, even after he transferred to Rutgers. He really hit his stride playing with Lamar Jackson in the NFL, earning over $16 million in the pros.
What both guys had were legitimate physical traits. The athleticism was real, and both looked spectacular coming off the bus. That seems to be a theme with the three-star hits during this era.
LESSON LEARNED: Spot the character red flags at quarterback. Like Robert Marve a few years prior, Olsen had an early incident that proved to be a sign of things to come. One of Miami’s fundamental problems from 2005-2020 was bad character at quarterback. We had at least seven suspensions, and even our cleaner players liked to party too much. It took 15 years to find a no-doubt leader like D’Eriq King.
CONCLUSION: This class lacked A1 talent, as Golden continued to lose the prime-time battles. But he steadily added NFL players and raised the floor. This class wasn’t a leap forward, but it was a step in the right direction under the specter of NCAA sanctions.
Of course, bad coaching and development played a massive role in our downfall. But for this exercise, I wanted to focus on pure talent acquisition. That’s why I use NFL numbers. The NFL has the most standardized and competitive talent-evaluation process in football. It’s also really hard to get there- only 2% of CFB players and only 22% of four-stars make the league. And far fewer are able to stick around. As expected, our NFL decline mirrored our decline on the field.
Four-year winning percentage- 61% (+2 from the prior year)
Total enrollees- 17
NFL players- 9
NFL games- 373
Day 1 Picks- 1
Day 2 picks- 0
Pro Bowls- 0
FOUR STARS
Al-Quadin Muhammad (New York City suburbs, NJ)
- 93 NFL games
- 6th Round
- 7 NFL games
- 7th Round
Artie Burns (Miami-Dade, FL)
- 90 NFL games
- 1st Round
- 7th Round
- 35 NFL games
- 5th Round
Jamal Carter (Miami-Dade, FL)
- 29 NFL games
- 24 NFL games
Ufombu Kamalu (Nigeria/Atlanta, GA)
- 15 NFL games
- 80 NFL games
Sunny Odogwu (Nigeria/Baltimore, MD)
Hunter Knighton (Philadelphia, PA)
Ray Lewis III (Orlando, FL)
Alex Figueroa (Washington DC)
Walter Tucker (Broward County, FL)
WHAT HAPPENED: This was the most depressing signing day ever. The week started poorly when we missed on South Plantation RB Alex Collins. His mom tried to steal his signing papers, but he followed through with Arkansas. Then on signing day, we missed out on local OLB Matthew Thomas and Fort Pierce DT Jaynard Bostwick. The CanesInSight forums were melting down. When WR Stacy Coley put on the SWAG hat and signed with Miami, it felt like pure relief.
It turns out this class was pretty good. A whopping 53% of the signees made the NFL. For perspective, less than 25% of four stars make it across the country. This class included three players from the New York City metro, two players born in Africa (Odogwu-Nigeria and Edwards-Liberia) and a third who grew up in Nigeria (Kamalu). In an effort to make up for a weak signing day, Golden signed three lottery tickets with questionable grades in DE Devonte Bond, WR Derrick Griffin and ATH Ryheem Locksley. None made it on campus.
Some of the perceived “whiffs” turned out to be character flops. OLB Matthew Thomas looked like a can’t miss at Booker T. Washington, but he dealt with suspensions and injuries at FSU and never made an impact. Atlantic DT Keith Bryant plateaued as a high school junior. Well-traveled local DT Travonte Valentine struggled with grades and weight.
The real losses were kids who dropped us early. St. Thomas Aquinas DE Joey Bosa never considered us due to the state of the program. We were late to offer lifelong Canes fan Jalen Ramsey, a five-star DB from Nashville. He was the best player on the field a couple years later when we lost to FSU. Overall, this class lacked truly elite talent at the top.
CanesInSight was in full swing by 2013, and posters were begging the staff to offer LB Skai Moore (University School) and DT Deadrin Senat (Immokalee). Moore made All-SEC for South Carolina, and Senat was drafted in the 3rd Round out of USF. Eddie Jackson (Boyd Anderson) was a late-rising DB in Broward County, but Alabama somehow jumped on him before we did. He made two Pro Bowls for the Chicago Bears. Finally, Clemson continued to make inroads in Florida by landing former Cane commit DB Jayron Kearse (Fort Myers) and CB Mackensie Alexander (Immokalee). Both spent many years in the NFL.
This class is sad for another reason- Collins, Bryant and Ray Lewis III have since passed away.
BEST PLAYER: CB Artie Burns had an unusual recruitment for this era. He was a blue-chip Alabama commit from South Florida who actually flipped to the Canes. If we won more battles like that, these Golden classes would be in a different stratosphere. Burns was an elite hurdler (broke the junior indoor USA record in the 60M) and he led the ACC in interceptions in 2015. The Pittsburgh Steelers picked him in the first round.
BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT: There is only one choice- QB Kevin Olsen. The brother of legendary TE Greg Olsen, Kevin already had the nickname “Baby Jesus” on this board before Malachi Toney turned six. His ranking is puzzling in retrospect- Olsen didn’t have the size or athleticism of his brother and his arm was only average. But we weren’t saying that at the time. One red flag that I did post about was his behavior after the Under Armour game. He struggled and pouted badly on camera after the game.
It turned out to be a sign of things to come. Olsen got a careless driving charge before he enrolled, earned multiple suspensions at Miami, transferred to Towson, got kicked out, and then picked up a rape charge (which he beat) at Charlotte. He appears to be doing better now working with his brother on TV.
BEST EVALUATION: There were two three-star hits in this class with RB Gus Edwards and DL Ufombu Kamalu. Unfortunately, neither made much of an impact here. Kamalu only had two years of eligibility, which were wasted in Mark D’Onofrio’s disastrous defense. Edwards ran high at Miami and never found his footing, even after he transferred to Rutgers. He really hit his stride playing with Lamar Jackson in the NFL, earning over $16 million in the pros.
What both guys had were legitimate physical traits. The athleticism was real, and both looked spectacular coming off the bus. That seems to be a theme with the three-star hits during this era.
LESSON LEARNED: Spot the character red flags at quarterback. Like Robert Marve a few years prior, Olsen had an early incident that proved to be a sign of things to come. One of Miami’s fundamental problems from 2005-2020 was bad character at quarterback. We had at least seven suspensions, and even our cleaner players liked to party too much. It took 15 years to find a no-doubt leader like D’Eriq King.
CONCLUSION: This class lacked A1 talent, as Golden continued to lose the prime-time battles. But he steadily added NFL players and raised the floor. This class wasn’t a leap forward, but it was a step in the right direction under the specter of NCAA sanctions.
