Yo whats up fam first and foremost I hope you all are prepping for tailgate season in anticipation of an undefeated home slate. Make sure not to skimp on the tequila.
All jokes and formalities aside, there have been some really good conversations about the lack of viable examples in terms of players going high in the draft after being coached by this staff at certain positions. One of which, and very ballyhooed, is Defensive tackle. Nesta aside we have been doing extra evals to identify players further down the developmental pipe to fill out our recruiting classes. Much like the DB convo Coach Macho introduced, the DT position hasn't had a strong opportunity very recently to display individuals going day 1 or early day 2 in the draft that recruits can point to and say, "Hey Miami put 2-3 players at DT in the first/second/third round, I can go there, go high ain the draft and get paid." The closest would be Chad Thomas who went in the third and play sometimes at DT.
The biggest reason in my eyes to this is that most DTs that go high are usually seniors, and the two we sent last year were juniors, who, we all can agree, would have seen better paychecks staying for their senior seasons and going into the draft 2019.
Enter Gerald Willis. After reading the Q&A with Coach Richt in the PBP, where he mentions Gerald probably would have left as well had he not sat out last year, it dawned on me how important it is for recruiting that Willis live up to potential this year. Most importantly live up to his potential in his SENIOR year, rather junior. With his documented growing (up) pains at UF and UM, hes a more public example of the shortcomings of immaturity. I believe if he balls out and is able to get to rd2 or rd3, due to staying through his senior year purposely to mature himself, that it can go along way to: A) begin a proving ground for recruits to see us put that position high in the draft, and B) tell players that are here and are coming in the future, don't be like Norton and Mac and leave early to get drafted late, be like Willis, mature, stay full term and get drafted early. Just my thoughts. Pick apart and give your opinions fam. Bless up.