This class is a disaster. It hurts to say, because we have some excellent people in the personnel department and on staff. But there is no denying it. This is an embarrassing failure.
I went back and looked at similar classes. In 2015, we finished 27th. In 2016, we finished 22nd. Those were bad signing days. This one will probably end up in that range. There was a lot of dead weight in those classes. But we also signed Jaquan Johnson, Shaq Quarterman, Joe Jackson, Sheldrick Redwine, RJ McIntosh, Gerald Willis, Kendrick Norton, Michael Jackson, Mike Pinckney, Romeo Finely, Pat Bethel and Zach McCloud.
In other words, we signed a championship-caliber defense over two bad cycles. How did that happen?
The first takeaway is that Miami will always get good players. Even our crap classes have talent. But the real reason is even simpler: we replaced the problem (D’Onofrio) with the solution (Diaz). D’Onofrio's defense was the problem. We hired Diaz, and he unlocked a championship unit.
Which brings me to today. Once again, we have a clear problem. We have the 4th most efficient defense and the 79th most efficient offense. The results on the field are reflected in the class. Our quarterbacks sucked. We couldn’t sign a quarterback. Our offensive line sucked. We couldn’t sign any offensive linemen. Our offense sucked. We only signed one 4* on offense.
People are talking about changing Miami's recruiting strategy. That's nonsense. We need to fix the real problem. Only Coach Richt can do that. Unless, of course, he's the problem.
When Barry Jackson asked him about changes after today's practice, Richt said "we plan on getting better with what we already do." That's a shame. I don't want Richt to ruin his legacy, and I don't want to waste another couple years. But that's where we are headed. And it might be Manny Diaz coming back once again to solve the problem.
