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Asante Samuel, Jr. recruitment
To fully comprehend the Asante Samuel, Jr. recruitment, I think it is important to turn back the clock and see how it got to this point. There have numerous posts on the board saying he’s “all Nole” or mentioning that FSU coach Willie Taggart visited him today, but from everything I’ve gathered in the last 24 hours, Samuel is definitely interested in Miami and things are trending in the Canes’ favor.
Remember that although Samuel, Jr. had FSU and Miami as his “top two” schools before he committed to the Noles, this current UM staff never prioritized the St. Thomas Aquinas cornerback and had their sights set elsewhere. Samuel was actually set to commit to the Al Golden staff at one point according to multiple sources, just to show the type of interest he had in the program. The only reason Samuel is not already a longstanding commit is because the Miami coaches had their board set since the beginning of the cycle with long, rangy defensive backs and Samuel was not necessarily a top target for them.
As they did last cycle with guys such as Mike Harley and Corey Gaynor, the staff continued to evaluate players through their senior season and Samuel was one they kept an extra close eye on. It also says a lot when at least three current Miami players and multiple defensive back commits have been pleading with the Miami defensive coaches to make a run Samuel because they want him on their team.
Coach Banda stopped by Samuel at school today and also did an in-home visit tonight. As I posted earlier on the board, a source very close to Samuel said “Stay tuned” when I asked how the school visit went. I spoke to that same person just after Samuel’s in-home with Banda and his response tonight was “He’s coming”.
Here is where it gets interesting, too. Based on the latest info, I do not foresee Miami waiting around for Josh Jobe to decide whether or not they take Samuel. The staff will continue to recruit Jobe and if he unexpectedly sticks, that does not mean Samuel’s spot is “gone”. Miami will have a spot for Tyson Campbell no matter what. Patrick Surtain would too, but the staff would much rather grab Samuel and not lose out on him because they waited around too long for another prospect who would still be a very tough pull.
Samuel will be taking his FSU visit this weekend and his Miami official will come in January, potentially along with Nesta Silvera, Andrew Chatfield, Campbell, and Surtain.
Latest on Josh Jobe situation
Miami will have three coaches (Diaz, Banda, Rumph) up there in Connecticut tomorrow to meet with Jobe as I reported last night. He will be in Alabama this weekend, but Jobe has informed UM coaches that he plans on visiting Coral Gables for his official visit in January, which is a change from last week when he was planning on signing early. That of course is subject to change because, as we’ve seen with this entire recruitment.
Mark Richt is strategically holding on to his in-home visit with Jobe because he wants the last shot to recruit him. I still expect Bama will be the spot, but this staff refuses to go down without swinging.
There is some uncertainty from Miami’s side about if Jobe is on track to qualify as well, which would be the ultimate wrench in this recruitment.
Official visits this weekend
Miami has planned for months to make this upcoming visit weekend the biggest in program history. Coaches have been able to coordinate and assemble a majority of the Storm 18 class for their official visits this weekend. This is not the normal group of visitors obviously because these guys are locked in, but coaches feel like it is such an important weekend because a large number of these prospects will be enrolling early – the staff feels like this is the sort of weekend that will get the group of early enrollees mentally ready to go come January.
These are the names that I’ve confirmed right now – all of which are commits. The ** next to their name indicates that they also plan on signing on December 20th.
RB
Lorenzo Lingard **
Camron Davis **
FB
Realus George **
WR
Mark Pope **
Daquris Wiggins **
Brian Hightower **
OL
John Campbell **
Delone Scaife **
Cleveland Reed **
TE
Brevin Jordan **
Will Mallory **
DE/OLB
Gregory Rousseau **
Patrick Joyner **
DB
Al Blades, Jr.
Gilbert Frierson **
Gurvan Hall **
DJ Ivey **
K Bubba Baxa **
LS Clay James
For the record, Blades, Jr. is not expected to sign early because St. Thomas Aquinas normally likes their prospects to do the signing day event at school.
Couple of predictions
I’ve posted updates on both JUCO DT Jared Goldwire and WR Marquez Ezzard over the last couple of days, that you can read here:
Goldwire - https://www.canesinsight.com/articles/dt-jared-goldwire-update/3956
Ezzard - https://www.canesinsight.com/articles/canes/3955
I just wanted to go on record as predicting that the Canes will land both of these guys.
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