Canes legacy Damari Brown is Heritage’s next great corner. Miami wants to keep him home
The routine was the same for Damari Brown every Saturday when he was a kid. He would get back from one of his football games, plop down on the carpet — girdle still on — and watch the Miami Hurricanes with his father.
Selwyn Brown, a former Miami defensive back and national champion in 1987, made sure the Hurricanes were on in his household every weekend because, as his son put it, “he was always crazy about his Canes.”
“I know deep down inside he’d probably want me to go there,” said Brown, now a senior at Plantation American Heritage.
With a decision probably coming within the next two months, Miami is still in a good shape to add the four-star cornerback to its Class of 2023, although it won’t be easy.
It never is with those American Heritage defensive backs.
In the six most recent recruiting cycles, the Patriots have produced five blue-chip corners, according to the 247Sports composite rankings, and none have signed with the Hurricanes.
Brown is Miami’s next chance to end this frustrating trend.
“They’ve been fighting hard every day,” Brown said. “Everybody — like not just the recruiting coaches — throughout the whole department hits my phone up.”
It’s easy now to see why Brown, 6-foot-1 and 180 pounds, is American Heritage’s next great cornerback, but it’s something of a recent development — different than it was for previous prodigious talents such as Patrick Surtain II and Earl Little Jr., both of whom wound up with the Alabama Crimson Tide.
Until last year, Brown only had one scholarship offer. It wasn’t until the Hurricanes involved themselves early in 2021 that Brown started to get a reputation as a potential star. Injuries plagued him throughout 2020, and he played only four games as a sophomore before a growth spurt and a breakout season turned him into one of the most coveted recruits in South Florida.
Alabama brought him in for an official visit and so did the Clemson Tigers, both trying to once again pluck a high-profile recruit out of Miami’s territory.
The Hurricanes, however, are still the favorite to land him, according to the 247 Crystal Ball.
“I like the culture change,” Brown said last week. “I know the staff doesn’t have everybody they want right now, with this being their first year, but I know recruitingwise they’re going to get what they want as a team and, over time, they’re going to be back — I believe it.”
Given the track record the Patriots have at his position, Brown is also the sort of recruit Miami can’t afford to keep letting leave Florida.
So far, three of those five blue-chip corners have wrapped up their college careers — Marco Wilson, Tyson Campbell and Surtain — and all three are now in the NFL, all taken in the first four rounds of the 2021 NFL Draft.
The other two: Earl Little Jr., who was the No. 106 overall prospect in the Class of 2022 and signed with the Crimson Tide; and Jacolby Spells, who’s already contributing as a freshman for the West Virginia Mountaineers.
“I had a big burden on my back upholding that standard, and I feel like I’m doing that,” Brown said. “I have people watching me. They know American Heritage corners; they’re always good, so I always go in every game not thinking that, but I just know there’s supposed to be a standard and the standard is held very high by those guys going to the NFL, going to college, going to big schools like that and I feel like it’s my job to just keep that going.”
Brown is upholding the tradition so far as a senior. He already has a new career high with 19 tackles and one sack, to go along with one interception and six passes defended in just four games, and he will get a major spotlight Saturday at noon when American Heritage heads to Fort Lauderdale to face Cardinal Gibbons in a battle of top-25 teams, according to MaxPreps’ national rankings.
The Hurricanes and Alabama will have their eyes on him — Clemson, he said, isn’t in contact much anymore — and so will the Florida State Seminoles, who are coming on strong. His father played at Miami with Florida State linebackers coach Randy Shannon, and the Seminoles will host him for an official visit next month when they play the Tigers.
The Hurricanes will still get the final crack, though. Brown was originally supposed to officially visit Miami last weekend, but pushed it back to November for the Florida State game.
A decision, Brown said, should come soon after those two in-state official visits are done.
Said Brown: “It’ll probably be after my last official visit.”
