Podcast: Grading Cristobal’s first Miami signing day. And first impressions of new AD
The Miami Hurricanes hired Mario Cristobal to win on Saturdays.
They also hired him to win on signing days.
He could only do so much with his first one, but the new coach still made the most of it Wednesday, getting all of Miami’s blue-chip recruits to sign and even adding one elite South Florida prospect to the class by beating out the rival Florida State Seminoles.
David Wilson and Susan Miller Degnan, the Hurricanes beat writer for the Miami Herald, grade Cristobal’s first signing day on a new episode of the Eye on the U podcast and the scores are pretty good.
The secret, Cristobal said, was going seven days without sleep and drinking plenty of Cuban coffee. It’s hard to argue with the results.
He kept Jacurri Brown, his four-star quarterback, committed. He made sure Wesley Bissainthe, his four-star running back from Miami Central, didn’t have second thoughts after he orally committed to the Hurricanes (7-5, 5-3 Atlantic Coast) two days before they fired former coach Manny Diaz. His biggest signing day addition — four-star Fort Lauderdale Dillard defensive lineman Nyjalik Kelly — was almost definitely not going to Miami before Cristobal got hired and he managed to land him in less than two weeks.
It’s hard to imagine how the first day of the early signing period could have gone better. Now he’ll be judged on what happens before National Signing Day next year and he has a chance to make some more big additions with elite wide receiver Kevin Coleman and elite edge rusher Cyrus Moss both now considering the Hurricanes.
After plenty of recruiting talk, we wrap things up by breaking down the first days of Dan Radakovich’s tenure, what Miami fans should be expecting from their new athletic director and how he can reshape the athletic department.
