MIAMI — The Miami Hurricanes have no business losing to teams without any players that they even recruited, and they have done it now three times in four years with FIU, Louisiana Tech and Middle Tennessee.
But here’s the most monumental challenge awaiting UM coach Mario Cristobal: Acquiring more elite, NFL-quality players, the ones who can help UM become a top-20 program again.
The NFL released two studies this season, and both reflect the deficiencies in UM’s talent acquisition in the 15 years before Cristobal:
— For a long time, the Canes ranked among the leaders in active NFL players. No longer.
For Week 1 of the season, UM had 11 players in the NFL, tied for 21st with Mississippi, Virginia Tech and Tennessee.
Not all of the schools with the most active NFL players are winning big. But the top ones are.
Here’s the top seven for most active NFL players to start the season: Alabama with 65; LSU with 57; Ohio State with 56; Georgia with 48; Oklahoma with 40; Notre Dame with 39; and Michigan with 38.
All of those teams won a lot in the past decade. So there is a correlation between winning and producing NFL players, not that this should surprise anybody.
Scouts in recent years have left UM practices shaking their heads about the talent drop-off. One told me he was dumbfounded how the Canes’ talent could have plunged so significantly from the glory days.
It’s Cristobal’s job to fix it. If he does, the wins likely will come.
— Here was the other study released: The number of NFL players on teams from Miami-Dade (at the start of this season) dropped from 36 last season to 23 this season. And this is telling: Only six of those 23 attended UM.
Meanwhile, the number of NFL players on 53-man rosters from Broward dropped from 62 last season to 55 this season. But only five of those players attended UM.
So that’s 78 players from Miami-Dade and Broward in the NFL to start this season, and only 11 (primarily NFL backups) played for UM.
Let’s look at the Dade players first. Of the 23, the ones ones who attended UM were Artie Burns, Deon Bush, Duke Johnson, Jaquan Johnson, Denzel Perryman and Greg Rousseau.
Here were the ones who didn’t attend UM: Dalvin Cook, Teddy Bridgewater, Amari Cooper, Lavonte David, Josh Uche, Anthony Walker Jr., C.J. Henderson, James Cook, Tutu Atwell, Carlton Davis, Rashad Fenton, Justin McCray, Eddie Pineiro, Demetrius Taylor, Keir Thomas, Tyquan Thornton and Richard Wildgoose.
Six of 23 isn’t an awful percentage, but it needs context. Of the six Miami-Dade Canes in the NFL, Rousseau and Perryman are the only starters. Duke Johnson, a former starter, is now on the Bills’ practice squad.
The best players on that Miami-Dade list who bypassed UM: Cook (attended FSU), Bridgewater (Louisville) and Cooper (Alabama). David (a two-time second team All-Pro) was a two-star prospect who didn’t have an offer from UM, went to a community college and then transferred to Nebraska.
Of the 55 Broward players in the NFL to start the season, only five went to UM: Phillip Dorsett, Jon Feliciano, Jonathan Ford, Mike Harley Jr. (on Cleveland’s practice squad) and Danny Isidora (on Arizona’s practice squad).
Of that group, Dorsett (now a Texans backup) has been a good NFL starter, Feliciano is a current NFL starter (Giants) and Ford hasn’t yet played an NFL snap. Isidora was released earlier this month and Harley hasn’t yet played in a game.
Among those impact (or former high-impact) NFL players who bypassed UM: Devin Bush (Michigan), Jerry Jeudy (Alabama), Joey Bosa and Nick Bosa (Ohio State), Brian Burns (FSU), Patrick Peterson (LSU), Marquise Brown (Oklahoma) and Calvin Ridley (Alabama). Then there are several other recent former high draft picks looking to make their mark, including Patrick Surtain Jr. (Alabama).
UM has lost out on several high-end prospects from Plantation American Heritage (Burns, Surtain, Tyson Campbell, Sony Michel, Marvin Jones Jr., Earl Little Jr.) and is refocusing efforts there.
And here’s an important point: UM has a bunch of players from South Florida. But many haven’t lived up to expectations or become NFL-caliber players, suggesting some were overrated by recruiting services. Several of the best local players go elsewhere and then become NFL standouts; this must stop for UM to win big.
UM defensive back coach Jahmile Addae, who coached at Georgia last year, put it this way in August: American Heritage “is a school you have to win, have to dominate.”
Beyond American Heritage, the Canes also have had mixed success at Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas, luring Harley (among others) but losing out on both Bosa brothers (that was an insurmountable task to get either one from Ohio State because of the family legacy there and the strength of their program), Lamarcus Joyner, Asante Samuel Jr. and others.
“You don’t have a South Florida base at the University of Miami, you’re on borrowed time,” Addae said.
UM’s 2023 class is strong overall but light on local prospects; only five of UM’s 19 nonbinding commitments in its top-10-ranked class are players who attend high school in South Florida. But I don’t consider that a negative.
UM needs some of the top uncommitted 2023 players from the area, with four-star Miami Central defensive end Rueben Bain and American Heritage four-star cornerback Damari Brown among the remaining available targets.
The Canes’ recruiting almost assuredly will improve under Cristobal; it already has. But the real indication of how much the talent improves — beyond winning — will be how many NFL starters are produced from the program during the duration of his 10-year contract.
And it’s equally important that this Canes staff develop these prospects, something lacking at times in the past 15 years.
