Longtime Miami commit Seymore making relationship with Gattis, but planning other visits
For the first few months of Mario Cristobal’s tenure, Lamar Seymore wasn’t quite sure where he stood in the recruiting picture for the new-look Miami Hurricanes.
Seymore, who orally committed to Miami in 2020, had barely heard from Cristobal as recently as February and didn’t even meet offensive coordinator Josh Gattis for the first time until March, even though his older brother, Laurence Seymore, plays for the Hurricanes.
A few months later, the Miami Central junior is again feeling good about the hometown team.
“Coach Gattis was here the other day,” said Seymore, who’s a three-star wide receiver in the 247Sports.com composite rankings for the Class of 2023. “He texted me after, told me I look good.”
Seymore’s increased communication with Miami has him back in a good spot with his local school, but he’s still planning to keep his options open as he gets ready for a busy summer. The 6-foot, 170-pound receiver has five official visits and plans to use all of them, including one with the Hurricanes.
The rest of his top five includes the Auburn Tigers, West Virginia Mountaineers, Penn State Nittany Lions and UCF Knights. He would like to take most of them in the summer, with the idea his recruitment could be wrapped up by the start of his senior year.
Of the schools in his top five, Seymore has already visited Auburn, UCF and, of course, Miami.
Since the start of March, Seymore has made multiple trips to Coral Gables to watch the Hurricanes practice.
For one of his trips, Seymore went to watch a spring practice with his high school teammates and coaches — former Central coach Roland Smith now has an off-field role at Miami — and it struck him how similar the Hurricanes’ practices are to the Rockets’, especially with new Central coach Jube Joseph now in charge.
“There’s a lot of intensity,” Seymore said. “There’s no down time.”
At the practices, Seymore spent plenty of time watching Gattis coach the wide receivers and he liked to see how many different players the offensive coordinator got involved.
“He’s a good coach. He let everybody play,” Seymore said. “If you look like you’ve got the talent to play and you show that you can play, he’ll put you in the game.”
It’s important to Seymore, who lists early playing time — or at least a fair chance to earn it — as one of his top priorities. It’s why he’s dead set on enrolling early and on track to get there, he said.
Last season was something close to a breakout for Seymore. After playing sparingly as a freshman and sophomore, Seymore earned third-team all-county honors from the Miami Herald with 26 catches for 550 yards and seven touchdowns in the Rockets’ balanced offense.
Seymore knows he’s not the biggest or fastest player, but prides himself on his technical ability — his route running and blocking, in particular — and felt last season was his best because he could combine it with a full grasp of the offense.
The earlier he gets to college, the better, which means the next few months will be busy.
“Everything’s going to come to me because at Central we work just like a college,” Seymore said, “so weight room, all the other stuff — it’s just going to come to me, but I’ve got to get the plays down because that’s how you get playing time.”
