Class Impact: Denzel Daxon Exits

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Stefan Adams

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2019 Carol City (FL) DT Denzel Daxon decommitted from the Hurricanes on Sunday night/Monday morning.

The 6-1, 315-pounder is currently a consensus 3-star in the national rankings. Daxon is ranked #593 overall, the #40 DT prospect, and the #79 player in the Sunshine State. His decommitment moves Miami’s 2019 class down to #19 overall in 247Sports’ team rankings, while moving UM down to #20 overall on Rivals.


Background

Daxon had been on UM’s commit list since October 2017, but as we’ve been reporting for a few months now, the relationship between the parties has been deteriorating for quite some time. New D-Line coach Jess Simpson had barely been in contact with Daxon since he was hired in March, and contact completely fell off the last four months or so. Sources told CIS that Simpson saw Daxon as a “one trick pony”, referring to Daxon propensity to overly rely on his bull-rush, and Simpson did not feel he was technically advanced enough to keep in the class. Also, Daxon had not been showing up to many of Miami’s off-season events; sources told CIS that not showing up to Paradise Camp last weekend (he was invited) was his way of unofficially leaving the class after UM had barely been in contact for months.


Future of the Class


Daxon's decommitment brings the total class numbers to 16 and leaves the Canes with St. Thomas Aquinas (FL) 3-star Jason Munoz and Buford (GA) 3-star Jalar Holley at DT in Surge19. As a die-hard Cane, Munoz’s pledge seems like one of the most solid in the class and Holley just committed last weekend after Paradise Camp, so he is a firm pledge as well.

The Canes just signed 2 DT’s in a 2018 class where they could have easily taken 4, so DT has become a huge need in 2019. With two of Miami’s DT’s also set to graduate in 2018, taking three DT’s this cycle is almost necessary, with four not out of the question.

So who could be next to hop on board? At the top of the list would be St. Thomas Aquinas (FL) 4-star Braylen Ingraham, who is a bit of a swingman as a jumbo end/defensive tackle hybrid that will likely take the RJ McIntosh and Patrick Bethel route and grow into a defensive tackle at the next level. Manny Diaz and Jess Simpson love his potential as an interior guy and the staff is feeling good about their chances to eventually land Ingraham, who has named Miami his public leader multiple times. Alabama is also making a push here.

FSU commit and Lehigh Acres (FL) 4-star Quashon Fuller has probably flirted with Miami a lot, coming to campus multiple times during the off-season and showing up for "Miami Nights". The Canes will keep their foot on the gas with him and, with family in the Miami area, Fuller has a real chance of flipping to UM. However, after slow playing him for a few months, FSU has picked up their pursuit of Fuller again lately and it will be tough to pull him from Tallahassee. A source told CIS that a big deciding factor for Fuller will be how the season’s play out for the respective teams and that the D-Lineman wants to see if Willie Taggart can make some noise in the ACC this year. A similar down year for the Seminoles and another big year for Miami would likely get Fuller to flip.

American Heritage B/D (FL) 4-star Mike Morris is an FSU commit and legacy, but the talk with him is new head coach Willie Taggart is not pushing to keep Morris in the class and the parties’ relationship has been harmed because of this. However, Miami is also cooling on him and Morris is will likely choose the third school in his top 3, Michigan, very soon.

A recent offer just went out to Poly Prep (NY) 3-star Jason Blissett, who came down to Paradise Camp and impressed the coaching staff in-person to land the scholarship. With offers from schools like Texas A&M, Baylor, and Boston College on his resume, Blissett hasn’t been the most highly recruited prospect, but he also doesn’t get much visibility playing up in New York, which is not known for their football. Simpson has actually been evaluating him since the spring and fell in love with his game at Paradise Camp. You have to like that the staff is getting kids on campus and going after the ones they evaluate live.

Elsewhere, Largo (FL) 4-star Jaquaze Sorrells and Wekiva (FL) 4-star Tyler Davis had been high priorities for UM for a while. However, it seems contact with Sorrells has really fallen off lately and, although Davis made a summer visit, he feels destined for FSU at this time. I don’t expect either to end up at Miami barring a drastic change.
 
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Ummm...he's what 17? And 315 lbs? Isn't Simpson's job to teach him other tricks?

This. Also, Dont know why we arent keeping heat in Davis & Sorrels. Best DTs in state, grave need and we arent in it for them nor any top twenty DT in the nation. We are Miami!
 
So the Noles may end up with Hunter and Davis? Are they dropping bags too or do they have better recruiters on defense
 
So the Noles may end up with Hunter and Davis? Are they dropping bags too or do they have better recruiters on defense

Idk about overall better recruiters but as far as DL, O’dell Haggins vs Simpson.
I’ll let you answer that question lol. Downvote all you want, but it’s the truth.
Hunter shouldn’t be considered a commit to anyone though.
 
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So the Noles may end up with Hunter and Davis? Are they dropping bags too or do they have better recruiters on defense

They have maybe the best DL recruiter in the country. Dudes been pulling top notch DT’s for years
 
So the Noles may end up with Hunter and Davis? Are they dropping bags too or do they have better recruiters on defense

F$U has always recruited well. Typically top 5-7 class each year. This is nothing new for them. We will get Ingrham and maybe Fuller if he feels a certain way about FSU getting Davis and another top flight DT ahead of him.
 
Why hasn’t the staff pursued Morris and Davis more? Looked like for a second Miami was gonna steal Fuller and Morris from FSU. I’d take 4 DT’s this year with Tito and Willis gone and Martin being told to take a hike maybe. Take Munoz, Ingraham, Holley, Fuller/Blissett.
 
Once again our DT recruiting makes one wonder WTH is going on. We used to be known for having the baddest DT's in the country and now we are begging for 3 stars and giving up on 4 stars. It seems as if we are scared to offer a DT outside of the state of Florida...unless, it's apparently one from NY. The trenches are where the game is won and we ain't winning unless we can win the trenches.
 
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They have maybe the best DL recruiter in the country. Dudes been pulling top notch DT’s for years

I agree with you but imo we as Miami should have someone maybe not on the same level as Haggens but pretty close. Different subject for a different day though.
 
Oh don't get me wrong...We are going to nab Ingraham, and I like all 3. I just hope they have a real reason for this move, and if that's just Stefan's translation ok...But if he really he heard that w/regrad to Simpson and the one-trick pony...then man that's mind boggling
 
Defensive Line is an arms race...and Miami is currently outmanned and doesn't have the firepower to compete with the elites. Numbers and talent are lacking.

As I said in another thread...if the Canes end up with 4-5 interior DL players, I guess I'm fine with Daxon going elsewhere. But, if we end up with some pity number like three (say Ingraham, Munoz, Holley) its an incredible fail in an important year at the position.
 
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After we thrash LSU, I hope Ishmael Sopher takes a good look our way. We need to steal one out of Louisiana.
 
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Good if he wanted to prove to the coaches that he deserved an offer he would’ve came out to Paradise and got to work. We’ve already replaced him, Simpson got his eye on the prize and ain’t looking back.
 
Well I guess Coach Simpson doesn't adhere to that Miami philosophy of we take local 3* guys and coach them up over Out of state players.

Well hopefully Coach Simpson will only be a 2 to 3 year lease until Kevin Patrick's contract is up at NC State. Hopefully Coach Simpson proves me wrong an ends up being a comparable to coach Kool in coaching ability but a better recruiter.

Go Canes
 
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Yall keep getting mad if you want i want a commit who wants to constantly be around and competing. Sure Simpson doesn't love him as a prospect so what do you do? Come around and make him coach you so ge can see you're willing to listen and get better so you change his mind
 
Got to be more to this story than what is public. Doesn't add up. Maybe there's something behind the move from Doral to CC that gave them pause?

Holley and Ingraham are good adds, and I have to trust STA + Simpson/Diaz on Munoz. They glow about him, so I have to believe he will have a Rousseau/Garvin/Nesta type breakout senior year and we just haven't seen it yet. If that's true, then you got 3 solid DTs in the class. We still need one more. If not Daxon, who?

Blisset coming down and holding his own in front of Simpson may have done the trick for him. Just feels like we're trading across, at best, not trading up. We need an alpha in that group, and while it's certainly a B+, it's not an A/A- without a more marquis name.
 
Just to recap Coach Kool the best dline coach in college football hands down for the last decade thought Denzel Daxon was take and could be coached up. But Coach Simpson feels Daxon is not worth the effort of keeping him in the class an coaching him up, yeah okay! Oh and by the way Daxon is 0 or 1 tech all day who's main job is to be able to stand up double teams an collapse the pocket, which requires being relatively quick off the ball and being hellah strong both which he is.

You don't replace a 0-Tech with a 3-Tech, so in order to take Holley's commitment who is a natural 1-tech that can play the 3-tech spot Coach Simpson had to make room. Holley is very good but I am with Coach Kool in seeing Daxon as having a higher ceiling, it would have been nice to keep both players.

Go Canes
 
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