RB Shekai Mills-Knight building bond with Coach Merritt

DMoney

Mar 7, 2024 2 min read

The Canadian Invasion has begun. After signing Isaiah Thomas and landing Akheem Mesidor as a transfer, the Canes have offered 6’2, 215-pound RB Shekai Mills-Knight from Montreal. Like many talented Canadian prospects, Mills-Knight has ventured south to pursue his football career, landing at the Baylor School in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Mills-Knight is currently unranked but boasts offers from Oregon, Auburn, Wisconsin and Miami.

If it was up to his mom, Mills-Knight never would have gone down the gridiron path.

"My mom didn't want me to play," Mills-Knight recounts. "She was like, that's a dangerous sport."

His father supported his football ambitions, and Mills-Knight took up the sport at the age of 7. With a large frame and track speed (his uncle was Usain Bolt's track coach), Mills-Knight developed into the top running back in Quebec. Unfortunately, after moving to Tennessee to seek better competition, he fractured his ankle. Mills-Knight rehabbed every day, missing the first four weeks but finishing his junior season with 1,200 total yards and being named All-State.

He prides himself on running angry and models his game after Eddie George and Marshawn Lynch. In fact, Eddie George personally offered him as the head coach of Tennessee State.

“I run extremely hard. Like you see in the tape, I fall forward all the time. It's just muscle memory for me to fall forward and fight for extra yards.”

Schools like Tennessee, Ole Miss, Auburn and Florida are in pursuit, but Mills-Knight has developed a strong relationship with new Hurricanes RB coach Matt Merritt. He quickly set up an official visit to Miami on the loaded June 7th weekend.

"Miami, as soon as I got in contact with them, they're all showing love," he said. “From the moment we connected, I really liked him because he's a man of God, just like me. I grew up in church.”

Mills-Knight, who is of Jamaican descent, is also well aware of the quality of Jamaican food in Miami. “I know Florida. I got friends down there and they be telling me like, it's the real deal.”

Mills-Knight is also taking unofficials to Michigan, Michigan State and Liberty.

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Comments (128)

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Scorpioncane

Jun 7, 2024

calinative umstudent said:
No.

24/7canes said:
would we take 3 rb ? I mean the room is a bit bare.

Don't know about bare! We have bodies Martinez, Fletcher, Allen, Lyle, cwh, cj! But, lack experience behind Martinez and Fletcher and Fletcher is injured!

passitback

Jun 8, 2024

Dwinstitles said:
I’m all for sfla athletes but the right ones. Back when I first started following recruiting I learned on scout sfla over everything but with watching and following all these years it has to be the right ones. People would spin it like everyone was elite but it wasn’t true when they got to college. You can ball from anywhere dead ***. As long as you got the intangibles and numbers you can be good from somewhere else. I’m pretty sure 98% of the comp that comes from sfla yearly or Texas or anywhere else doesn’t do ****. You have to eval the right ones. Are there more elite ones in sfla? Yes but still even with the tough competition that all of them are going through most don’t do anything. Cause they spin that competition **** but that goes for every player playing there and it doesn’t help most. You are what you are it’s that simple.

No doubt. i agree with you. Great players all over America. Homegrown kids tend to be a little overhyped, but that's to be expected. Evals go a long way in weeding out the booms from busts, but that is never an exact science.

Damiencane86

Jun 8, 2024

passitback said:
No doubt. i agree with you. Great players all over America. Homegrown kids tend to be a little overhyped, but that's to be expected. Evals go a long way in weeding out the booms from busts, but that is never an exact science.

Urban Meyer wasn't wrong when he said south florida has tons of talent yet its mostly underdeveloped compared to what he saw in Texas for example. We will always prioritize Florida first for geographic advantage, but neglecting Georgia, Bama, Texas, Louisiana is crazy. I am glad Mario makes some effort in all these places.

passitback

Jun 8, 2024

Damiencane86 said:
Urban Meyer wasn't wrong when he said south florida has tons of talent yet its mostly underdeveloped compared to what he saw in Texas for example. We will always prioritize Florida first for geographic advantage, but neglecting Georgia, Bama, Texas, Louisiana is crazy. I am glad Mario makes some effort in all these places.

Absolutely. We need balance. Always had studs from out of state....

JHallCanes

Jun 8, 2024

Dwinstitles said:
I’m all for sfla athletes but the right ones. Back when I first started following recruiting I learned on scout sfla over everything but with watching and following all these years it has to be the right ones. People would spin it like everyone was elite but it wasn’t true when they got to college. You can ball from anywhere dead ***. As long as you got the intangibles and numbers you can be good from somewhere else. I’m pretty sure 98% of the comp that comes from sfla yearly or Texas or anywhere else doesn’t do ****. You have to eval the right ones. Are there more elite ones in sfla? Yes but still even with the tough competition that all of them are going through most don’t do anything. Cause they spin that competition **** but that goes for every player playing there and it doesn’t help most. You are what you are it’s that simple.

Yeah our issue hasn’t been getting Florida guys. We’ve just been getting ****** ones

Dwinstitles

Jun 8, 2024

JHallCanes said:
Yeah our issue hasn’t been getting Florida guys. We’ve just been getting ****** ones

Facts

S
skyman

Jun 8, 2024

JHallCanes said:
Yeah our issue hasn’t been getting Florida guys. We’ve just been getting ****** ones

But but south Florida 3 stars equal national 5 stars but are also DAWGS! :big-sean:

JHallCanes

Jun 8, 2024

skyman said:
But but south Florida 3 stars equal national 5 stars but are also DAWGS!

I ended up torturing myself posting the rankings of Florida players we’ve taken

We rarely get the elites from the state we get the leftovers that end up being bums despite some good rankings

Hope those days are over

Damiencane86

Jun 8, 2024

JHallCanes said:
I ended up torturing myself posting the rankings of Florida players we’ve taken

We rarely get the elites from the state we get the leftovers that end up being bums despite some good rankings

Hope those days are over

We also used to miss on lots of SoFla 3 stars who actually balled out elsewhere: Tutu, Ricardo Holloman, zay flowers, etc.

gogeta4

Jun 8, 2024

Scorpioncane said:
Don't know about bare! We have bodies Martinez, Fletcher, Allen, Lyle, cwh, cj! But, lack experience behind Martinez and Fletcher and Fletcher is injured!

Ajay Allen gets downgraded heavy on here. ude had 5 tds last year with a 5.0ypc carry avg..hes had 5 ypc his first two college szn.

I dont know why hes never talked about much but he kinda impressed me last year with what he got.

He will have to fight off Jordan but if he gets 70-100 carries again this year he should be up to about 500 yds and in the 5-7 range for tds just based off his trajectory.

JHallCanes

Jun 8, 2024

Damiencane86 said:
We also used to miss on lots of SoFla 3 stars who actually balled out elsewhere: Tutu, Ricardo Holloman, zay flowers, etc.

I was gonna add that part but was already too sad about it

So thanks for that…

Scorpioncane

Jun 8, 2024

gogeta4 said:
Ajay Allen gets downgraded heavy on here. ude had 5 tds last year with a 5.0ypc carry avg..hes had 5 ypc his first two college szn.

I dont know why hes never talked about much but he kinda impressed me last year with what he got.

He will have to fight off Jordan but if he gets 70-100 carries again this year he should be up to about 500 yds and in the 5-7 range for tds just based off his trajectory.

I agree! I liked the addition when it happened, but he seems to have a lot of nagging injuries!

H
HarrietTubmanCane

Jun 8, 2024

gogeta4 said:
Ajay Allen gets downgraded heavy on here. ude had 5 tds last year with a 5.0ypc carry avg..hes had 5 ypc his first two college szn.

I dont know why hes never talked about much but he kinda impressed me last year with what he got.

He will have to fight off Jordan but if he gets 70-100 carries again this year he should be up to about 500 yds and in the 5-7 range for tds just based off his trajectory.

Totally agree

Dudes been calling him a jag this offseason.

Odysseus

Jun 8, 2024

Yall should compare the film Between him and Louis

Odysseus

Jun 8, 2024

Mills-Knight

Odysseus

Jun 8, 2024

Louis

Cane26

Jun 8, 2024

gogeta4 said:
Ajay Allen gets downgraded heavy on here. ude had 5 tds last year with a 5.0ypc carry avg..hes had 5 ypc his first two college szn.

I dont know why hes never talked about much but he kinda impressed me last year with what he got.

He will have to fight off Jordan but if he gets 70-100 carries again this year he should be up to about 500 yds and in the 5-7 range for tds just based off his trajectory.

I thought he showed some wiggle and elusiveness last year then he got injured and we didnt see much from him in the back half of the season. I don't know why he gets beat up on here also. Hes a great change of pace back from Fletcher and Martinez.

Dwinstitles

Jun 8, 2024

JHallCanes said:
I ended up torturing myself posting the rankings of Florida players we’ve taken

We rarely get the elites from the state we get the leftovers that end up being bums despite some good rankings

Hope those days are over

PREACH

been saying we got left overs forever and then they wonder why we lost and were trash. That was a big reason, you can keep hiring and firing but if u aint getting elites u aint winning big period.