Issiah Walker’s status, Ed Reed’s recruiting impact and more from Miami coach Manny Diaz
Even before the group changed shape again through a series of offseason moves, the Miami Hurricanes’ offensive line was a revolving door of potential options. Corey Gaynor was penciled in at center and DJ Scaife Jr. was penciled in... somewhere, but the rest of the starters — and where they might line up — was very much to be determined.
And then the group started changing again. Issiah Walker Jr. transferred to Miami before he ever played a game for the Florida Gators. Jarrid Williams joined the Hurricanes as yet another transfer from the Houston Cougars. Navaughn Donaldson decided to redshirt the 2020 season as he recovers from a knee injury. Those three moves loom large over Miami as it tries to figure out its offensive line for the upcoming season.
Williams’ decision is the one virtually guaranteed to help the Hurricanes this year. At Houston, the offensive lineman started every game he was healthy for the last two seasons and he lined up there for Miami’s first practice of training camp Friday. The 6-foot-7 tackle immediately has impressed coach Manny Diaz with his length, but Quincy Roche, who went up against Williams while he was playing for the Temple Owls, has seen firsthand how technically sound the redshirt senior is.
“Definitely just a consistent player, real technically sound, so he’s somebody that’s going to bring maturity, hopefully leadership tot he locker room and to the O-line,” said Roche, who was an All-American defensive lineman at Temple last year. “He’s another piece to the puzzle.”
Walker might have to wait until 2021 to contribute, although nothing is set in stone yet.
The Hurricanes have put in the paperwork to try to get the freshman offensive lineman eligible for the upcoming season, but they’re still waiting to hear from the NCAA. Walker, who played at Miami Gardens Norland last year, signed with Florida in the Class of 2020 and decided to transfer back home after the COVID-19 pandemic forced him out of Gainesville in March.
“With Issiah, the waiver doesn’t really affect anything,” Diaz said Friday. “You don’t have to have the answer to that until Sept. 11, so all the paperwork and all that we’re going through right now.”
As for Donaldson, Diaz said the redshirt decision doesn’t necessarily rule out the offensive lineman contributing in 2020. Last year, the NCAA changed its redshirt rules to allow players to play in up to four games and still count the season as a redshirt year. Diaz said he has heard the number of games could increase to six this year because of the COVID situation.
Either way, Donaldson will take the start of the year to continue rehabilitating a right knee injury, which forced him to miss the Independence Bowl at the end of 2019. The senior was still out for the Hurricanes’ abbreviated spring practice, and he’ll now try to get fully healthy and come back to play as a redshirt senior in 2021 — ideally with a few more games under his belt from 2020.
“Because of his rehab he wasn’t going to be ready to go in August, anyway,” Diaz said. “Our mentality was he’s not going to not play this year, but you can get him ready and use him when the calendar allows.”
Ed Reed and Miami Hurricanes recruiting
Miami has made good use of its extra time this summer to put together one of its best recruiting classes in years.
The Hurricanes currently sit at No. 8 in the Class of 2021, according to the 247Sports.com composite rankings, and pulled in their second five-star recruit of the cycle Thursday when Miami Palmetto defensive tackle Leonard Taylor spurned the Gators to stay home and join the Hurricanes.
The other five-star prospect is James Williams, a unique athlete from Plantation American Heritage. At 6-5, Williams could play all over the field once he gets to Coral Gables, but he has primarily been a defensive back in high school — specifically a safety. With Williams and four-star Miami Northwestern safety Kamren Kinchens in the fold, the Hurricanes have one of the best safeties classes in the country.
The influence of Ed Reed, who’s in his first year as the chief of staff, is real.
“Where he’s been invaluable has been in recruiting,” Diaz said of the Hall of Fame safety. “When we hired him, we weren’t aware that we would go into a shelter in place for as long as we did, but because we all became recruiters on the phone—it’s not even just the name Ed Reed when he talks to these young men, it’s who he is and his personality. He’s just a great, great resource for them and it would be hard to mention our progress in recruiting without giving Ed some credit, as well.”
The coronavirus pandemic has probably helped Miami keep players home, too. It’s no coincidence 17 of the 21 players committed in the 2021 recruiting class are from South Florida, Blake Baker said.
“I think some guys realize that maybe leaving home—the grass is not always greener,” the defensive coordinator said Thursday. “I think we’ve all probably gotten a little bit closer to our families — even if we don’t like it all the time — but I think that it’s probably been eye-opening. Talking to some of the recruits out there, it’s definitely eye-opening and the fact that they can’t maybe get back to their family right away or their family coming to see them every single weekend, I think that’s played a part. When you look at basically where we’ve had a lot of our commitments from, it’s not too far from home and I think that speaks volumes just to the type of kids that we’re recruiting and how close they are to their family.”
The Hurricanes kept up the recruiting success Friday, adding a second commitment to their Class of 2022. Brandon Cleveland, a four-star defensive tackle from Tampa Carrollwood Day, orally committed to Miami, becoming the top ranked player in the Hurricanes’ 2022 class.
Miami currently has the No. 2 class in the Atlantic Coast Conference in the 2022 recruiting cycle and the No. 14 class in the country.
This story was originally published August 8, 2020 at 8:00 AM.
