James Williams’ pledge could mark major ‘shift’ for UM, national recruiting expert says
The Miami Hurricanes are having one of the their best recruiting cycles in years. It’s only July and already Miami has 21 players orally committed to its Class of 2021, a five-star prospect in the fold and legitimate momentum to keep other notable blue-chip recruits from leaving South Florida.
John Garcia Jr. has been covering recruiting in Florida for about a decade, and he’s now the director of Sports Illustrated’s new recruiting vertical, which is in the process of putting out its first ever rankings.
On Friday, he weighed in on the Hurricanes’ 2021 recruiting class, including the importance of landing five-star athlete James Williams, why he’s so high on four-star tackle Michael McLaughlin and who he thinks might be the biggest sleeper in the class.
Miami Herald: How important is Williams’ commitment?
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John Garcia Jr.: “I thought Amari Cooper to Alabama really changed the trajectory of the sustainability of what they did, and what they still do nationally and in South Florida. And in a perfect world James Williams is that equivalent for Miami in this ‘21 class and beyond. No matter how you look at it, it’s some of the biggest news of the year, whether you look at the athlete — obviously, a unique hybrid. Nobody really knows exactly what he is, but you know you want that kid on your team regardless because he makes plays, so that alone is important. But who you beat and where you won locally with that type of national recruit, who has already decommitted once, getting him back makes it that much more impressive, so this could be the beginning of a legitimate shift for Miami. If all works out, we’ll look back on this James Williams’ recommitment as the catalyst.”
MH: Do you think he’s a legitimate top-10 prospect like the 247Sports.com composite rankings say or do you have him closer to the 25-30 range?
JG: “I think he’s somewhere in that ballpark regardless. He’s going to open up as the No. 1 safety for us, and he’s probably the guy that we’ll be monitoring most curiously just as he matures since we haven’t really seen him move or do anything like that for so long. It’s No. 1 with an asterisk, but even if you just go nationally regardless of position, he’s right in that 15-20 range. I just think that he brings too many things to the table to ignore, although those positional questions will remain.”
MH: Why do you like McLaughlin as the No. 10 tackle in the country?
JG: “We’ve been playing it fairly conservatively in terms of relying on the guys who do have that positional experience and polish, but we’ve gone against the grain a few times and McLaughlin is obviously one of those. I just think at that position there’s been such a constant trajectory, not only for Michael, but just in general with athletic, lengthy guys who have made that move from tight end to offensive tackle. A lot of times it was involuntarily, but this is a voluntary move earlier than we’ve seen so many of these great success stories, so that makes it feel more secure than maybe his polish would show otherwise. But I think when you talk about his foundation — extremely long, really light on his feet and athletic with true pass-setting principles at this early stage of his experience, so I think that foundation is still strong enough for today’s game because we’re not as big and you don’t have to be as strong at the point of attack as you used to have to be.”
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MH: What do you like so much about Laurence Seymore and what’s keeping him out of your top 10 for interior linemen?
JG: “One of my favorite phone-booth guys in the country, just an unbelievable punch and wide base that he plays with. He can post good prospects — FBS prospects — with one hand. He’s got these big paws and this striking ability that is really fun to watch, but on the other side of it he’s pretty small relative-wise — 6-2 maybe, not necessarily the broadest offensive line prospect, which is something you do want to see — so I think it just minimizes his positional flexibility. I think he’s going to have to play inside, maybe solely center and as a center so much of the game is beyond the physical that if he does have to play there, there’s still a lot of us to need to learn and see from him to feel that much more comfortable there. If he was a little bit bigger and he was a guard all the way, he’d probably be on that top-10 list very securely, but his positional question marks I think push him.”
MH: Where does Thad Franklin stack up as a national running back prospect?
JG: “He’s right in the thick of our discussion. It’s not a huge secret or anything. He’s heavily under consideration. We’ll get to that position here maybe the last week of July into August, so that’ll be coming up here relatively soon, but, look: I was talking to a Power 5 head coach today actually not about Thad, but just about what he sort of represents and that coach told me there’s still a lot of room for an old-school baller — that’s how the coach put it — and I think that’s what Thad is. He’s a bigger back — like you said — ultra productive, can play with leverage and behind his pads, and it’s not flashy and sexy like Christian McCaffery or Alvin Kamara in the NFL, but that foundational, classic running back traits, it’s still important. It still resonates, especially when you talk about a program like Miami that you expect now — and recruiting is only reinforcing this — to play good defense. There’s still a strong presence for that alpha type of running back. Like we said earlier, we’re relatively conservative in our evaluations. We value the floor of these recruits as much or more than everyone else in the business.”
MH: What are your thoughts on this wide receivers class so far?
JG: “There were some contenders in there. I’m not sure if there are going to be any top-10ers, but what I do see commonly with this group is a good bit of size and ball skills, so we’ve talked about Miami being able to adapt and play modern football. Part of the reason why we love McLaughlin is because he represents that and I think some of those pass catchers do, as well. Maybe not the fastest group or a conventional Miami group, where you think of maybe smaller guys with speed, but these guys have a catch radius, can play contested 50-50 balls. Things like that are becoming just as important as any other trait on the outside, so I do think there’s evidence of Miami pushing the envelope and keeping up with what college football’s becoming.”
MH: What sort of upside do you see for Jabari Ishmael?
JG: “I remember watching his sophomore stuff and thinking like, ‘Man, this could be something really, really big here.’ The frame is unbelievable, like you said — every bit of 6-6 with lean muscle, but you just know a collegiate strength-and-conditioning program and nutrition program can just move that wherever you want it to go. When you think about his athleticism on top of that, now you’re talking about, OK, these are elite traits. Let’s keep this guy on the edge and allow him to pin his ears back, and even if he sort of grows out of that stand-up type of role one day we’ve seen guys like [Gregory] Rousseau playing as a pass rusher on the inside with that same amount of length and athleticism. That still puts a lot of pressure on blockers. He doesn’t seem like as much of a project as maybe his body would indicate and that’s what I like about him. There’s a lot there, even though we know his best football’s still coming.”
MH: Any under-the-radar guys you really like in this Miami class?
JG: “First of all, the center position — we just talked about the opposite with Seymore — having the experience there when you’re well coached up is such a different animal at that position and at quarterback, so he’s right there in that department and then, look: Of all these interior prospects that we’ve seen in 2020, Ryan Rodriguez might have had the most dominant showing of any of them and that says a ton. At Under Armour Miami, he was named out No. 1 performer over Leonard Taylor. I shouldn’t have to say much more, but he went more than anyone, he won more than anyone and he was the only one to slow down Taylor 1-on-1, so any size or frame knocks really didn’t show up man-to-man, best-on-best, and then you watch his Friday night stuff and it’s just as good. He’s technically sound, he’s got the scrappy center attitude and he’s very smart, so he’s got everything you want in a modern center. He can set your protections and he can execute as well.”
This story was originally published July 29, 2020 at 2:39 PM.
