How Miami beat out Florida for RB TreVonte’ Citizen, with help from some legendary Canes
TreVonte’ Citizen doesn’t even need to go two months back to think it’s a little crazy he would wind up playing for the Miami Hurricanes.
Until Mario Cristobal offered Citizen a scholarship a few days before Christmas, most of the four-star running back’s exposure to Miami came through the ESPN’s series of “30 for 30” documentaries about the Hurricanes. They gave Citizen, 18, an idea of what Miami used to be like, when Cristobal played there and superstar tailbacks passed through the program, and what Cristobal envisioned in his effort to restore the Hurricanes’ to greatness.
Still, Miami had a lot of ground to make up and eventually get Citizen to sign his national letter of intent with the Hurricanes on national signing day.
“I wasn’t thinking I would be at Miami right now. I was thinking I’d be at LSU,” said Citizen, who also played linebacker at Lake Charles College Prep in Louisiana. “They had to convince me because I had one visit left and I wasn’t going to give that to anybody that I didn’t think I was going to go to their school.”
In less than two months, Cristobal and running backs coach Kevin Smith brought the Hurricanes from off the radar to pole position, and Citizen ultimately signed with Miami on Wednesday as the fourth-highest ranked player in its Class of 2022, according to the 247Sports.com composite rankings.
It was a legitimate fight to the finish. The Crystal Ball predictions on 247Sports poured in projecting Citizen to the Florida Gators earlier Wednesday and, although Citizen said he doesn’t “know how that Crystal Ball stuff works,” it was indicative of how tight a battle this was into the final hours.
The 6-foot, 217-pound senior took his final official visit to Coral Gables last weekend, but he also took an unofficial visit to Gainesville the weekend before. Citizen said it came down to the two Florida schools — the LSU and Auburn Tigers were the other finalists — and he decided on the Hurricanes on Tuesday.
“What actually sold me was Coach Cristobal and Coach Kevin Smith,” the All-American said, “how they have things set to their standards and how they want everything to be back at the U.”
Both coaches played up the connection to history.
Cristobal was there to experience the glory days firsthand and his message to recruits throughout his two-plus months as coach has been a promise to use his knowledge of what worked then, and what works for teams like the Alabama Crimson Tide and Oregon Ducks, to build Miami back into a powerhouse.
While Smith didn’t play for the Hurricanes, he’s only a few years younger than some of the program’s all-time greats at his position and he leaned on some of those names to sell Citizen on Miami. At various points in the last few months, Citizen spoke on the phone with former All-Pro running backs Frank Gore, Edgerrin James and Clinton Portis.
“They was real with me,” Citizen said. “They said, If you don’t want to work hard and be great, don’t come to the U.”
With the Hurricanes, he’ll join a crowded position group, which already includes experienced starters like Donald Chaney Jr. and Jaylan Knighton, contributing underclassmen like Thaddius Franklin Jr. and Cody Brown, and an experienced transfer in Henry Parrish. Citizen, however, boasts a better recruiting ranking than any of those five and Cristobal sold him Wednesday as “an every-down back,” with a chance to emerge as Miami’s primary ballcarrier in the future.
It’s the reason why the Hurricanes went after him at all. Citizen is the only 2022 halfback Cristobal recruited and he kept after him even when Parrish decided he was going to transfer to Miami from the Ole Miss Rebels last month.
Cristobal had a lot of convincing to do, though. Citizen, who spent more than four months committed to LSU last year, only had one official visit left to use in January and, with less than two months to go in his recruitment, he never figured he’d use it to travel down to South Florida.
“It was just the conversations I had with him. I wanted to see if they were really genuine on what they spoke about. When I met them in person, it was,” Citizen said. “When I got to Miami, I was pretty high [on it], but I was levelheaded. That visit was icing on the cake.”
