"Speaking as a high school coach in my seventh year, Miami has had an issue going back to even Randy Shannon. You get the pick of the litter. Take for instance one of my kids, Emmett Rice [a 2016 FSU linebacker commit from Norland]. All his goal was to go to Miami. I’ll give you a better one than that. Amari Cooper. Same thing as Freeman. We’d take these kids to the [Hurricanes] camp. Freeman wanted to go Miami, him, Amari Cooper too. So I call ‘em up and say, 'Hey man, this kid is GOOD. Y’all better take a look at him.'"
He affects a nasal voice to imitate a coach: "'Well, bring him to the camp. If he possibly does good, we’ll give him an offer.'"
"And what ends up happening? [Cooper] goes to the camp, turns the place inside out and no one can stop him. And [if] they offer him, he commits right there. Calls Mama right there. 'Mom, they just offered me.' She’s crying, he’s crying, everybody's crying. Then they go up to [the Miami coaches'] office, and then they he say, ‘Uh well, we really don’t want to announce it right now.’
"So then we ending up hopping on the road because we do the same road trip every year. The next day we get on the road, we go to Tallahassee, then Alabama. And what does he do? He tears up everything. Nick Saban’s like, 'I want him right now. I want him and Artie Burns right now.' Nick stayed on him. Jumped on it. Kid went there."
"I’m more friends with everyone on that staff at FSU than I am here. It’s crazy. One thing about it: I let it be known. Every year I go to their camp and cuss them like a sailor, talking trash. 'Yeah we’re gonna get you this year.' And they talk trash to me. One thing about it, though: if I tell ‘em [FSU] about a kid, 99 percent of the time they offer and they won’t hesitate."
"I told [Miami running backs coach] Hurlie Brown last year, 'I ain’t gonna turn you on to no garbage.' I know as a coach, not everybody can go to Miami. There’s only a certain type of kid that can go to Miami, Florida State, Alabama these type places. Now I’m talking to [Florida State assistant] Tim Brewster about a kid. Brewster offers the kid, and then Miami is, ‘Oh we really want Emmett Rice! We want Rayshad Jackson [2015 Florida signee from Norland]. And the kids went to Miami's camp last year. Last year, not this year, laaaast year."
"Every kid's goal is to play for University of Miami here. Right now they're hearing, 'If Florida or Florida State offers you, then we’ll come back.' By then, you’ve just hurt that kid’s feelings. Most kids in Miami are in a single-parent household. Mama’s there, little brothers. Little brothers are playing football on the weekend, and they don’t want to leave here. Most of the high school coaches here, they know how Miami will do a kid. They’ve hurt so many kids' feelings by not getting to them at the right time."
