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2025 J’Vari "Jrock" Flowers 4* CB from Northwestern

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grover said:
@TheOriginalCane , I realize this is all speculation at this point. But do you believe that if Ward were already signed (and maybe Martinez since the RB room was a mess at the time, too), Smith would be a Cane?

Also, if Taint countered at a higher amount, were we willing to follow? Several of us thought he was a generational type WR at the time. But that wasn't universal, there were naysayers. Were we all in?
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On your question, I lean to "Yes", and I'll explain.

One thing that Jeremiah Smith did NOT like about UM was Dennis Smith. And that issue didn't change in 2023 (i.e., we didn't replace Dennis until 2024/2025). So Jeremiah would have needed to overcome that issue to pick UM.

As for Cam, let's roll the tape back. The Portal opened on December 9, 2023. Will Howard visited on December 11. Cam Ward visited on December 12. National Signing Day(s) started on December 20, but Jeremiah signed a blank piece of paper, and did not actually sign with Taint until December 21. Will Howard did not commit to Taint until January 4.

So if you look at the timeline, I believe that the combination of "Miami picked Cam over Will Howard, Miami thinks Cam is superior" and a commitment by Cam AND the lack of a Taint commitment from Will Howard until January...may have provided enough confidence and incentive for Jeremiah to choose Miami, in spite of the family not liking Dennis Smith.

As for Taint's counter-offer, they upped the money significantly on the night before Signing Day, and "promised" to eventually put it in writing, but "failed" to do so by Signing Day. Which is why Jeremiah signed the blank sheet of paper during his ceremony. That set off a scramble on Miami's side, who definitely were willing to put the offer in writing. I would assume we increased the offer, but I cannot confirm by how much, I have no idea if we matched Taint's $$$ offer to the penny. ****, we should have offered double what Taint offered. I just don't know about how much more Miami may have offered on December 20.

And I think that IF we had Cam committed at that point, and with the silly games that Taint played, I think we had a very good shot at the late flip. We may never know for sure, and I know that some of the "we never had a shot" mopers will be adamant that we never had a shot.

If you read between the lines about some of the things I was saying about Dennis Smith back in December 2024, you would be able to figure out that Dennis liked to yell at recruits when the NIL figure went up. Cost us two recruits and almost a third in the most recent cycle. So I can only imagine that Jeremiah might have been treated similarly, no matter what his talent level is. Unfortunate, for sure.
 
TheOriginalCane said:
On your question, I lean to "Yes", and I'll explain.

One thing that Jeremiah Smith did NOT like about UM was Dennis Smith. And that issue didn't change in 2023 (i.e., we didn't replace Dennis until 2024/2025). So Jeremiah would have needed to overcome that issue to pick UM.

As for Cam, let's roll the tape back. The Portal opened on December 9, 2023. Will Howard visited on December 11. Cam Ward visited on December 12. National Signing Day(s) started on December 20, but Jeremiah signed a blank piece of paper, and did not actually sign with Taint until December 21. Will Howard did not commit to Taint until January 4.

So if you look at the timeline, I believe that the combination of "Miami picked Cam over Will Howard, Miami thinks Cam is superior" and a commitment by Cam AND the lack of a Taint commitment from Will Howard until January...may have provided enough confidence and incentive for Jeremiah to choose Miami, in spite of the family not liking Dennis Smith.

As for Taint's counter-offer, they upped the money significantly on the night before Signing Day, and "promised" to eventually put it in writing, but "failed" to do so by Signing Day. Which is why Jeremiah signed the blank sheet of paper during his ceremony. That set off a scramble on Miami's side, who definitely were willing to put the offer in writing. I would assume we increased the offer, but I cannot confirm by how much, I have no idea if we matched Taint's $$$ offer to the penny. ****, we should have offered double what Taint offered. I just don't know about how much more Miami may have offered on December 20.

And I think that IF we had Cam committed at that point, and with the silly games that Taint played, I think we had a very good shot at the late flip. We may never know for sure, and I know that some of the "we never had a shot" mopers will be adamant that we never had a shot.

If you read between the lines about some of the things I was saying about Dennis Smith back in December 2024, you would be able to figure out that Dennis liked to yell at recruits when the NIL figure went up. Cost us two recruits and almost a third in the most recent cycle. So I can only imagine that Jeremiah might have been treated similarly, no matter what his talent level is. Unfortunate, for sure.
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Man, D. Smiff is approaching Nevin Shapiro level hate for me.
 
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TheOriginalCane said:
From a mental standpoint, yes. At the time of his HS recruitment, our position coach vs. theirs? Sure.

But if Taint had not upped the offer the night before, and then put it IN WRITING after he fake-signed his fake LoI, then he would have ended up on Miami. Lots of drama on Signing Day. I still have the texts that flew between a bunch of folks.
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Yep, this is facts.
 
305 MOUNTAIN MAN said:
What are going to do with Bryce Fitzgerald?
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It’s a good problem to have imo. Bryce is one of those kids who was making plays for 4 years down here… if he went elsewhere and became a star we’d never hear the end of it.

Better to have him come here and try multiple positions (Robby Washington) then to never have tried it in the first place.
 
TheOriginalCane said:
On your question, I lean to "Yes", and I'll explain.

One thing that Jeremiah Smith did NOT like about UM was Dennis Smith. And that issue didn't change in 2023 (i.e., we didn't replace Dennis until 2024/2025). So Jeremiah would have needed to overcome that issue to pick UM.

As for Cam, let's roll the tape back. The Portal opened on December 9, 2023. Will Howard visited on December 11. Cam Ward visited on December 12. National Signing Day(s) started on December 20, but Jeremiah signed a blank piece of paper, and did not actually sign with Taint until December 21. Will Howard did not commit to Taint until January 4.

So if you look at the timeline, I believe that the combination of "Miami picked Cam over Will Howard, Miami thinks Cam is superior" and a commitment by Cam AND the lack of a Taint commitment from Will Howard until January...may have provided enough confidence and incentive for Jeremiah to choose Miami, in spite of the family not liking Dennis Smith.

As for Taint's counter-offer, they upped the money significantly on the night before Signing Day, and "promised" to eventually put it in writing, but "failed" to do so by Signing Day. Which is why Jeremiah signed the blank sheet of paper during his ceremony. That set off a scramble on Miami's side, who definitely were willing to put the offer in writing. I would assume we increased the offer, but I cannot confirm by how much, I have no idea if we matched Taint's $$$ offer to the penny. ****, we should have offered double what Taint offered. I just don't know about how much more Miami may have offered on December 20.

And I think that IF we had Cam committed at that point, and with the silly games that Taint played, I think we had a very good shot at the late flip. We may never know for sure, and I know that some of the "we never had a shot" mopers will be adamant that we never had a shot.

If you read between the lines about some of the things I was saying about Dennis Smith back in December 2024, you would be able to figure out that Dennis liked to yell at recruits when the NIL figure went up. Cost us two recruits and almost a third in the most recent cycle. So I can only imagine that Jeremiah might have been treated similarly, no matter what his talent level is. Unfortunate, for sure.
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Super appreciate the insight. I'll admit I didn't understand the hints people were dropping about Dennis Smith, that's embarrassingly unprofessional. Feels like the whole operation has made progress every year since Mario took over, and we now have the staff and culture where amateur hour mistakes won't be made.
 
305 MOUNTAIN MAN said:
What are going to do with Bryce Fitzgerald?
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We have them go head to head in practice and finally have some competition in the return game. As far as defense goes, Fitzgerald is a S and Flowers a CB, so different positions. We need both S and WR depth, so he's super important regardless.
 
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TheOriginalCane said:
On your question, I lean to "Yes", and I'll explain.

One thing that Jeremiah Smith did NOT like about UM was Dennis Smith. And that issue didn't change in 2023 (i.e., we didn't replace Dennis until 2024/2025). So Jeremiah would have needed to overcome that issue to pick UM.

As for Cam, let's roll the tape back. The Portal opened on December 9, 2023. Will Howard visited on December 11. Cam Ward visited on December 12. National Signing Day(s) started on December 20, but Jeremiah signed a blank piece of paper, and did not actually sign with Taint until December 21. Will Howard did not commit to Taint until January 4.

So if you look at the timeline, I believe that the combination of "Miami picked Cam over Will Howard, Miami thinks Cam is superior" and a commitment by Cam AND the lack of a Taint commitment from Will Howard until January...may have provided enough confidence and incentive for Jeremiah to choose Miami, in spite of the family not liking Dennis Smith.

As for Taint's counter-offer, they upped the money significantly on the night before Signing Day, and "promised" to eventually put it in writing, but "failed" to do so by Signing Day. Which is why Jeremiah signed the blank sheet of paper during his ceremony. That set off a scramble on Miami's side, who definitely were willing to put the offer in writing. I would assume we increased the offer, but I cannot confirm by how much, I have no idea if we matched Taint's $$$ offer to the penny. ****, we should have offered double what Taint offered. I just don't know about how much more Miami may have offered on December 20.

And I think that IF we had Cam committed at that point, and with the silly games that Taint played, I think we had a very good shot at the late flip. We may never know for sure, and I know that some of the "we never had a shot" mopers will be adamant that we never had a shot.

If you read between the lines about some of the things I was saying about Dennis Smith back in December 2024, you would be able to figure out that Dennis liked to yell at recruits when the NIL figure went up. Cost us two recruits and almost a third in the most recent cycle. So I can only imagine that Jeremiah might have been treated similarly, no matter what his talent level is. Unfortunate, for sure.
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What exactly did he not like about Dennis Smith?
 
grover said:
We have them go head to head in practice and finally have some competition in the return game. As far as defense goes, Fitzgerald is a S and Flowers a CB, so different positions. We need both S and WR depth, so he's super important regardless.
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With Chris Ewald now playing S, I think Fitzgerald plays CB and Flowers plays Nickel. This secondary needs the speed and athleticism that Flowers and Fitzgerald play with. Miami desperately needs to get back to having multiple guys in the secondary that can take a pick to the house at any moment.
 
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Cookie917 said:
I forget who it was but it was a good poster on the board said Smith was the type to hold a grudge, like when a visit he was on to UM leaked and he posted how he would NEVER go back to miami that poster joked he had some stubbornness in him and it might be true.

While Cam would have helped no doubt I doubt it would have made him change. No one knew what Cam was about to do on the Canes, he was still a lil bit of an unknown especially for a 18 year old kid who likely never heard of em before that year. I think taint upped the bag the night before, possibly as a ploy to not let Miami have enough time to counter, Smith said sweet, put it in writing, they dragged their feet and he didnt sign holding em hostage. If they never put it in writing I then could see his rumored stubbornness coming out and concluding if they are so against putting it in writing they aint serious about me and then come to Miami out of spite. Once they put it in writing later that day though I think thats all he needed, even if we matched.

As for Jrock, I am not ready to think Mario concedes this to UF of all places. He likely ran up more than he wanted to with Rashada solely because it was up against uf. His whole fist pounding the podium after winning the state shows he takes it personally. If it was Auburn paying an insane amount, Mario may walk, against UF though? He aint gonna back down.
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Bruh cmon with the whole he held a grudge thing man lol. That’s some cope type of sh and an excuse. Why is there always a magical story about how a kid went somewhere else because he stepped on bubble gum on Miamis campus?

Not saying you said that OP, but dead *** how ridiculous does that sound?
 
Dwinstitles said:
Bruh cmon with the whole he held a grudge thing man lol. That’s some cope type of sh and an excuse. Why is there always a magical story about how a kid went somewhere else because he stepped on bubble gum on Miamis campus?

Not saying you said that OP, but dead *** how ridiculous does that sound?
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Facts. If someone has to nit pick that hard to justify not choosing your school then they simply don't wanna be here. Now at the final hour I'm sure MC pulled out all the stops and the final NIL offer came in heavy which is why there was last minute drama, but he ultimately chose where he always wanted to be.
 
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grover said:
We have them go head to head in practice and finally have some competition in the return game. As far as defense goes, Fitzgerald is a S and Flowers a CB, so different positions. We need both S and WR depth, so he's super important regardless.
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Unless they changed their mind Mario said Fitzgerald is a cb
 
252cane said:
Unless they changed their mind Mario said Fitzgerald is a cb
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Okay, thanks. I read about the Ewald move to Safety. Didn't realize they'd moved Fitzgerald to CB. I guess that makes sense given his athletic profile and that he still needs to learn to love contact.
 
Damiencane86 said:
Facts. If someone has to nit pick that hard to justify not choosing your school then they simply don't wanna be here. Now at the final hour I'm sure MC pulled out all the stops and the final NIL offer came in heavy which is why there was last minute drama, but he ultimately chose where he always wanted to be.
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He got offered more that’s it plain and simple. If OSU really really really wants someone they will beat us for him. They got more money period. If we get one from them they drew back and said it wasn’t worth what we gave. We are second fiddle to them. Anyone saying otherwise is capping
 
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