Recruiting Breakdown #3, Rueben Randle, and OC search.

One thing we forgot to mention was that all DB recruits get a shot at corner, then get moved to safety if they don't have the necessary skill set to make it. Of the necessary skill sets of speed, quickness, smarts, hips, and quick feet, hips is one of the most important.

Jamal Reid: 4 star athlete. One word. Wow. What position does he play? Better to ask what position he doesn't play. Wr/Db/Kr, kid literally does it all. He is slated to come in as a DB, but I see him having just as good a shot as succeeding there as he does at WR. He reminds me a lot of former Ohio State WR/DB Chris Gamble. He can play multiple positions and I see him contributing a lot on special teams his first year. He has very good hips, plays with a lot of speed and has very shifty moves in the open field.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgh5O4iEDS4

Brandon McGee: 4 star athlete. Out of Lauderhill, Florida, he's 5'11 186 lbs. He played primarily QB in highschool, but can play just about any skill position. He's slated to be a cornerback with the Canes. And good news on him, he's cleared by both the NCAA clearinghouse and UM admissions. He'll be able to come in right away and go through all 5 phases of strength and conditioning coach Swasey's program and hopefully build up enough muscle mass and padding to last the entire season like Sean Spence and Marcus Forston did this year, allowing him to contribute frequently and productively this upcoming year. He has quick hips and feet and after evaluating his film we see him contributing on special teams as a return specialist and quite possibly on the nickle or dime corner spot. This helps add to the much needed depth we need after the Larry Coker project. These highlights are from his sophomore year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tU0xGkKeiA

Bryce Brown: 5 star athlete. Here we save the best for last, both literally and figuratively. Bryce has hit the #1 player ranking on rivals.com and the #2 ranking on scout.com. His recruitment has been unique and full of twists and turns. Almost soap opera-ish, and hopefully the outcome is just as predictable as a soap opera and signs with us. He has a unique blend of speed and power. He was widely regarded as the best player at the Army-All American Highschool game. Literally, the only thing that can be nitpicked about his game is that he tends to carry the ball recklessly sometimes in the open field. A minor concern that will be corrected the second he steps foot on campus, wherever that may be. When you think of him, think of him in the same mold of Reggie Bush, but with more power.

Now we turn a bit more to his commitment status. He actually committed to Miami before his brother, and current sophomore linebacker Arthur Brown, committed. He said he fasted on the decision and prayed intensely. But as the season started, and I'm sure as whatever confidence he had in Nix began to fade, his commitment was becoming softer than Brett Favre around vicodin. As early as November he was saying things that indicated that Oregon was his favorite, but he still said he was committed to Miami. He even came down to watch fellow UM committed runningback Lamar Miller, discussing how they were going to bring Miami back and what the future holds. Even as recently as the Army All American game a little over 2 weeks ago he was recruiting for Miami. But things have hit the head since then. He has said Oregon leads, but that he still remains committed. Conflicting information, no? He and his mentor, Brian Butler, have opened up their own website that charges $10 a month to keep you abreast with his information and the latest info has said that he wont sign with anyone on NSD, but will prolong the decision. This is shades of Terrell Pryor last year with Ohio State. Here's to hoping he sticks, but a lot of it will hinge on the offensive coordinator.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW2EUbSFYyk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZRBHcktNl0

Now that we have brought up the offensive coordinator, we do know one thing: No one has been hired yet, but the target is to have a hiring done by the end of the week. The obvious reason is to give our new OC a chance to recruit and allow the current and future (if any) commits to familiarize themselves with him. Randy was rumored to be at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama where he was expected to start rapping up his hiring, but at 8:30 p.m. last night he was in Jacksonville, Fl recruiting Sam Barrington, a linebacker recruit who is down to us and Illinois (we'll have more on him during our next installment). He is then scheduled to be at Lamar Miller's house today, and then we assume he'd be heading to Mobile, at least. We'll have a breakdown of the candidates and issues surrounding that within the next 24 hours.

Onto the final chapter in this breakdown, Rueben Randle. 5 star athlete. He played QB this year for his highschool team, but this kid is clearly one of the best WR to come out of highschool the past 3-4 years. To put it on a comparative basis for everyone here, if you look at Julio Jones for Alabama and A.J. Green for Georgia, he is, at the very worst, just as good as they were coming out of highshcool.

Unfortunately it's bad news with Randle though, he's not coming to Miami. He had two coaches visit him last week, and this week none other than the CEO, Randy, went to his house. According to his brother, who is a rabid Cane fan, he has posted on several forums that due to some of the information they received Rueben will not be coming, not even at least visiting Miami. To put you at ease though the information that they allegedly received was not related to the OC search.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idDDVExEX4o&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqeZRLYbc4Y&feature=related

*** Breaking News ***

It's been reported by several sites that Oklahoma State is coming after Bill Young, our DC. This would complicate things and since Ok. State is backed by a rich oil baron, the pay offered right now is rumored to be 700k. Young has not accepted the job yet, but I'm sure we have to up his pay to help keep him here.