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2019 Chaminade-Madonna CB Te'Cory Couch committed to the Canes on Saturday afternoon after decommitting from Michigan the weekend before.
The 5-10, 150-pounder is currently a 4-star in the national rankings. According to the 247Sports Composite, Couch is the #204 player nationally, #15 ATH in the country, and the #30 player in the Sunshine State. His commitment moves Miami’s class ranking to #8 overall on 247Sports and to #9 on Rivals.
The Player
Couch is that pesky corner that is constantly in his man’s hip-pocket and is hard to separate from. He has great quickness, and has necessary hip-flip to recover from mistakes in press and lapses in coverage in space. He shows an ability on tape to play both on the outside and inside the slot and I like his technique to mirror and match in press coverage. While being a consistent presence on the outside could prove challenging from him at the next-level, Couch has the attributes to develop into a blanket in coverage in the slot at Miami.
People worry about Couch’s slight size, and that’s a valid concern with his slim build. But his length is off the charts, which is a quality that Manny Diaz is on record saying he believes is more important than size at corner. Couch has also more than performed against elite competition at camps over the off-season. I saw him in-person at the Under Armour Miami camp back in March and he was one of my top performers, while Couch even earned an invite to the Under Amour Game as well.
The Class
Couch's commitment brings the total class numbers to 15, and he is the Canes third take at cornerback, joining Lake Brantley (FL) 3-star Damarius Good and Carol City (FL) 3-star Jarvis Brownlee, and fourth take at DB, along with teammate Chaminade-Madonna (FL) 4-star safety Keontra Smith. A personal opinion of mine is that not all three current corners in Miami’s class will end up signing with the Canes. I told Couch’s commitment story in multiple threads from last week (here and here), so I’ll skip that and focus on the DB board from here.
A source tells CIS that the top priorities at DB will in fact be Palm Beach Central (FL) 5-star Akeem Dent, Southridge (FL) 4-star Tyrique Stevenson, and Wellington (FL) 4-star Mark-Antony Richards and that the Canes will find a spot for them in this class no matter what. I’ve also heard that St. Thomas Aquinas (FL) 4-star Jordan Battle is pushing to join this tier as well.
As for the current chatter on these four, I don’t believe Dent has serious interest in UM and don’t see him coming to Miami whatsoever, but Miami continues to treat him like a priority, so I’ll keep mentioning him. I detailed this in a thread two weeks back, but I believe Georgia should be considered the front-runner for Stevenson at this time. He is also coming off a four day visit to Athens this past weekend. This is very close though, and Stevenson could easily still choose Miami. The Canes are still in a very good spot with Richards, and he was on campus two weekends back for the 7-on-7 camps. This will be a recruitment that will go to the very end, though, as Richards maintains he wants to give schools like Auburn and Florida a fair shot.
Battle just visited UM on an official visit this weekend and things went well. He’ll give Ohio State an official this coming weekend as well, and his choice will come down to UM vs. OSU in the end. I also expect a summer decision from Battle. OSU has long been considered Battle’s leader since they offered, but some interesting things I’ve heard lately about this recruitment was that the Buckeyes put Battle on the back burner for the past two or so months in anticipation that they would land a commitment from DeMatha (MD) 4-star safety Nick Cross, something that has not come to fruition. This has opened the door for Miami a bit. OSU has now picked back up constant contact and are pitching the idea of playing corner to Battle, something he is intrigued by. We’ll know more about the situation after Battle takes his OSU official and starts comparing and contrasting the two schools in-lieu of a decision.
Further down Miami’s board is CB/S University School (FL) 4-star Josh Sanguinetti, who has had a rough off-season and took a tumble in UM’s eyes in the past few months. Miami is still in contact though, and his close friendship with 4-star teammate and Miami legacy RB Kenny McIntosh could be the deciding factor that gets him into this class if he decides he wants in.
Someone to keep an eye on is Spalding (GA) 4-star Zion Puckett, who received an offer last month at corner and recently put Miami in his top 10. We’ve heard he’s really risen up UM’s board lately and the staff loves his potential. The Canes are trying to get back into the game with The Benjamin School (FL) 4-star Kaiir Elam, but the Gators are thought to lead here. Miami loves Arizona Western C.C. (AZ) 4-star Elijah Blades' talent, but are not sure if he'll fit in attitude-wise.
Some interesting things I’ve heard on Kathleen (FL) 4-star Brendan Gant is that he is not a lock to be taken by presumed leader FSU, as they are filling up at DB right now and have a few others ahead of him on their board. If Miami misses on some of their other top targets, they could push here and really make things interesting.
The Team
By 2019, Miami will lose established starter Michael Jackson, as well as Jhavonte Dean, to graduation; only Trajan Bandy, Gilbert Frierson, DJ Ivey, Al Blades Jr., and Nigel Bethel are returnees at corner. Miami is hoping Frierson and Ivey have developed enough by then to handle full-time starting roles, with Bandy manning the slot and holding it down in nickel packages.
While that has the potential to be a more than solid top 3, Blades Jr. and Bethel just arrived on campus and have shown nothing yet and Frierson or Blades Jr. may also end up moving to safety, so Miami will hope to build more depth at this spot. There will be immediate playing time available for Couch if he comes in and shows he can handle the college game both physically and mentally, although at 150 pounds going into his senior year of high school, a redshirt has to be considered a legitimate possibility as of now. I can see Couch playing a lot of slot/nickel in his second year, and learning the ropes from a senior Bandy; he even has the potential to help out on special teams. By his third season, Bandy will be gone and Couch could very well be UM’s go-to option for coverage in the slot.
The 5-10, 150-pounder is currently a 4-star in the national rankings. According to the 247Sports Composite, Couch is the #204 player nationally, #15 ATH in the country, and the #30 player in the Sunshine State. His commitment moves Miami’s class ranking to #8 overall on 247Sports and to #9 on Rivals.
The Player
Couch is that pesky corner that is constantly in his man’s hip-pocket and is hard to separate from. He has great quickness, and has necessary hip-flip to recover from mistakes in press and lapses in coverage in space. He shows an ability on tape to play both on the outside and inside the slot and I like his technique to mirror and match in press coverage. While being a consistent presence on the outside could prove challenging from him at the next-level, Couch has the attributes to develop into a blanket in coverage in the slot at Miami.
People worry about Couch’s slight size, and that’s a valid concern with his slim build. But his length is off the charts, which is a quality that Manny Diaz is on record saying he believes is more important than size at corner. Couch has also more than performed against elite competition at camps over the off-season. I saw him in-person at the Under Armour Miami camp back in March and he was one of my top performers, while Couch even earned an invite to the Under Amour Game as well.
The Class
Couch's commitment brings the total class numbers to 15, and he is the Canes third take at cornerback, joining Lake Brantley (FL) 3-star Damarius Good and Carol City (FL) 3-star Jarvis Brownlee, and fourth take at DB, along with teammate Chaminade-Madonna (FL) 4-star safety Keontra Smith. A personal opinion of mine is that not all three current corners in Miami’s class will end up signing with the Canes. I told Couch’s commitment story in multiple threads from last week (here and here), so I’ll skip that and focus on the DB board from here.
A source tells CIS that the top priorities at DB will in fact be Palm Beach Central (FL) 5-star Akeem Dent, Southridge (FL) 4-star Tyrique Stevenson, and Wellington (FL) 4-star Mark-Antony Richards and that the Canes will find a spot for them in this class no matter what. I’ve also heard that St. Thomas Aquinas (FL) 4-star Jordan Battle is pushing to join this tier as well.
As for the current chatter on these four, I don’t believe Dent has serious interest in UM and don’t see him coming to Miami whatsoever, but Miami continues to treat him like a priority, so I’ll keep mentioning him. I detailed this in a thread two weeks back, but I believe Georgia should be considered the front-runner for Stevenson at this time. He is also coming off a four day visit to Athens this past weekend. This is very close though, and Stevenson could easily still choose Miami. The Canes are still in a very good spot with Richards, and he was on campus two weekends back for the 7-on-7 camps. This will be a recruitment that will go to the very end, though, as Richards maintains he wants to give schools like Auburn and Florida a fair shot.
Battle just visited UM on an official visit this weekend and things went well. He’ll give Ohio State an official this coming weekend as well, and his choice will come down to UM vs. OSU in the end. I also expect a summer decision from Battle. OSU has long been considered Battle’s leader since they offered, but some interesting things I’ve heard lately about this recruitment was that the Buckeyes put Battle on the back burner for the past two or so months in anticipation that they would land a commitment from DeMatha (MD) 4-star safety Nick Cross, something that has not come to fruition. This has opened the door for Miami a bit. OSU has now picked back up constant contact and are pitching the idea of playing corner to Battle, something he is intrigued by. We’ll know more about the situation after Battle takes his OSU official and starts comparing and contrasting the two schools in-lieu of a decision.
Further down Miami’s board is CB/S University School (FL) 4-star Josh Sanguinetti, who has had a rough off-season and took a tumble in UM’s eyes in the past few months. Miami is still in contact though, and his close friendship with 4-star teammate and Miami legacy RB Kenny McIntosh could be the deciding factor that gets him into this class if he decides he wants in.
Someone to keep an eye on is Spalding (GA) 4-star Zion Puckett, who received an offer last month at corner and recently put Miami in his top 10. We’ve heard he’s really risen up UM’s board lately and the staff loves his potential. The Canes are trying to get back into the game with The Benjamin School (FL) 4-star Kaiir Elam, but the Gators are thought to lead here. Miami loves Arizona Western C.C. (AZ) 4-star Elijah Blades' talent, but are not sure if he'll fit in attitude-wise.
Some interesting things I’ve heard on Kathleen (FL) 4-star Brendan Gant is that he is not a lock to be taken by presumed leader FSU, as they are filling up at DB right now and have a few others ahead of him on their board. If Miami misses on some of their other top targets, they could push here and really make things interesting.
The Team
By 2019, Miami will lose established starter Michael Jackson, as well as Jhavonte Dean, to graduation; only Trajan Bandy, Gilbert Frierson, DJ Ivey, Al Blades Jr., and Nigel Bethel are returnees at corner. Miami is hoping Frierson and Ivey have developed enough by then to handle full-time starting roles, with Bandy manning the slot and holding it down in nickel packages.
While that has the potential to be a more than solid top 3, Blades Jr. and Bethel just arrived on campus and have shown nothing yet and Frierson or Blades Jr. may also end up moving to safety, so Miami will hope to build more depth at this spot. There will be immediate playing time available for Couch if he comes in and shows he can handle the college game both physically and mentally, although at 150 pounds going into his senior year of high school, a redshirt has to be considered a legitimate possibility as of now. I can see Couch playing a lot of slot/nickel in his second year, and learning the ropes from a senior Bandy; he even has the potential to help out on special teams. By his third season, Bandy will be gone and Couch could very well be UM’s go-to option for coverage in the slot.
