Class Impact: Te'Cory Couch to Miami

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Stefan Adams

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2019 Chaminade-Madonna CB Te'Cory Couch committed to the Canes on Saturday afternoon after decommitting from Michigan the weekend before.



The 5-10, 150-pounder is currently a 4-star in the national rankings. According to the 247Sports Composite, Couch is the #204 player nationally, #15 ATH in the country, and the #30 player in the Sunshine State. His commitment moves Miami’s class ranking to #8 overall on 247Sports and to #9 on Rivals.


The Player

Couch is that pesky corner that is constantly in his man’s hip-pocket and is hard to separate from. He has great quickness, and has necessary hip-flip to recover from mistakes in press and lapses in coverage in space. He shows an ability on tape to play both on the outside and inside the slot and I like his technique to mirror and match in press coverage. While being a consistent presence on the outside could prove challenging from him at the next-level, Couch has the attributes to develop into a blanket in coverage in the slot at Miami.

People worry about Couch’s slight size, and that’s a valid concern with his slim build. But his length is off the charts, which is a quality that Manny Diaz is on record saying he believes is more important than size at corner. Couch has also more than performed against elite competition at camps over the off-season. I saw him in-person at the Under Armour Miami camp back in March and he was one of my top performers, while Couch even earned an invite to the Under Amour Game as well.


The Class

Couch's commitment brings the total class numbers to 15, and he is the Canes third take at cornerback, joining Lake Brantley (FL) 3-star Damarius Good and Carol City (FL) 3-star Jarvis Brownlee, and fourth take at DB, along with teammate Chaminade-Madonna (FL) 4-star safety Keontra Smith. A personal opinion of mine is that not all three current corners in Miami’s class will end up signing with the Canes. I told Couch’s commitment story in multiple threads from last week (here and here), so I’ll skip that and focus on the DB board from here.

A source tells CIS that the top priorities at DB will in fact be Palm Beach Central (FL) 5-star Akeem Dent, Southridge (FL) 4-star Tyrique Stevenson, and Wellington (FL) 4-star Mark-Antony Richards and that the Canes will find a spot for them in this class no matter what. I’ve also heard that St. Thomas Aquinas (FL) 4-star Jordan Battle is pushing to join this tier as well.

As for the current chatter on these four, I don’t believe Dent has serious interest in UM and don’t see him coming to Miami whatsoever, but Miami continues to treat him like a priority, so I’ll keep mentioning him. I detailed this in a thread two weeks back, but I believe Georgia should be considered the front-runner for Stevenson at this time. He is also coming off a four day visit to Athens this past weekend. This is very close though, and Stevenson could easily still choose Miami. The Canes are still in a very good spot with Richards, and he was on campus two weekends back for the 7-on-7 camps. This will be a recruitment that will go to the very end, though, as Richards maintains he wants to give schools like Auburn and Florida a fair shot.

Battle just visited UM on an official visit this weekend and things went well. He’ll give Ohio State an official this coming weekend as well, and his choice will come down to UM vs. OSU in the end. I also expect a summer decision from Battle. OSU has long been considered Battle’s leader since they offered, but some interesting things I’ve heard lately about this recruitment was that the Buckeyes put Battle on the back burner for the past two or so months in anticipation that they would land a commitment from DeMatha (MD) 4-star safety Nick Cross, something that has not come to fruition. This has opened the door for Miami a bit. OSU has now picked back up constant contact and are pitching the idea of playing corner to Battle, something he is intrigued by. We’ll know more about the situation after Battle takes his OSU official and starts comparing and contrasting the two schools in-lieu of a decision.

Further down Miami’s board is CB/S University School (FL) 4-star Josh Sanguinetti, who has had a rough off-season and took a tumble in UM’s eyes in the past few months. Miami is still in contact though, and his close friendship with 4-star teammate and Miami legacy RB Kenny McIntosh could be the deciding factor that gets him into this class if he decides he wants in.

Someone to keep an eye on is Spalding (GA) 4-star Zion Puckett, who received an offer last month at corner and recently put Miami in his top 10. We’ve heard he’s really risen up UM’s board lately and the staff loves his potential. The Canes are trying to get back into the game with The Benjamin School (FL) 4-star Kaiir Elam, but the Gators are thought to lead here. Miami loves Arizona Western C.C. (AZ) 4-star Elijah Blades' talent, but are not sure if he'll fit in attitude-wise.

Some interesting things I’ve heard on Kathleen (FL) 4-star Brendan Gant is that he is not a lock to be taken by presumed leader FSU, as they are filling up at DB right now and have a few others ahead of him on their board. If Miami misses on some of their other top targets, they could push here and really make things interesting.


The Team

By 2019, Miami will lose established starter Michael Jackson, as well as Jhavonte Dean, to graduation; only Trajan Bandy, Gilbert Frierson, DJ Ivey, Al Blades Jr., and Nigel Bethel are returnees at corner. Miami is hoping Frierson and Ivey have developed enough by then to handle full-time starting roles, with Bandy manning the slot and holding it down in nickel packages.

While that has the potential to be a more than solid top 3, Blades Jr. and Bethel just arrived on campus and have shown nothing yet and Frierson or Blades Jr. may also end up moving to safety, so Miami will hope to build more depth at this spot. There will be immediate playing time available for Couch if he comes in and shows he can handle the college game both physically and mentally, although at 150 pounds going into his senior year of high school, a redshirt has to be considered a legitimate possibility as of now. I can see Couch playing a lot of slot/nickel in his second year, and learning the ropes from a senior Bandy; he even has the potential to help out on special teams. By his third season, Bandy will be gone and Couch could very well be UM’s go-to option for coverage in the slot.

 
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I just can't understand the infatuation with Georgia & South FL DBs. Yeah they made the playoff. All it took was an upperclassmen heavy team put together by the current head coach at Miami. Now these guys act like an 8 win season for uga wouldn't deter them. But anything less than 10 wins at Miami apparently means there is no future at the U. Go sit the bench in Athens Georgia or start/play early in Miami Florida? What am I missing here?
 
2019 Chaminade-Madonna CB Te’Cory Couch committed to the Canes on Saturday afternoon after decommitting from Michigan the weekend before.



The 5-10, 150-pounder is currently a 4-star in the national rankings. According to the 247Sports Composite, Couch is the #204 player nationally, #15 ATH in the country, and the #30 player in the Sunshine State. His commitment moves Miami’s class ranking to #8 overall on 247Sports and to #9 on Rivals.


The Player

Couch is that pesky corner that is constantly in his man’s hip-pocket and is hard to separate from. He has great quickness, and has necessary hip-flip to recover from mistakes in press and lapses in coverage in space. He shows an ability on tape to play both on the outside and inside the slot and I like his technique to mirror and match in press coverage. While being a consistent presence on the outside could prove challenging from him at the next-level, Couch has the attributes to develop into a blanket in coverage in the slot at Miami.

People worry about Couch’s slight size, and that’s a valid concern with his slim build. But his length is off the charts, which is a quality that Manny Diaz is on record saying he believes is more important than size at corner. Couch has also more than performed against elite competition at camps over the off-season. I saw him in-person at the Under Armour Miami camp back in March and he was one of my top performers, while Couch even earned an invite to the Under Amour Game as well.


The Class

Couch's commitment brings the total class numbers to 15, and he is the Canes third take at cornerback, joining Lake Brantley (FL) 3-star Damarius Good and Carol City (FL) 3-star Jarvis Brownlee, and fourth take at DB, along with teammate Chaminade-Madonna (FL) 4-star safety Keontra Smith. A personal opinion of mine is that not all three current corners in Miami’s class will end up signing with the Canes. I told Couch’s commitment story in multiple threads from last week (here and here), so I’ll skip that and focus on the DB board from here.

A source tells CIS that the top priorities at DB will in fact be Palm Beach Central (FL) 5-star Akeem Dent, Southridge (FL) 4-star Tyrique Stevenson, and Wellington (FL) 4-star Mark-Antony Richards and that the Canes will find a spot for them in this class no matter what. I’ve also heard that St. Thomas Aquinas (FL) 4-star Jordan Battle is pushing to join this tier as well.

As for the current chatter on these four, I don’t believe Dent has serious interest in UM and don’t see him coming to Miami whatsoever, but Miami continues to treat him like a priority, so I’ll keep mentioning him. I detailed this in a thread two weeks back, but I believe Georgia should be considered the front-runner for Stevenson at this time. He is also coming off a four day visit to Athens this past weekend. This is very close though, and Stevenson could easily still choose Miami. The Canes are still in a very good spot with Richards, and he was on campus two weekends back for the 7-on-7 camps. This will be a recruitment that will go to the very end, though, as Richards maintains he wants to give schools like Auburn and Florida a fair shot.

Battle just visited UM on an official visit this weekend and things went well. He’ll give Ohio State an official this coming weekend as well, and his choice will come down to UM vs. OSU in the end. I also expect a summer decision from Battle. OSU has long been considered Battle’s leader since they offered, but some interesting things I’ve heard lately about this recruitment was that the Buckeyes put Battle on the back burner for the past two or so months in anticipation that they would land a commitment from DeMatha (MD) 4-star safety Nick Cross, something that has not come to fruition. This has opened the door for Miami a bit. OSU has now picked back up constant contact and are pitching the idea of playing corner to Battle, something he is intrigued by. We’ll know more about the situation after Battle takes his OSU official and starts comparing and contrasting the two schools in-lieu of a decision.

Further down Miami’s board is CB/S University School (FL) 4-star Josh Sanguinetti, who has had a rough off-season and took a tumble in UM’s eyes in the past few months. Miami is still in contact though, and his close friendship with 4-star teammate and Miami legacy RB Kenny McIntosh could be the deciding factor that gets him into this class if he decides he wants in.

Someone to keep an eye on is Spalding (GA) 4-star Zion Puckett, who received an offer last month at corner and recently put Miami in his top 10. We’ve heard he’s really risen up UM’s board lately and the staff loves his potential. The Canes are trying to get back into the game with The Benjamin School (FL) 4-star Kaiir Elam, but the Gators are thought to lead here. Miami loves Arizona Western C.C. (AZ) 4-star Elijah Blades' talent, but are not sure if he'll fit in attitude-wise.

Some interesting things I’ve heard on Kathleen (FL) 4-star Brendan Gant is that he is not a lock to be taken by presumed leader FSU, as they are filling up at DB right now and have a few others ahead of him on their board. If Miami misses on some of their other top targets, they could push here and really make things interesting.


The Team

By 2019, Miami will lose established starter Michael Jackson, as well as Jhavonte Dean, to graduation; only Trajan Bandy, Gilbert Frierson, DJ Ivey, Al Blades Jr., and Nigel Bethel are returnees at corner. Miami is hoping Frierson and Ivey have developed enough by then to handle full-time starting roles, with Bandy manning the slot and holding it down in nickel packages.

While that has the potential to be a more than solid top 3, Blades Jr. and Bethel just arrived on campus and have shown nothing yet and Frierson or Blades Jr. may also end up moving to safety, so Miami will hope to build more depth at this spot. There will be immediate playing time available for Couch if he comes in and shows he can handle the college game both physically and mentally, although at 150 pounds going into his senior year of high school, a redshirt has to be considered a legitimate possibility as of now. I can see Couch playing a lot of slot/nickel in his second year, and learning the ropes from a senior Bandy; he even has the potential to help out on special teams. By his third season, Bandy will be gone and Couch could very well be UM’s go-to option for coverage in the slot.



If you’re going to write an article, at least be sure it’s factually correct. Stevenson was only at UGA for a little over 2 days this week and he Cane home a day earlier than people thought in order to attend the Miami Nights event.
 
If you’re going to write an article, at least be sure it’s factually correct. Stevenson was only at UGA for a little over 2 days this week and he Cane home a day earlier than people thought in order to attend the Miami Nights event.
If your going to refute an article, you should at least be factually correct. He was there for 3 days.
 
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If you’re going to write an article, at least be sure it’s factually correct. Stevenson was only at UGA for a little over 2 days this week and he Cane home a day earlier than people thought in order to attend the Miami Nights event.
3 days Wednesday, Thursday, and left Friday night . Was originally going to be up there from Wednesday to Saturday but he did leave early though and ended up attending “Miami nights”
 
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“Blades Jr. and Bethel just arrived on campus and have shown nothing yet”

Don’t want to read too much into that but ... Does that mean they haven’t had enough time to show anything, or that they don’t look as good as advertised?
 
If the only question about him is his weight then we’re going to be okay. He’ll naturally gain weight before he hits campus (I’m sure the staff will get him on a diet) and then Felder has shown what he can do. Not worried about that.
 
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Here is a 2019 local fellow- Christopher McDonald (Southridge) that might be worth considering and did well at the TOC 7 vs 7 Tournament this past Saturday.
Is a hitter, has excellent closing speed and good ball awareness.
Christopher McDonald Jr. on Hudl

Ran a 11.0 in the 100- meters this year in the district track championship, and this his first year in high school track.
Christopher McDonald Jr

His 11.09--100m into a -2.9 headwind in the Lou Bing Meet equals a 10.84 into no head headwind.
Wind/Altitude correction in the 100m sprint
 
“Blades Jr. and Bethel just arrived on campus and have shown nothing yet”

Don’t want to read too much into that but ... Does that mean they haven’t had enough time to show anything, or that they don’t look as good as advertised?

I believe that is just poorly used verbiage. I don't believe enough time has passed for them to be written off. I have seen photos of blades and physically he is ready to contribute.
 
"I don't believe enough time has passed for them to be written off."

they've literally never even practiced with the team no s h i t!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this message board makes people crazy
 
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Couch looks great, Felder will get him ready. Why is everyone so down on Good and Brownlee? Both look like solid takes for different reasons.

**** Georgia. I love our chances with Stevenson after this past weekend with Paradise coming up. Just tell Battle to visit Ohio State in early December or late January, and he'll be a Cane. Unless he wants to have frozen nads hanging out with Paranos' girlfriends for 4 years . ... And if Elam wants to rot in Gainesville with their 5-5 Power 5 records over the next 4 years, then he's clearly not intelligent enough for our team.
 
I took my son to Athens this weekend to visit and it was dead. Not a football visit. He hated the dorms too. I thought it was awesome so go figure.
 
I just can't understand the infatuation with Georgia & South FL DBs. Yeah they made the playoff. All it took was an upperclassmen heavy team put together by the current head coach at Miami. Now these guys act like an 8 win season for uga wouldn't deter them. But anything less than 10 wins at Miami apparently means there is no future at the U. Go sit the bench in Athens Georgia or start/play early in Miami Florida? What am I missing here?

$$$$$$$$

I mean, you're being incredibly naive if you think it's anything else. If Miami was the one offering six figures, jobs for his sisters, and to take care of his mom, Tyrique would have committed here a long time ago. If you read Tyrique's interviews he's not even really hiding that Georgia is offering to take care of him and his family

Or you can believe he's just a huge Mel Tucker fan I guess
 
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A haul of Battle, MAR, Smith at safety would be great but missing on Stevenson is devasting. He is the best DB in the state possibly the country. Yes he is better than Dent!!! This class will be solid either way but you cant miss on guys like Stevenson,Neal,Bogle. Those are the guys that get u ships.

Get used to it. Every year we will lose someone to the $EC.

The hope is we go at least 33% signing rate for the top guys and maybe 50% when we are consistently rolling. We can't keep striking out like last season or the vultures will keep coming.
 
I’ll bite...which CB currently committed do you not see in this class come signing day? @Stefan Adams

Not Stefan but I’m assuming he means Good if he doesn’t develop as expected. I can’t see them dropping Couch or Brownlee. I also doubt we get all of our top targets forcing them to drop someone.

CB:
Couch
Brownlee
Good

S:
Smith
Richards
Stevenson?
 
Get used to it. Every year we will lose someone to the $EC.

The hope is we go at least 33% signing rate for the top guys and maybe 50% when we are consistently rolling. We can't keep striking out like last season or the vultures will keep coming.

Striking out? God we have some awful posters on here. 247 just ranked our DB class in 2018 as #5 in the entire country.

Frierson, Ivey, Blades, Hall - that is your definition of striking out? We'll never get everyone but you seem to not realize who we did get

Just terrible
 
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