Two former star recruits no longer on Miami roster, but one now says he’ll ‘be back’
Cameron Williams and Jeremiah Payton, a pair of former four-star recruits who had a possibility of contributing in the 2021 college football season, are no longer on the Miami Hurricanes’ roster — although Payton indicated Saturday afternoon on social media he’d “be back.’’
Williams, a defensive end, “didn’t meet our standards academically,” Manny Diaz said, while Payton “is just not in a place right now where playing football is what he wants to do.”
Diaz did not rule out the possibility of the wide receiver returning to the team at some point. In his Saturday tweet, Payton wrote, “I was never quitting, I’ll be back.’’
Keep in mind that being “back’’ could mean being back with another program.
“We’re kind of supporting him through that,” Diaz said after Miami wrapped up its first practice of training camp Friday in Coral Gables. “Don’t know what that means for him in his future, but right now, wherever he’s at, football is not something that he can devote himself to, so we’re going to give him space to kind of be in that area.”
Payton spent part of last season in COVID-19 protocol and also had offseason knee surgery. He was Miami’s top ranked recruit in its Class of 2019, according to the 247Sports.com composite rankings, and Williams was a four-star recruit in Rivals.com’s rankings. Both redshirt freshmen were in position to compete for major playing times in a pair of mostly unproven position groups, and Williams even started at defensive end in the 2020 Cheez-It Bowl after star defensive linemen Jaelan Phillips and Quincy Roche opted out of the game to prepare for the 2021 NFL Draft.
Payton was listed as a co-starter at wide receiver for most of the 2020 college football season, although he played sparingly both last year and the year before. The 6-foot-1, 185-pound receiver had six catches for 58 yards in 11 games.
A player returning to the team after being removed from the roster would not be unprecedented for the Hurricanes. In 2018, former wide receiver Jeff Thomas entered his name into the transfer portal before reversing and returning to Miami for the 2019 college football season. In 2019, offensive lineman Cleveland Reed did the same and is still a backup guard for the Hurricanes.
Williams, however, had the clearer path to playing time after the departure of Phillips and Roche. Williams, Jahfari Harvey and Zach McCloud were the only defensive ends on the roster with any starting experience, and McCloud’s starts all came at linebacker, with Miami moving him to end because of how thin it is at the position. Even after the addition of transfer defensive end Deandre Johnson, the starting spot opposite the redshirt senior is a wide-open competition and Williams, 6-4 and 240 pounds, recorded nine tackles and 1 1/2 tackles for loss in 10 games last season.
Williams, who took an academic redshirt year in 2019, is one of two players to leave the program for academic reasons, Diaz said. Defensive lineman Jalar Holley, who entered the transfer portal last month, also did not meet the program’s academic standards, Diaz said.
Campbell, Brooks miss first practice
Offensive lineman John Campbell Jr. and linebacker Sam Brooks Jr. were the two most notable Hurricanes absent from Miami’s first practice of training camp Friday at Greentree Practice Fields, and Campbell could miss extended time.
Campbell sustained “a pretty serious knee injury this summer,” Diaz said and will likely miss at least the rest of fall camp in Coral Gables. The redshirt started four games last year and two the year before.
“We doubt that we’d have him available in the summer,” Diaz said.
Brooks could be back by the end of camp, though, and Diaz said the sophomore, who has made two starts and logged 55 tackles the last two years, is progressing nicely in his return from toe surgery.
As the week goes on, [he] should be more and more progressed,” Diaz said, “and should be out here sometime during training camp.”
Miami nears 85 percent vaccinated
The Hurricanes are now up to at least 85-percent of the team vaccinated in terms of having that many players already receiving their two shots for COVID-19, Diaz told the Miami Herald earlier this week. But they’re still waiting for a bulk of them to be two weeks out from their second shot, he said.
“It’s kind of like a yes and no answer’’ to whether the players have reached the 85-percent threshold, the coach said. “By definition, we’re still a little bit of time away before those guys are two weeks out from their second shot.’’
Medical advisors say the 85-percent threshold would permit the team to go about life as normally as possible. The NCAA released its latest COVID-19 guidelines on Wednesday, with fully vaccinated players and staff members (or those who have been infected in the past 90 days) not required to get tested unless they’re symptomatic or have had close contact with someone with COVID-19. Anyone with a positive test must be isolated for 10 days. No exercise is permitted during isolation.
UM had all its coaches get vaccinated, but any unvaccinated players or staff members could be tested as much as three times a week.
This story was originally published August 6, 2021 at 7:39 PM.
