@Stefan Adams and anyone else that has an answer/thought.
I read the threads but don't keep up with recruiting like I used to. Golden burned me out on it.
For the Surge 19 class I have seen a couple of post in places mentioning that were are not securing very many of the top players in the state. Add to that we seemed to miss out on all of those players last year as well while having a great season. (besides Lingard & Pope)
In no way am I being negative but I just wanted to ask should we be concerned? Will it take multiple great seasons to bring these elite kids in? Is it a losing battle fighting against the SEC bags? Are the kids just not as high on our board?
I'd just like a sense of what it means.
We've touched on this in some way in each of the last few podcasts, but the dynamic of the 2019 class is much different than the 2018 class. Last year, Miami wrapped up most of their top targets by the end of spring because those guys knew 100% where they wanted to go and saw no reason to wait, while this year most of their top targets want to give a lot of schools a fair shot at them and want to play out the process; they'll wait until fall or even the winter to decide. 2018 was a special class, no doubt about it, and was the exception, not the rule, in terms of so many top targets jumping on board to UM early.
So, obviously, that means the 2018 class looked a lot better at this point in the cycle than 2019 does right now, but I don't see that as cause for concern at this point. Miami is in a good spot for all of those 2019 top targets and they will just have to keep fighting a little harder and longer to get them to UM. The problem would be if they started missing on some of those top guys and have to rely on Plan B, C, D guys to fill out the class.
There's no one answer to why contact has dropped off with certain guys, but it is certainly a combination of Miami does not feel they are truly that interested in coming here and UM just isn't as high on them as they used to be, and it's obviously different on case-by-case basis.
The bag game is a very real factor and I've already seen/heard multiple instances of it coming into play just in 5 months working here, and this is coming from someone who believed it was minor at best in the past; it depends on the individual kid if they want to be influenced that way. If you need any more convincing, you should read this article to see how rampant it truly is.
Inside the NCAA’s years-long, twisting investigation into Mississippi football
In sum, I think UM is in a good situation. They learned from last season and started taking the local gems they love right now while waiting to see what happens with the big names, instead of trying to get in with the local gems at the last minute after big targets go elsewhere. It's true UM has a lot of advantages because of their location but they also have many disadvantages as a small private institution. Miami used to have top 5 level classes every year because they were competing for national championships every year. They have to start winning at that level consistently to see big returns on highly-rated recruits every year, simple as that.