The Bank (3/24)

DMoney

Mar 24, 2025 3 min read

Miami has been hosting a parade of big-time kids on campus this spring. Here is the latest on some top targets:

- As first reported on the CanesInSight podcast this morning (and later confirmed by on3's Steve Wiltfong), Miami is surging for #1 overall player OT Jackson Cantwell (Nixa, MO). He had a great unofficial visit last week and likes the Coral Gables lifestyle. More importantly, he has strong relationships with Miami's OL staff and believes in their development plan. It will be a battle with Georgia, Oregon and others, but this is a real situation.

- One player on flip watch is OT Joel Ervin (Fort Myers). Don't let his ranking fool you- this is a top-of-the-board type priority. He measured in at 6'6.5, 330+ with 11.5 inch hands and a massive wingspan. I saw him in person and he has an elite NFL frame with minimal bad weight. He decommitted from Louisville this AM and Miami is in a strong position.

- Two names that remain high priorities: RB Derrek Cooper (Chaminade) and OG Canon Pickett (Tampa). They are +1 players, meaning they will always have a spot.

- Miami's new DC Corey Hetherman is bringing a fresh approach to LB recruiting, and his focus is on traits and physicality. He wants long and fast players he can mold. One name that checks those boxes is local four-star Adam Balogoun-Ali (Cardinal Newman). He has strong testing (basketball and track background) and clear upside. He visited this weekend and is a priority.

- Another freaky athlete is Top 100 EDGE Jaquez Wilkes (Wadley, AL). Even though he is from small-town Alabama, he is very open to leaving the state and visited this past weekend with his parents. The Canes are a real player here.

- RB Tradarian Ball (Texarkana, TX) also had a good visit. While he is committed to Oregon and they remain the favorite, Miami is the top competition right now. The four-star speedster is also a +1 player.

- A 2027 QB that visited this weekend and is a name to watch: Top 10 QB Trent Seaborn (Birmingham, AL). He and Peyton Houston (Shreveport, LA) are the main targets for next year.

- In 2028, the big name is Neimann Lawrence (Northwestern). He also visited this weekend and has strong interest early in the process.

- One name Miami would love to flip- Michigan commit CB Brody Jennings (Mandarin). He has real interest.

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Comments (102)

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htownkidd

Wednesday at 12:41 PM

I would assume he meant both HS and Portal cause there’s no way he is talking solely HS, lol. Obviously if portal then yes QB goes to Mario with the soon to be #1 pick outweighing everything by a mile but by the same token, there’s no way DE is equivalent due to Phillips + Rousseau.

cway313

Wednesday at 12:50 PM

htownkidd said:
I would assume he meant both HS and Portal cause there’s no way he is talking solely HS, lol. Obviously if portal then yes QB goes to Mario with the soon to be #1 pick outweighing everything by a mile but by the same token, there’s no way DE is equivalent due to Phillips + Rousseau.

Saying WR is better, fresh off another season where 3/4 top WRs were Manny recruits is equally impressive.

A
Alex_Dynamix

Wednesday at 12:56 PM

TRick72 said:
Are we talking HS recruiting here? Because if so as of NOW both of them have sucked *** at recruiting HS QBs and I would actually give the nod to Manny there as TVD was atleast playable one year unlike Mario’s HS QBs

Nickel & Coleman should turn the Tide for HS moving forward 2 exciting talents w/ crazy upside especially Coleman(if he sticks).

A
Alex_Dynamix

Wednesday at 12:59 PM

The Overall talent level has been better then the Manny Days but coaching em up and actually extracting the potential from all these blue chip players we're currently bringing in, Well thats another story..

3
305407cane

Wednesday at 1:17 PM

Manny never had the support that Mario had but that’s a part of the game too. Mario has garnered the support. Manny couldn’t. Mario needs to get to 10 wins yearly and get us back to being respectable.

grover

Wednesday at 1:21 PM

TRick72 said:
Are we talking HS recruiting here? Because if so as of NOW both of them have sucked *** at recruiting HS QBs and I would actually give the nod to Manny there as TVD was atleast playable one year unlike Mario’s HS QBs

I am talking starting talent and depth of talent, regardless of source.

grover

Wednesday at 1:25 PM

htownkidd said:
I would assume he meant both HS and Portal cause there’s no way he is talking solely HS, lol. Obviously if portal then yes QB goes to Mario with the soon to be #1 pick outweighing everything by a mile but by the same token, there’s no way DE is equivalent due to Phillips + Rousseau.

Phillips and Rousseau didn't play together, though. In fact, Rousseau really only had half a real season with us. And I just cannot get that UNC game out of my head enough to say Manny's DEs were any better on the field than Mario's. Heck, even our CBs played like trash the last couple of Manny years, and they were overall much more talented. Of course, nothing in the 4 decades I've actively followed the Canes prepared me for 2024 DB play.

htownkidd

Wednesday at 1:27 PM

grover said:
Phillips and Rousseau didn't play together, though. In fact, Rousseau really only had half a real season with us. And I just cannot get that UNC game out of my head enough to say Manny's DEs were any better on the field than Mario's. Heck, even our CBs played like trash the last couple of Manny years, and they were overall much more talented. Of course, nothing in the 4 decades I've actively followed the Canes prepared me for 2024 DB play.

Don’t give a **** if they played together or not, that wasn’t my point when I said Phillips + Rousseau. They both were Manny guys, that’s all that matters for this discussion.

grover

Wednesday at 1:30 PM

htownkidd said:
Don’t give a **** if they played together or not, that wasn’t my point when I said Phillips + Rousseau. They both were Manny guys, that’s all that matters for this discussion.

So we're talking across each other. Because all I care about is are we getting to the playoffs, and I'm comparing Manny to Mario field performance by position group. Manny didn't field great DE play consistently.

JHallCanes

Wednesday at 1:34 PM

cway313 said:
Manny had 2 1st round DEs but ssomehow that is roughly equivalent to the 0 guys Mario had drafted. The best way to prop Mario up is to post stupid **** about Manny. When we stop comparing our current situation to dog **** we are truly byke.

I’m old enough to remember the days when our recruiting budget consisted of cookie cakes

htownkidd

Wednesday at 1:35 PM

grover said:
So we're talking across each other. Because all I care about is are we getting to the playoffs, and I'm comparing Manny to Mario field performance by position group. Manny didn't field great DE play consistently.

Boy ya’ll will talk yourselves out of a 3some w/ some hookers, lol. You got it.

2
24/7canes

Wednesday at 1:46 PM

Hurracanes said:
Fair assessment and I agree. With the amount of $ pumped into the program, he needs to win championships, plain and simple. No other coach in UM history has had this much resources. Hence, my frustration with the lack of talent and development in certain rooms, on defense in particular. In reality, miami should be competing with Texas, Oregon and OSU’s of the world in year 4 talent wise. All those schools are doing it in HS recruiting and the portal.

No other coach in his first year in UM history went to the kitchen and opened the cabinets and said aww fck let's see ramen, PBJ or Mac and cheese. Thats not going to get you a Michelin star. I mean year 1 and 2 were toss aways. were getting there. ***** about to hit the fan with recruits. everyones going to chit there pants when they go public. Fire works.

TRick72

Wednesday at 1:53 PM

grover said:
So we're talking across each other. Because all I care about is are we getting to the playoffs, and I'm comparing Manny to Mario field performance by position group. Manny didn't field great DE play consistently.

Kn[]_[]ckles3o5

Wednesday at 2:46 PM

Alex_Dynamix said:
Nickel & Coleman should turn the Tide for HS moving forward 2 exciting talents w/ crazy upside especially Coleman(if he sticks).

Consistent winning and Neimann Lawrence will turn the tide. We need to not have a sub ten win season for the next 3 seasons, get at least one Acc title, and at least one nice playoff run. Land Lawrence in 2027 and we will have a top 3 class easy. This will establish Miami as a top ten program in the country from there on out unless we run out of NIL funding.

A
Alex_Dynamix

Wednesday at 2:56 PM

Kn[]_[]ckles3o5 said:
Consistent winning and Neimann Lawrence will turn the tide. We need to not have a sub ten win season for the next 3 seasons, get at least one Acc title, and at least one nice playoff run. Land Lawrence in 2027 and we will have a top 3 class easy. This will establish Miami as a top ten program in the country from there on out unless we run out of NIL funding.

Yeah hopefully by the time that Kid takes over here we'll be humming n already winning consistently, who knows he could even be our Trevor Lawrence I mean they're already calling him "Generational"

Hegemon

Wednesday at 3:35 PM

Lol ohh boy we suck again

Lol

jrock2332

Wednesday at 11:01 PM

Hurracanes said:
Fair assessment and I agree. With the amount of $ pumped into the program, he needs to win championships, plain and simple. No other coach in UM history has had this much resources. Hence, my frustration with the lack of talent and development in certain rooms, on defense in particular. In reality, miami should be competing with Texas, Oregon and OSU’s of the world in year 4 talent wise. All those schools are doing it in HS recruiting and the portal.

I agree with you to a degree. I think nil is and will continue to be a game changer. Pay to play my friend. If we can get a dline that is as dominate as our oline I think we will take the next step as a contender. Also if we hit on nickel I think we are in a good spot. We need to start getting day one and day two NFL draft plays like we use to when I was at UM. I think we are on the right path I really like the coaching staff and overall I like our talent. If we can have a wr become a number one then we can go far if you ask me.

OptimusCreampie

Wednesday at 11:14 PM

Jude Jettson said:
Youre smoking crack if you don’t think this Oline is significantly better than Diaz. I watched Diaz Olines get driven off the ball by Boston College for Christ sakes

Without name dropping, having “tweener” players that were awful at de, lb and safety.

Gocanes78

Thursday at 12:03 AM

grover said:
Upgrades since Manny -- Offence: QB, WR, OL, RB. Defense: LB (marginal so far)
Better under Manny -- Offense: n/a, Defense: CB, S
Roughly equivalent under Manny: Offense: TE, Defense: DE, DT

We've recruited higher ranked athletes from high school far and away better under Mario. So far, that hasn't translated at DT or even DE outside of Bain 2023. For all their issues, Kiko and Wes were still better than Flagg and Steed, but nowhere near Miami standard.

Manny's defense got worse over time. On paper, Mario's defenses are getting better over time. But not on the field. There really wasn't one good position group on the defense last season. 2025 is really a pivotal year, Hetherman needs to put it all together.

Manny’s defenses were good with Golden's recruits. Once those guys left the program things went down hill.

FrancisSawyer

Thursday at 2:59 AM

24/7canes said:
No other coach in his first year in UM history went to the kitchen and opened the cabinets and said aww fck let's see ramen, PBJ or Mac and cheese. Thats not going to get you a Michelin star. I mean year 1 and 2 were toss aways. were getting there. ***** about to hit the fan with recruits. everyones going to chit there pants when they go public. Fire works.

What exactly are you talking about?