Mario Cristobal is searching all over the country for a top quarterback in the Class of 2023.
Over the last week, a pair of signal-callers have made their way to campus and neither left with an offer. That signals that Cristobal still feels pretty good about his chances to land an elite arm at this stage of the process.
One name that InsideTheU and 247Sports have kept an eye on over the past few weeks is Pittsburg (Cali.) five-star
Jaden Rashada, who completed 57 percent of his passes for 2220 yards with 27 touchdowns to five interceptions as a junior.
He’s high on the Hurricanes and what Cristobal, Josh Gattis, and Frank Ponce are doing in Coral Gables.
“Everything has been going real good to be honest,” Rashada told InsideTheU when reached by phone Monday. “Coach Cristobal, Coach Gattis, Coach Ponce, really there’s not a single coach on that staff that hasn’t shown me love. It’s been crazy. It’s been pretty good having that opportunity.”
One thing the nation’s No. 5 ranked quarterback has taken away from his conversations with Miami’s staff is their authenticity.
“Really they’re just being authentic. Just letting me know opportunity is there and they’re trying to get this thing back to where it should be and back to where it did start,” Rashada said.
Rashada knows plenty about Cristobal from his time at Oregon. The two spoke plenty while Cristobal was leading the Pac-12 program.
“Me and Coach Cristobal been cool. Since he’s been at Miami we’ve got even cooler. You can tell he’s a family guy. You can tell he has a personal way of coaching. I can tell that I’m going to get his best and when you get a coaches best, it pushes you to do your best as well,” Rashada said.
Of Miami’s offense, the Polynesian Bowl commit knows that it will be very personnel generated. That lines up with what Gattis told the media last week during his post-practice press conference.
“They’re saying they call the offense to their players and quarterback especially. If they have a trigger, they’re going to pull it a lot,” Rashada said.
People out West have indicated that staying close to home could be a factor for the nation’s No. 5 quarterback. Rashada would push back on that.
“I personally think that Miami is the closest thing to California. But staying home isn’t a factor to me. It’s nothing I have to do. I’m not one of those kids who can’t leave home,” Rashada said.
As far as a commitment goes, Rashada could hold out until the summer months at the latest.
“I’m just going to make whatever decision is best for me. These upcoming visits will be important to me. I got to figure out where. I want to make a decision by June. If you saw my tweet the other day, I’m just going to go wherever I’m valued the most and whoever shows the most love. I won’t speak too much about the other schools, but I will say Miami is one of the schools that have been showing me a lot of value and love and I plan on getting down there.”
