A family connection with Cristobal has Cardinal Gibbons DL Ahmad Moten considering Miami
On the day the Miami Hurricanes officially announced Mario Cristobal as their new coach, Ahmad Moten’s phone lit up with a call from Cristobal’s Oregon number.
The coach was about to board a jet to make the trek from the West Coast to South Florida and Cristobal wanted to let the defensive lineman know he would still be a priority once he got to Miami.
“He called me that night, said, ‘I’m about to get on a jet. I’ll talk to you in the morning,’” said Moten, who helped lead Fort Lauderdale’s Cardinal Gibbons to a second straight state title last month. “It went on from there.”
Before the Hurricanes hired Cristobal last month, Moten had a verbal scholarship offer from Miami, but not much contact with the old coaching staff. The Hurricanes weren’t really on Moten’s radar even though older brother Anthony Moten played for Miami only five years ago.
Now the Hurricanes are in his top five, and the 6-foot-3, 290-pound senior is slated to take his fifth and final official visit to Miami this weekend as part of a loaded recruiting weekend for the Hurricanes. Miami expects to host seven official visitors, including Moten and fellow Chiefs defensive lineman R Mason Thomas.
For Moten, the last five months have been insane. The 6-foot-3, 290-pound senior didn’t have any offers going into his senior season and now has 24, and he wants to give Miami “a fair shot” to convince him to stay in Florida before he makes his decision Wednesday.
“You’ve got to give everybody a fair shot and I put them in my top five to give them a shot,” said Moten, who’s now a top-600 overall prospect and three-star recruit in the 247Sports.com composite rankings for the Class of 2022. “I hope it goes good because it’d be a great thing to stay at home.”
Even though Moten only lives a few dozen miles from campus, he has never actually gone on a recruiting visit to Coral Gables. He went to one game at Hard Rock Stadium last year and never quite clicked with the old coaching staff, but this will be his first time actually down at the school since his older brother was there.
Cristobal is the reason why.
About a month after his initial flurry of offers, Moten was doing some extra work with a teacher after class when he got a shocking text message. Cardinal Gibbons coach Matt DuBuc told him Cristobal was going to call and offer him a scholarship, and Moten didn’t believe it.
“I was like, Mario Cristobal’s not calling me. What are you saying?” Moten said. “You’re just selling me dreams.”
Sure enough, his phone started buzzing with a FaceTime call from an Oregon number. Moten answered and Cristobal’s smiling face filled up his iPhone. The Oregon Ducks were offering him a scholarship. They were his biggest suitor yet.
“I’m like, C’mon, bro,” Moten said. “This can’t be real.”
What stood out most about Oregon’s recruitment was the coach’s involvement. At every other school, a position coach or coordinator was Moten’s lead recruiter. For the Ducks, it was Cristobal.
As for why, Cristobal explained: When he was the offensive line coach for the Alabama Crimson Tide almost 10 years ago, Cristobal badly wanted to bring Anthony Moten to Tusacaloosa, only Moten wasn’t really interested. Eventually, Cristobal set up a Skype with Moten and Alabama coach Nick Saban, and it didn’t go well.
“Saban yelled at Coach Cristobal, he said, after the Skype because Nick Saban felt like my brother wasn’t liking it,” Moten said. “He was like, ‘I missed out on one Moten brother. I can’t miss out on another.’”
Cristobal did an in-home visit with Moten on Tuesday and will now try to make one final overture this weekend. At this moment, it seems the Hurricanes will have to make up ground.
Moten also has the Oklahoma Sooners, Iowa State Cyclones, North Carolina Tar Heels and Tennessee Volunteers in his top five, and Oklahoma is the favorite, according to the 247Sports Crystal Ball.
The Sooners have a similar advantage to the one Cristobal provides at Miami. Oklahoma coach Brent Venables, like Cristobal, is now the lead recruiter for Moten because he was the one leading the charge for the Clemson Tigers when he was their defensive coordinator.
He even pulled off a similar flight-related gesture when he touched down in Norman.
“Venables called me that day he got the job,” Moten said. “He was getting off the plane and he gave me the offer. I was his first offer as a head coach and that’s a plus for me.”
With less than a week until National Signing Day, Moten said he still doesn’t know where he’s going to wind up.
“I look forward to making my decision,” he said. “It’s going to be a tough one.”
Stewart headlines Miami’s visit weekend
Moten and Thomas, who’s orally committed to Iowa State, won’t be the only South Floridians down in Miami-Dade County this weekend.
▪ Shemar Stewart, a five-star defensive lineman from Miami Gardens Monsignor Pace, will be the headliner this weekend, taking his final official visit with the Hurricanes before he makes his final decision Wednesday. Stewart is also considering the Georgia Bulldogs and Texas A&M Aggies, and officially visited Georgia over the weekend. Texas A&M leads in the Crystal Ball, and it seems like a battle between the Aggies and the hometown team.
▪ Josh Conerly Jr., a 6-5 tackle from Rainier Beach in Seattle, will make it two five-star prospects in town this weekend. This will be his first trip to Miami after the Hurricanes offered him last month. The Crystal Ball is split between the Michigan Wolverines and Washington Huskies, and the Sooners hosted him for an official visit earlier this month.
▪ Miami is also firmly in the mix for four-star defensive lineman Christen Miller and three-star tackle Anez Cooper, both of whom will visit this weekend. Miller is an All-American from Cedar Grove in Ellenwood, Georgia, and the Bulldogs are the favorite to keep him in state, with the Ohio State Buckeyes also in the hunt. Cooper, from Pleasant Grove in Alabama, just landed an offer from the Hurricanes on Friday and this will be his first official visit, putting Miami in excellent position to land the 6-6 offensive lineman.
▪ The Hurricanes are also taking a swing at TreVonte’ Citizen. The four-star running back from Lake Charles College Prep in Louisiana is also a new target for Miami, landing an offer last month, and hasn’t visited before. Citizen, who was once committed to the LSU Tigers, took his other four official visits last year.
