Central’s Rueben Bain is getting ready to put out top 5. (Spoiler: Miami will be on it)
Rueben Bain laughs when the Miami Hurricanes finally come up, and he gets why everyone assumes he’s a lock to stay home and play in Coral Gables.
The ties between Miami Central and the Hurricanes are strong — Miami has three former Central players on its roster and the Hurricanes hired Roland Smith to an off-the-field role in March — and Bain’s older brother is a graduate assistant at Miami, too.
Still, Bain swears it’s not a done deal.
“There ain’t no front-runner. It’s an open market, really,” said Bain, who’s a four-star defensive lineman in the 247Sports.com composite rankings for the Class of 2023. “It’s just how I get recruited and how I feel about it since the day, so I’m open to anything right now.”
Some more clarity will come soon. Bain plans to put out a top five by the end of the springs and wants to knock out four of his official visits in June, likely leaving one for the fall.
The Hurricanes, of course, will be in this top five and so will the Alabama Crimson Tide, Auburn Tigers and Oklahoma Sooners, Bain said. He’s still trying to figure out the fifth, and then he will start scheduling official visits.
He has, however, already started talking with defensive ends coach Rod Wright and Reginald Bain — his older brother — about potentially taking his Miami official visit in June during the weekend of the Hurricanes’ new “Legends Camp.”
“I have nothing planned yet,” Bain said. “I’m waiting to see who comes to see me. I’m going to make my top-five list from that, take my OVs to all five schools.
“You have more time with the coaches in the summer, whereas a game week they’ve got to prepare for the game day and have game-day activities all weekend, so I’m going to, for the most part, try to do my officials in the summer.”
Bain swears his older brother does not try to sway him at all, but he does get some extra insight about how the program is running now. So far, Bain is impressed.
The 6-foot-2, 250-pound junior — who has already won three state championships at Central and is currently recovering from a knee injury after he set a school record with 29 1/2 sacks last year — visited Miami three times in March and got to watch new coach Mario Cristobal run some spring practices. The quality of the coaching staff — with Pro Football Hall of Fame edge rusher Jason Taylor as an analyst, and Kevin Steele and Charlie Strong bringing head coaching experience to the defense — stands out.
“They’ve brought in a Hall of Fame coaching staff,” Bain said. “Everybody’s got that want-to to them now. Everybody wants to win, everybody knows how to win, everybody did something spectacular through their life span or career, so they all have something to back it up. So they’re not just coaching it. They’ve been through it. That’s also different that Coach Cristobal being an alumni of the school, coming back everybody’s really loving him. Since he came back, more alumni came back to support the school or even be on the coaching staff.”
Cristobal, Wright and defensive line coach Joe Salave’a are the lead recruiters for Bain, and Wright would likely be his position coach at the next level.
Although he has the frame to play either defensive end or defensive tackle, Bain said most schools are recruiting him as an end, which makes his relationship with Wright particularly important.
“He seems like a really great coach,” Bain said. “Not only does he tell you what to do, he explains why you do it and how you do it. He’ll go out there and show you if he has to.”
As is now true for basically every blue-chip recruit, the ability for Bain to profit off his name, image and likeness (NIL) is part of the equation with Bain’s looming decision.
He insists he doesn’t think about it too much, though — at least not yet. He trusts his own ability will get him paid wherever he winds up.
“I hear about it, but I really don’t care about it,” Bain said. “You’ve got to make a play before any NIL comes, so that’s what I’m thinking about. If I’m going to make a lot of plays, a lot of NIL is going to come. I don’t worry about anything other than football because if I don’t worry about anything but football it’s going to be more money in the long run.”
