Safety was Miami’s biggest position of need during the winter Portal season. They moved quickly to secure Savion Riley, a Vanderbilt transfer known for his size, speed and IQ. Riley joined the CanesInSight Podcast to discuss his progress. A summary of Riley’s interview is below:
On the transition from Vanderbilt to Miami: The transition for me was pretty smooth. You go from being at Vanderbilt, a place where it's cold in the morning to being here in Miami. I wake up every day and it's hot. The big adjustment for me was getting used to the heat. I’m from the Marietta area. It's like 15 minutes from Atlanta. I'm used to being in the city. I love being here.
On his Bahamian heritage: My mom's side of the family is Bahamian. I have roots all throughout here. There’s a lot of Caribbean food. I actually did have some jerk today. A lot of good Haitian food, too.
On his measurables: I'm at 6'2, 205. I worked for it. The height is genetics, but in terms of weight, I was always around 200, 195, but I ate to get around 205 and just maintained it. I’m where I want to be at in terms of weight.
On what led him to Miami: What intrigued me was Miami is known for top safeties. Losing two key players, Kam [Kinchens] and James [Williams], those roles were open and I wanted to go somewhere where I could fit in and where I could impact the team. Miami was about the perfect fit for me.
On what former Vanderbilt teammate Jadais Richard told him about Miami: He really just gave me the real. We had that chemistry at Vandy. He played a little bit more than me, but he told me it's a good opportunity to come here. Just told me about the real and I like that. Me and my boy reunited.
On Coach Guidry: I love Coach G. I love his scheme. For the most part, he's a jokester, but then he also can be very serious. It's a good balance. He's really hands-on, so it just works well.
I really like how he uses us as safeties. I like being back in the post. I like that we blitz a lot, so I really like what he's cooking up.
On his recruiting process in high school: I went to two different high schools. Ended up going to Kennesaw Mountain my last year. My junior year was kind of a slow start for me. I played receiver and a little bit of safety. My senior year of high school, I [decided to focus] on the defensive side of the ball. There's a lot of receivers out there with the same measurements, but there's not a lot of good tacklers. So that's when I was like, “OK, I'm going to go to the other side of the ball.” I started getting hot my senior year. All the offers start rolling in. It was a blessing.
On his athletic background: Football was always one of my main sports. I did run track when I was younger. And I did hoop, too. But I started playing football when I was like four to five. I started really young. From every year on, I kept playing.
On the safety room: I think it's coming together well. The main thing is we all have different skill sets. Iit's really for Coach G to see how we can work together as best as possible. It's competitive. We all work together. We all communicate. We get together to watch film.
I think we're doing well so far, though. It's going to be a positive trend.
On going against the offense: QB is nice. X [Restrepo] is nice. There are a lot of guys that are going to be giving opposing teams a really hard time this season. I'll tell you that much. It's great that we get to go against that competition every day
On his academic interests (he chose Vanderbilt over Duke out of high school): Right now, I'm studying economics. I'm probably going to make that switch into international studies.
On Canes Connection: It's a good brand to help the players and it's a great way for us to give back to the community. We're really giving back in a positive way and helping others as well.
