R u saying both Erickson & Johnson didn’t get star studded players are after their first yr as coach?
They got a few, but on the whole, their first recruiting classes were mediocre and disappointing. I remember them, especially JJ's first class, very well. I wish I had a list of recruits available from JJ's 1985 class (his first) and DE's first class in 1990.
I remember during the 1990 recruiting season--which mainly took place in the month of January after the end of the season, with a signing date in early February. A lot of the top kids around the country--and we did recruit around the country, especially Texas and other places, although not so much the deep south--seemed to shy away from Miami. Now this is thirty years ago, but I remember hearing some rumblings about dirty recruiting namely lies about the Miami program, the longevity of coaches with the program, and other things. One of Max Emfinger's guys, Robert Williams had gone onto a new recruiting service, along with a guy named Burton and somebody else, also based in Texas. I remember talking to Robert and he told me some kids were afraid of not getting playing time. Don't forget, we had just beaten Alabama in the Sugar Bowl and won the NC.
That 1990 class, if I remember it correctly, included some guys like Dwayne Johnson, Warren Sapp. I don't remember all the others. Bob Karmelowicz, who was our DL coach, told me he didn't think we did particularly outstanding with WR. Just OK. Two of the guys I believe in that group were A.C. Tellison and Jonathan Harris. Bigger national names, but not really elite and just turned out to be journeymen in college. Bob himself found Willie Phillips, who was a reach at LB, and hardly ever played. We got some pretty good players in that group, but not too many. The exception was Sapp. I used to talk a lot to a group of guys in Miami whom you could say were "insiders." One guy used to volunteer regularly in the recruiting office; another used to sell equipment to the athletic department, a few others were bigshots in the Hurricane Club. They said I was the only one who did not like that 1990 class. I was right. I also remember, by the way, Dennis was stunned at what he said was the negative recruiting that was being done by other schools against Miami. He had not experienced anything like it in the Pacific Northewst where he spent his entire career. Southern recruiting could be savage.
Johnson's first class was replete with disappointments. I used to remember the names of the 85 and '86 recruiting classes, and they were filled with mediocrities. Only about a third of the recruits in those two classes turned out to servicable plqyers, in other words, guys who could contribute.
We suffered a huge loss at the last minute when explosive northern Virginia player Eric Metcalf, son of NFL star, Terry, chose Texas over us. Everyone was sure that it was money, something that was not assumed to be in play as much back then as it is now. Our AD, Sam Jankovich, was furious, and he called for an IRS investigation of unreported income resulting from these payouts to prospects. The IRS has never shown any interest in what must be millions and millions of unreported income to athletes and their families.
We got one of the fastest kids in the U.S. in that same class: Robert Thomas of Roosevelt HS in DC. Later on, he became a minor Olympic prospect. But he dumped football almost as fast as he got to UM. He and Metcalf were HS track rivals since they were both in Metropolitan Washington DC. That might have been the year Coach Hubbard Alexander lost a couple of kids from the Chicago area whom we were sure solid to us but instead, Bob Karmelowicz, who was then the DL at Illinois, stole them from us at the very last minute. One was Frank Hartley, I don't remember the other name.
I think that first year we got two kids from Edison, Greg Jones, a QB with a cannon arm but no great work ethic, and Basil Proctor. Both ended up transferring to WVU where Jones backed up Major Harris. We got Marcus Kinlaw, I think from Edison. Again, a nothing player. People think JJ was such a great recruiter. He got some good players his first two years, but not enough. He got Steve Walsh (Minn) and Bill Turkowski from Pittsburgh. So, we got an excellent QB for us for two years but he wasn't suited for the new offense brought in for'89 by DE. Turkowski tried to become a pitcher but ended up transferring back to UPitt to become a TE.
Johnson's recruiting improved every year and began to take off in '88 when he brought in Jessie Armstead and Darren Krein among others.
So, at least back then, those two coaches did not bring in outstanding classes in their first recruiting year. And both first recruiting seasons followed right after a NC season.