The important trait the Miami Hurricanes’ two linebacker signees have in common
There’s a long list of attributes the Miami Hurricanes seek out when recruiting linebackers. First and foremost, they want players with good instincts. They want players who can play a downhill style at a position which racks up tackles for loss in their 4-3 system. They wanted to add speed to the position group.
This year in particular, there was another attribute Miami valued. The Hurricanes, ideally, wanted to add players who were on track to early enroll.
“Not that it was the end-all of whether we wanted a kid or not,” defensive coordinator Blake Baker said Wednesday in Coral Gables, “but we knew there was going to be a major hole there this spring, so it definitely helped.”
Linebackers Shaquille Quarterman and Michael Pinckney are both departing after starting the last four seasons for the Hurricanes. Fellow linebacker Zach McCloud, who was a three-year star for Miami (6-6, 4-4 Atlantic Coast) before he redshirted this season, is likely to start at one of the Hurricanes’ two linebacker spots. The second spot will be totally up for grabs in the spring and all the way into the fall. Miami will have to freshmen ready to join the competition right away.
Tirek Austin-Cave and Corey Flagg Jr., a pair of three-star inside linebackers in the 247Sports.com composite rankings for the Class of 2020, both signed National Letters of Intent with the Hurricanes on the first day of the early signing period Wednesday. Flagg orally committed to Miami in June and Austin-Cave joined him in July, and both came with the perk of joining the Hurricanes as players on track to enroll early.
Both will get to Coral Gables next month and be with the team for the start of spring practice. When Miami set out to evaluate linebackers, finding players who would be in this position was part of the calculus.
“It’s not necessarily like that every year,” said Baker, who is also the inside linebackers coach. “To me that was a huge bonus, so I’m very excited about those two.”
It’s impossible at this point to pinpoint a potential frontrunner to start alongside McCloud. Freshman linebacker Sam Brooks Jr. was the backup middle linebacker this season and he could start in place of Pinckney in the Independence Bowl against the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs on Thursday with the senior sitting out the bowl game. Fellow linebacker Patrick Joyner Jr. played as a reserve once he returned from an injury, too, and veteran linebackers Bradley Jennings Jr. and Waynmon Steed could also return to the competition after missing the entire season due to injuries. Linebacker Avery Huff will also join the mix after sitting out this season with an academic redshirt.
Both the incoming freshmen bring a slightly different dimension to the 2020 recruiting class. Flagg, 5-foot-11 and 223 pounds, is a wildly productive player for North Shore in Houston and Baker described him as a “plug-and-play” prospect because of his instincts and his experience as a true middle linebacker.
“He’s probably as much of a plug-and-play linebacker that you’ll see,” Baker said. “Linebacker is becoming one of the hardest positions to evaluate because a lot of times they’re playing defensive end — a 6-2, 6-3 kid that’s 210 pounds — and I get it. If I was a high school coach, I’d probably do the same thing, so it’s hard to really evaluate — or get really a true evaluation — what kind of player they’re going to be right away and a lot of those guys work out, but sometimes that progression takes longer and we knew the hole that we had.”
Austin-Cave, 6-1 and 205 pounds, had a massively productive career for Camden in New Jersey, too, albeit against inferior competition compared to Flagg’s. His 108 tackles as a senior are just one standout data point, though. Miami honed in on him because of his speed — the linebacker was clocked as fast as 6.57 seconds in the 55-meter dash, which doesn’t put him far off some nationally elite times.
Baker said he felt like the position group needed an infusion of speed and it shouldn’t be a one-off.
“I think we’ll continue that,” Baker said. “That’s something that can’t be taught.”
This story was originally published December 21, 2019 at 12:58 PM.
