4-star Doral Academy Charter WR Brieon Fuller announced his decommitment from Miami and Surge19 today.
The 6-1, 170-pounder is currently a 4-star in the national rankings. According to the 247Composite, Howard is the #216 player nationally, #37 WR in the country, and the #32 player in The Sunshine State. His decommitment doesn’t change Miami’s #2 class in the nation on both 247Sports and Rivals.
The Background
Coupled with Diamante Howard’s decommitment from the class last weekend, this is now the second departure from Surge19 in a little over a week. What is going on here? To put it bluntly, this is Miami cleaning house, or more accurately, the kids receiving the message that they were no longer a part of UM’s future plans.
Although it wasn’t quite as blatant as the Howard situation, Fuller also hadn’t heard from the coaches for months. While you see this happen at many schools in America, this is becoming a staff policy issue with taking borderline Miami kids too early, and then falling out of love with them a year or so down the line. You’d hope to see this change in the future, because it makes Miami look bad and ultimately just hurts the kids but, based on the 2020 class chalked full of only elite talent, things are getting better in this department.
I actually like Fuller as a player, but if you look under the hood at this situation objectively, there were many things working against him ending up in this class. For starters, he never seemed to be a true fit with Miami from the beginning. You may recall his bizarre original commitment last May, where he committed to Miami, then immediately decommitted, only to recommit, all in a span of 12 hours. Part of the reason for this was his mother was never fully on board with Miami, and after that fiasco, it didn’t take a genius to predict this might be a wild recruitment.
The crop at receiver is deep yet again in South Florida for 2019 and the Canes have limited spots to give out at their deepest position on the roster. Fuller hadn’t been testing well on the field lately, last running a 4.7, which may explain his curious absence from the off-season camp circuit. Personality-wise, he wasn’t fitting in with the 2019 class either and would never hang around the other commits. Fuller had also fallen media silent in recent months, so it was difficult to get a read on what was going on with him. Taken separately, each instance would probably be no big deal, but put it all together, and you get what happened today.
Like with Howard, these types of parting ways are always for the best for both sides. It is also better that this happened now rather than Miami backing off at the end of the cycle and leaving the kid scrambling to find a home at the last minute, something we’ve seen from other programs before.
Future of the Class
Fuller's decommitment brings the total class numbers down to 10, leaving the Canes with one WR committed. Fletcher (FL) 4-star Jeremiah Payton is already on the commit list and is an elite talent at pass-catcher that can play both outside and in the slot. He’s as solid as can be and won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.
The Canes just signed 4 WR’s in the 2018 class, and it’s probably the deepest position on the team. Couple that with three top-notch WR commits in 2020 and WR was never a huge need for 2019. The question at the position really comes down to if the Canes are looking for two or three receivers in Surge19, and we’ll get our answer very soon. If it’s two, you’ll see Ron Dugans and the rest of the staff put all their resources exclusively into South Dade 5-star WR Frank Ladson, who was the likely top target at receiver all along in 2019. A class of Payton and Ladson would be an insane two-man haul and really give Dugans an embarrassment of riches to work with on the already stacked roster. But Ladson isn’t as sure of a bet as he seemed just a few months back with Clemson now heavily involved, although he continues to take frequent unofficial visits to Coral Gables.
If UM wants three wide-outs in the class or a “Plan B” in lieu of Ladson, expect to see more traction with out of state guys like Marietta (GA) 4-star Ramel Keyton and/or Amite (LA) 4-star Devonta Lee, who both recently put Miami in their top groups. Both are still long-shots at best at this time, though. Fuller’s departure may also open up an opportunity for a local kid that had been on the outside looking in to get an offer from Miami. The two most likely candidates at this point are Chaminade-Madonna 4-star John Dunmore and Columbus 3-star Kalani Norris.
The 6-1, 170-pounder is currently a 4-star in the national rankings. According to the 247Composite, Howard is the #216 player nationally, #37 WR in the country, and the #32 player in The Sunshine State. His decommitment doesn’t change Miami’s #2 class in the nation on both 247Sports and Rivals.
The Background
Coupled with Diamante Howard’s decommitment from the class last weekend, this is now the second departure from Surge19 in a little over a week. What is going on here? To put it bluntly, this is Miami cleaning house, or more accurately, the kids receiving the message that they were no longer a part of UM’s future plans.
Although it wasn’t quite as blatant as the Howard situation, Fuller also hadn’t heard from the coaches for months. While you see this happen at many schools in America, this is becoming a staff policy issue with taking borderline Miami kids too early, and then falling out of love with them a year or so down the line. You’d hope to see this change in the future, because it makes Miami look bad and ultimately just hurts the kids but, based on the 2020 class chalked full of only elite talent, things are getting better in this department.
I actually like Fuller as a player, but if you look under the hood at this situation objectively, there were many things working against him ending up in this class. For starters, he never seemed to be a true fit with Miami from the beginning. You may recall his bizarre original commitment last May, where he committed to Miami, then immediately decommitted, only to recommit, all in a span of 12 hours. Part of the reason for this was his mother was never fully on board with Miami, and after that fiasco, it didn’t take a genius to predict this might be a wild recruitment.
The crop at receiver is deep yet again in South Florida for 2019 and the Canes have limited spots to give out at their deepest position on the roster. Fuller hadn’t been testing well on the field lately, last running a 4.7, which may explain his curious absence from the off-season camp circuit. Personality-wise, he wasn’t fitting in with the 2019 class either and would never hang around the other commits. Fuller had also fallen media silent in recent months, so it was difficult to get a read on what was going on with him. Taken separately, each instance would probably be no big deal, but put it all together, and you get what happened today.
Like with Howard, these types of parting ways are always for the best for both sides. It is also better that this happened now rather than Miami backing off at the end of the cycle and leaving the kid scrambling to find a home at the last minute, something we’ve seen from other programs before.
Future of the Class
Fuller's decommitment brings the total class numbers down to 10, leaving the Canes with one WR committed. Fletcher (FL) 4-star Jeremiah Payton is already on the commit list and is an elite talent at pass-catcher that can play both outside and in the slot. He’s as solid as can be and won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.
The Canes just signed 4 WR’s in the 2018 class, and it’s probably the deepest position on the team. Couple that with three top-notch WR commits in 2020 and WR was never a huge need for 2019. The question at the position really comes down to if the Canes are looking for two or three receivers in Surge19, and we’ll get our answer very soon. If it’s two, you’ll see Ron Dugans and the rest of the staff put all their resources exclusively into South Dade 5-star WR Frank Ladson, who was the likely top target at receiver all along in 2019. A class of Payton and Ladson would be an insane two-man haul and really give Dugans an embarrassment of riches to work with on the already stacked roster. But Ladson isn’t as sure of a bet as he seemed just a few months back with Clemson now heavily involved, although he continues to take frequent unofficial visits to Coral Gables.
If UM wants three wide-outs in the class or a “Plan B” in lieu of Ladson, expect to see more traction with out of state guys like Marietta (GA) 4-star Ramel Keyton and/or Amite (LA) 4-star Devonta Lee, who both recently put Miami in their top groups. Both are still long-shots at best at this time, though. Fuller’s departure may also open up an opportunity for a local kid that had been on the outside looking in to get an offer from Miami. The two most likely candidates at this point are Chaminade-Madonna 4-star John Dunmore and Columbus 3-star Kalani Norris.
