IHATETHISPLACE
Thunderdome
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Despite an NCAA investigation hovering over the Miami (FL) football program and a respectable but not glowing 13-11 overall record since the arrival of Al Golden, the Hurricanes' staff is forming an elite recruiting class.
According to 247Sports, the Hurricanes currently rank #3 in the overall team recruiting rankings, trailing only Alabama and Texas A&M.
Al Golden and his staff have earned commitments from twenty prospects including two 5-stars, four 4-stars, and fourteen 3-stars.
14 of 20 commitments come from the prospects in the state of Florida. Eight of the prospects are from either Miami or Fort Lauderdale. Quarterback commitment Brad Kaaya hails from West Hills, CA.
It's truly remarkable considering the potential the program has for receiving more NCAA penalties in excess of what they have already self-imposed over the last couple of seasons. The NCAA ruling will be revealed in the next couple of weeks.
Consider the following: the off-season began with offensive coordinator / quarterbacks coach Jedd Fisch and running backs coach Terry Richardson leaving for the Jacksonville Jaguars, and then in early May, plans for stadium enhancements at Sun Life Stadium fell through. Golden had hoped the enhancements would positively affect game day attendance figures, which make the atmosphere at Hurricanes' games far from what we vision when thinking about college football.
Still, Golden and his staff have managed to put together the #3 overall recruiting class.
How has Golden done it?
As I look back, one can certainly point to a unique level of persistence to see the job through.
In early February, Golden told WQAM 560, "I love the University of Miami. I want to be here forever, and I'm trying to get it right. I've only been here two years, and I'm trying to learn the dynamics of everything. A lot of it is that you're under fire because you can't please everybody. I've studied the roster breakdowns and I look at the best team that's ever been here. That 2001 team, 55 percent of that team was from Florida. We're between 57 and 60, and we would have been over 60 yesterday if we hit a couple down the stretch."
"There's talk of me not wanting to recruit the inner-city? I just don't understand that. ... Florida State and Florida took one kid in Dade and Broward last year. One kid. They get a free pass? They took one kid out of this area. We did a great job down here last year. We missed on a couple targets (this year), but we got the guys (we wanted). Look at the guys we got. I'm excited about those guys, and it's being overshadowed by the other stuff. It is what it is."
"But in terms of whether or not we recruit the inner-city, I don't take a dime from my football camp. Not a single dime. I do that so we drive the price down and keep it at $59 a day so we can give access to all the inner-city kids. We don't run an overnight camp that's hundreds of dollars because we know the kids can't afford it. We try to keep the price under $60. We have an open door policy for all the high school coaches to come to spring ball and watch film and do whatever they need. We ran four clinics in the inner-city for the (some) coaches last year."
"We want to be a part of the city. Plus the things we do in the community for our community service side. It doesn't always work out the way we want it, but don't think for a second we're not recruiting the inner-city or those relationships aren't critical and very important for us."
Golden then laid out exactly how he would build the 2013 Hurricanes.
In June, Golden continued to harp, "There are great days ahead, and when these storm clouds clear, we're going to be in a great position."
The persistence is already paying off.
