Manny Diaz finds potential ace recruiter for Miami with last batch of coaching hires

The one major hole missing on Manny Diaz’s staff until Friday was the lockdown ace recruiter. The new coach filled his staff with coaches who have major upside as recruiters — running backs coach Eric Hickson is a Fort Lauderdale Dillard alumnus and well respected in South Florida; offensive line coach Butch Barry brings NFL experience to potentially compensate for his lack of a recruiting track record — but not many who have a reputation for luring four- and five-star prospects.

Diaz changed things with his final two hires last week. The coach hired Taylor Stubblefield to be the Miami Hurricanes’ wide receivers coach and, more importantly, plucked Stephen Field from the Louisville Cardinals to be Miami’s tight ends coach.

Although Field has never signed a recruit by himself, he’s the dominant recruiter Diaz’s staff needs.

For Field, his recruiting ability traces back to his roots. The tight ends coach is a West Palm Beach native and attended Palm Beach Lakes. Before he began coaching at the college ranks, Field made stops as an assistant coach at Deerfield Beach and Glades Central. After a few quick stops in college, Field came back to Florida to work as the head coach at Miami Northwestern, then at Citra North Marion.

In his three years with the Bulls, Field drew attention as Northwestern’s first white coach, but he quickly earned respect and helped 46 players earn scholarships. Not long after the Bulls made the hire, Luther Campbell, a former member of 2 Live Crew and Northwestern’s defensive coordinator at the time, explained what made Field a good fit in Miami.

When he made it back to the college ranks, Field established himself as one of the premier recruiting coordinators in the country. In 2017, Field worked as Louisville’s director of high school relations and helped the Cardinals sign four blue-chip prospects in the Class of 2018, two of whom came from South Florida. In total, Louisville signed nine players from South Florida, including three-star athlete Tutu Atwell, who was the Miami Herald’s Miami-Dade County player of the year for large schools. The year before, the Cardinals signed only two players from the Miami area.

Shortly after National Signing Day last year, Field left Kentucky to become the director of recruiting for the Oregon Ducks and coach Mario Cristobal, who also hails from South Florida. Field leaves Oregon with the Ducks’ Class of 2019 ranked No. 7 in the nation and No. 1 in the Pac-12 Conference, according to the 247Sports.com composite rankings. Twelve of Oregon’s 25 commitments are blue-chip prospects, including five-star defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux, the No. 1 overall prospect in the nation.

Even across the country, Field’s Florida ties were important. The 2019 recruiting class includes two players from Broward County in four-star outside linebacker Ge’Mon Eaford and three-star defensive Brandon Dorlus, both of whom played for the Bucks in the fall. Deerfield Beach, where Field used to coach, has historically been a tough pipeline for the Hurricanes to crack. No Buck has signed with Miami in more than a decade.

Field briefly returned to Louisville on Jan. 4, but not before he helped the Ducks get off to a good start in the Class of 2020. Avantae Williams, a four-star safety from DeLand, orally committed to Oregon last month. The defensive back is a former Hurricanes commit and a cousin of running back Lorenzo Lingard.

Stubblefield might not have quite the same sort of upside as Field, although he has a solid track record from his time with the Utah Utes. Stubblefield, who comes to Miami from the Air Force Falcons, finished his college career with the Purdue Boilermakers as the all-time NCAA leader in receptions and has coached at seven FBS schools, including Utah and the Central Michigan Chippewas, where he was on Dan Enos’ staff when the offensive coordinator was Central Michigan’s coach.

In just two years with the Utes, Stubblefield worked as the primary recruiter to sign three wide receivers, according to 247Sports. In the Class of 2016, Stubblefield landed a commitment from three-star RJ Hubert, who was the No. 1 player from Nevada in his class and the fourth-best high school player Utah signed. Stubblefield had even better results in the Class of 2015, signing two three-star wide receivers as the primary recruiter and a third as the secondary recruiter. Siaosi Walker, for whom Stubblefield was the secondary recruiter, was the third-best player in the class, while Deniko Carter and Alfred Smith rounded out the top five.

This story was originally published January 22, 2019 at 10:54 AM.