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Luke said he walked Amari Cooper and D.Freeman into UM

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bshaw28 said:
My memory is they offered Waters & Cooper at the same time and it was a bad misevaluation by Golden thinking their talent was the same.

Freeman was another miseval - Barrow made a hard run at him but we got in in too late in the game.
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Cooper committed at summer camp, but his moms intervened? He then went to Bama and we took Waters instead. Freeman was a Randy special. We had Duke locked up for 2012, so we didn’t need him 🤦‍♂️ At that point Randy had the cataclysmic 2010 season and Freeman went to FSU laughing at us. Thank god we got Duke, cause the most Dark Ages Miami thing to have done is miss on him as well. The good ole ‘next year is loaded with locks’ was flowing strong in those days…
 
bobbydigius said:
Cooper committed at summer camp, but his moms intervened? He then went to Bama and we took Waters instead. Freeman was a Randy special. We had Duke locked up for 2012, so we didn’t need him 🤦‍♂️ At that point Randy had the cataclysmic 2010 season and Freeman went to FSU laughing at us. Thank god we got Duke, cause the most Dark Ages Miami thing to have done is miss on him as well. The good ole ‘next year is loaded with locks’ was flowing strong in those days…
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Went to school with Duke. Miami could've went 2-10 and Duke would've still been a Cane
 
Mia305cubancane said:
That herb waters,cooper cituation doesn’t make much sense when that class Miami signed 6 wide receivers.counting Angelo Jean louis who didn’t make it in
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That’s what I was thinking.

Herb Waters over Cooper is a bad eval, but there was definitely room in the class to have both Cooper and Waters, over players like Jontavious Carter, D’Mauri Jones and Robert Lockhart, and like you mentioned Angelo Jean Louis.

I always just assumed we just got out recruited, but maybe there was an added sprinkle of incompetence by Golden’s staff.

Man thank God for Mario, 15+ years of this was too much.
 
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I don’t believe Miami didn’t want them, Amari Cooper was committed to us at one point, if we had a good coach then our starting WR’s would have been Coop and Sammy Watkins
 
Rellyrell said:
Correct me if I’m wrong, big homie, but didn’t both the Cooper & Freeman situation cause a great domino effect that kicked us in the *** for future prospects?
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That and really messing up the Denver Kirkland situation at BTW. I think Golden hired Ice Harris & James Coley partly as a way to repair damage that had been done with local coaches.

My memory could easily be off though. In Golden's defense he did pull some big time local recruits like Artie Burns, Tracey Howard, Stacey Coley. Chad Thomas who were "could go anywhere" types, and the cloud made things more difficult than is remembered - but he did have some big time f ups with local recruits.
 
reirei92 said:
That’s what I was thinking.

Herb Waters over Cooper is a bad eval, but there was definitely room in the class to have both Cooper and Waters, over players like Jontavious Carter, D’Mauri Jones and Robert Lockhart, and like you mentioned Angelo Jean Louis.

I always just assumed we just got out recruited, but maybe there was an added sprinkle of incompetence by Golden’s staff.

Man thank God for Mario, 15+ years of this was too much.
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I could definitely be wrong, but how I remember Cooper's recruitment playing out was....

Spring 2011 - Cooper was hurt and didn't play his Junior year, and was very under the radar. Cooper & Waters camped at Miami and were similarly rated at the time - around #400 overall type. The staff should've realized "Holy sh*t, Cooper is a stud and no one knows about him. We need to make him top priority and lock him up quickly as possible". But instead they chose to slow play him, wanting to see how he played his SR Year, which turned Cooper off.

Summer 2011 - Cooper continued to dominate camps & 7 on 7's and was getting more big time offers. Golden still had Waters & Cooper ranked similarly, and with 3-4 WR's committed at that point, he basically gave Waters & Cooper a "you better commit now because we may only have room for 1 of you" ultimatum (referenced on page 1 of this thread). Waters took the offer, and Cooper was further turned off.

Fall 2011 - Cooper BLEW UP his senior year and committed to Alabama early in his season - although he may have already been a silent commit. Cooper was a Top 50 player by end of season. I think Bakas had him the #1 player in Florida.

Winter 2011 - Miami went 6-6 and Alabama was on their way to their 2nd NC under Saban. The gap between the 2 was continuing to get wider. There was some hope when Cooper made an official visit to Miami, but I remember a funny pic where all the recruits were throwing up the U and Cooper had his hands in his pockets. In reality our chances were cooked by Summer 2011.
 
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OriginalCanesCanesCanes said:
Cooper would still be in the NFL, and Waters wouldn’t. You can’t develop talent that isn’t there. Cooper just has it, and he’s a hard worker anyway so he would’ve made it in the league, would’ve had some great numbers here
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100% - if Dorsett had 850 yds & Hurns had 1,100 yds at Miami with Stephen Morris as QB - imagine the numbers Cooper would've put up.

Here's clips of Cooper & Waters back in March 2011 - when they were still Juniors in HS.

Coopers acceleration, speed, and change of direction quickness in & out of cuts is jump off the screen obvious. Waters was a good college player who got some run in the NFL, so no disrespect - but it's easy to see Cooper was on a different level.

 
Cooper was lighting up camps down the stretch. He would have gone to Bama anyway.
 
DMoney said:
They thought Waters was just as good as Cooper. That's why they pressured Cooper to commit or get out. Don't know the story on Freemam but I imagine it's similar.
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When peoples hate you they are incapable hearing the truth from you. I know he loved the U and I think Luke became exasperated with the program year after year with inept leadership, even when had delivering talent. I've heard more critical and damming opinions posted here.
 
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Many on here know I have defended Luke throughout mostly everything he has said. (Even the shot he took at Mario about not hiring black local coaches prior to his hire) But what is the purpose of him constantly bringing these stories up? Its old news and its a story thats been told 100 times. Golden messed the Coop recruitment up royally. No excuses for it. Freeman was Shannons fault and it was due to his ego.

Lets toast to the new era where losing guys like Cooper, Ridley, Cook, Freeman, Kirkland, Jeudy, Surtain Jr, Ty Campbell, etc are over and we start keeping alot of these 5* kids.
 
Jassid82 said:
Many on here know I have defended Luke throughout mostly everything he has said. (Even the shot he took at Mario about not hiring black local coaches prior to his hire) But what is the purpose of him constantly bringing these stories up? Its old news and its a story thats been told 100 times. Golden messed the Coop recruitment up royally. No excuses for it. Freeman was Shannons fault and it was due to his ego.

Lets toast to the new era where losing guys like Cooper, Ridley, Cook, Freeman, Kirkland, Jeudy, Surtain Jr, Ty Campbell, etc are over and we start keeping alot of these 5* kids.
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Don’t kid yourself, it’s still gonna be a dog fight versus the SEC schools.
 
bshaw28 said:
That and really messing up the Denver Kirkland situation at BTW. I think Golden hired Ice Harris & James Coley partly as a way to repair damage that had been done with local coaches.

My memory could easily be off though. In Golden's defense he did pull some big time local recruits like Artie Burns, Tracey Howard, Stacey Coley. Chad Thomas who were "could go anywhere" types, and the cloud made things more difficult than is remembered - but he did have some big time f ups with local recruits.
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We for sure had our best collection of NFL talent under Golden.
 
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Jassid82 said:
Many on here know I have defended Luke throughout mostly everything he has said. (Even the shot he took at Mario about not hiring black local coaches prior to his hire) But what is the purpose of him constantly bringing these stories up? Its old news and its a story thats been told 100 times. Golden messed the Coop recruitment up royally. No excuses for it. Freeman was Shannons fault and it was due to his ego.

Lets toast to the new era where losing guys like Cooper, Ridley, Cook, Freeman, Kirkland, Jeudy, Surtain Jr, Ty Campbell, etc are over and we start keeping alot of these 5* kids.
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He's being asked about it. If a reporter asks someone to list some possible faults and improvements from previous Miami regime, you're bound to regurgitate the glaring issues that you point out every time.
 
bshaw28 said:
That and really messing up the Denver Kirkland situation at BTW. I think Golden hired Ice Harris & James Coley partly as a way to repair damage that had been done with local coaches.

My memory could easily be off though. In Golden's defense he did pull some big time local recruits like Artie Burns, Tracey Howard, Stacey Coley. Chad Thomas who were "could go anywhere" types, and the cloud made things more difficult than is remembered - but he did have some big time f ups with local recruits.
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I might be mistaken, but Golden got petty and straight up yanked Kirkland's offer pretty close to signing day, didnt he?

So glad these types of blunders are just reminiscence now.
 
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