**Huge day for Miami yesterday with two public commitments in Scott Patchan and Dexter Williams and one commitment that will be announced in the summer. Patchan was not a surprise at all if you had been reading the site over the past couple of months. Miami thought it would happen even sooner than it did, but he wanted the whole family there with him to make it official.
**Miami views Williams as an absolutely elite talent with the ball in his hands and see him playing in a Percy Harvin/Tavon Austin type role. Interestingly, this could also help with Jacques Patrick because I am told the two are very close. In my opinion, the running back class will be done before Patrick ultimately makes a decision, but for now that is something to keep an eye on.
**I might sound like a broken record, but Miami is still in very good shape with JaQuan Johnson. I know that some Miami fans have worried about his “silence” recently, but the Canes really believe that he is close to pulling the trigger. I am very confident in this one.
**This class is about half way wrapped up. Although it might not have the star names right now, Miami believes that the ones they have locked in are an extremely solid foundation for the rest of the class. This is a little different from the past couple years where the staff was sending out a good amount of offers during the high school spring ball. I don’t expect many legitimate new offers to go out over the next couple months unless a kid really blows them away. They have set themselves up nicely, but just need to close on these elite kids. The focus is on these names for the most part:
Jaquan Johnson
Tim Irvin
Jordan Cronkrite
Devonaire Clarington
Tyrek Cole
Torrance Gibson
Brandon Wimbush
Jacques Patrick
Shawn Burgess-Becker
Calvin Ridley
Devante Peete
Kahlil McKenzie
Marcus Lewis
**Miami continues to lose ground on Burgess-Becker and Ridley, especially Ridley.
**What has Brad Kaaya been doing to prepare for his upcoming chance at the starting quarterback spot? The last three days, Kaaya has been in Arizona working with his quarterback coach Rudy Carpenter. Why is this huge? Carpenter has developed a good relationship with James Coley over the past few months and the learning curve shouldn’t be as steep for him once he gets on campus. As I mentioned last week, Kaaya has been in possession of the playbook and Carpenter has been dissecting it with him. Some fans have expressed their concern about whether or not Kaaya will pick up the playbook quickly enough to make an impact, but I do not see that as an issue. The speed of the game will be an adjustment, but it is a major thing in my eyes that Kaaya won’t need to be cramming the entire playbook in a short amount of time.
**Miami views Williams as an absolutely elite talent with the ball in his hands and see him playing in a Percy Harvin/Tavon Austin type role. Interestingly, this could also help with Jacques Patrick because I am told the two are very close. In my opinion, the running back class will be done before Patrick ultimately makes a decision, but for now that is something to keep an eye on.
**I might sound like a broken record, but Miami is still in very good shape with JaQuan Johnson. I know that some Miami fans have worried about his “silence” recently, but the Canes really believe that he is close to pulling the trigger. I am very confident in this one.
**This class is about half way wrapped up. Although it might not have the star names right now, Miami believes that the ones they have locked in are an extremely solid foundation for the rest of the class. This is a little different from the past couple years where the staff was sending out a good amount of offers during the high school spring ball. I don’t expect many legitimate new offers to go out over the next couple months unless a kid really blows them away. They have set themselves up nicely, but just need to close on these elite kids. The focus is on these names for the most part:
Jaquan Johnson
Tim Irvin
Jordan Cronkrite
Devonaire Clarington
Tyrek Cole
Torrance Gibson
Brandon Wimbush
Jacques Patrick
Shawn Burgess-Becker
Calvin Ridley
Devante Peete
Kahlil McKenzie
Marcus Lewis
**Miami continues to lose ground on Burgess-Becker and Ridley, especially Ridley.
**What has Brad Kaaya been doing to prepare for his upcoming chance at the starting quarterback spot? The last three days, Kaaya has been in Arizona working with his quarterback coach Rudy Carpenter. Why is this huge? Carpenter has developed a good relationship with James Coley over the past few months and the learning curve shouldn’t be as steep for him once he gets on campus. As I mentioned last week, Kaaya has been in possession of the playbook and Carpenter has been dissecting it with him. Some fans have expressed their concern about whether or not Kaaya will pick up the playbook quickly enough to make an impact, but I do not see that as an issue. The speed of the game will be an adjustment, but it is a major thing in my eyes that Kaaya won’t need to be cramming the entire playbook in a short amount of time.
