Miramar High All-American cornerback Tracy Howard was the big late addition for Miami on Wednesday, but he wasn’t the only sought-after recruit Al Golden reeled in after fax machines had already started sending over signed national letters of intent.

Lake City Columbia’s Dequan Ivery, a 6-1, 315-pound defensive tackle who was headed to Louisville, and West Boca Raton middle linebacker Jawand Blue (6-1, 210), who was committed to Virginia Tech, waited until the last minute to switch their final destinations to Coral Gables.

So how did the Canes get the two Rivals.com three-star recruits so late in the process? Ivery and Blue wanted to be Canes and play closer to home, their coaches said. Blue just needed a scholarship offer.

“I kept challenging the staff to find me another nose guard in this class or next class,” Golden said. “[Ivery] is on the strength team, over a 400-pound bencher already, has leverage, can bend. He wanted to be a Hurricane.

“Jawand is a late addition for us … not because of his talent but because of scholarships that were promised before we got to him. He communicated with us down the stretch. We’re grateful that he decided to join us. He’ll help us at linebacker.”

West Boca coach Willie Dodaro said Blue attended a UM camp in the summer but left without a scholarship offer. Dodaro said Virginia Tech was only offering Blue a greyshirt until after he visited Blacksburg, Va., two weeks ago and came home with an official offer. On Wednesday, after four-star linebacker Reggie Northrup of Jacksonville First Coast decommitted from UM and signed with Florida State, UM coaches called Blue and offered him a scholarship.

Ivery’s coach, former Florida State linebacker Brian Allen, said UM coaches didn’t begin recruiting his starting nose guard until December. Ivery, who was committed to Louisville since October, took a recruiting trip to UM two weekends ago and came home impressed.

“It really came down until Wednesday morning, until him and his mom got on the same page,” Allen said. “She wanted him to go to Louisville.”

Blue’s commitment caused controversy after his phone conversation with a disappointed Hokies assistant was overheard by a reporter who shared the coach’s comments on Twitter.

Hokies defensive line coach Charley Wiles was quoted as telling Blue: “You want to go to a program that wins bowl games, a clean program, that dominates in the ACC,” and used the phrase “you’ve got homeboys here” when trying to convince Blue that he should keep his commitment with the Hokies.

Dodaro said Thursday he was disappointed it became public. “Jawand was being a man, called to thank him for all they did in recruiting him, left him a nice message,” he said. “The coach was disappointed when he called back. He can be mad. I’m mad when kids transfer out of here and go to another school.”

Without naming Virginia Tech directly, Golden fired back Wednesday: “At times, [negative recruiting] can enter in the realm of vicious. I heard that happened today.” You give them enough rope, they hang themselves. Let them say all those nasty things. At the end of the day when you’re in the pressure cooker, how you react in front of recruits and their parents says a lot about you and the program. You lose kids, we wish them good luck.”