Epic recruiter Mario Cristobal pulls off historic top-5 haul for Miami on signing day
The worst-kept secret during college football’s initial signing period — Miami coach Mario Cristobal recruiting his way out of a depressing 5-7 2022 inaugural season into a hopeful 2023 — got kick-started with a resounding boom! Wednesday.
But there was still Hurricanes drama, as there always is nationwide on the first day of the three-day early signing period.
Cristobal’s well-chronicled gift of luring top high school players, and now college players in the transfer portal era, was reinforced by a unanimous top-five haul that includes two five-star gems— but not three, which is the drama part.
The Hurricanes secured the signing of 6-5, 305-pound five-star offensive tackle Samson Okunlola, known as the “Pancake Honcho” for his gift of flattening opponents; and later earned the signature of 6-5 1/2, 330-pound offensive lineman Francis Mauigoa, the nation’s No. 1 tackle who was making his announcement from Hawaii.
But the third expected five-star gem, UM-committed cornerback Cormani McClain of Lakeland, did not sign, as his mother, who goes by @Kaishay5, posted a tweet at 9:36 a.m. that made it appear that McClain was reconsidering or had changed his mind.
Her tweet: “FALSE ALARM!!!! THERE WILL BE NO SIGNING FOR @CormaniMcClain2 TODAY... SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE!!!
That was pretty much the only holy whatever moment. As of Wednesday evening, McClain had not signed, but an abundance of elite talent had.
By the time Cristobal had finished his early evening news conference, UM’s 2023 class had landed at No. 3 in the On3 and ESPN rankings, No. 4 in the 247Sports composite rankings and No. 5 in the Rivals rankings. That represents UM’s highest signing day finish since ESPN rated it No. 1 in 2008 — a class that in the end didn’t live up to its top billing. Rivals had that class ranked fifth.
“I feel like we’re just getting started,’’ said a supercharged Cristobal, who said he’s always looking for more talent and is actively pursuing more outside receivers and defensive tackles. “It’s an awesome day. Incredibly excited. We want it to keep going.’’
The Canes signed 25 incoming freshman. This year the NCAA is allowing unlimited freshmen, as long as the scholarship count doesn’t exceed the usual 85-player limit. Cristobal indicated he wasn’t concerned about the exact number of current openings, but that there were enough to add players.
Nine of those freshmen are from South Florida, not including linebacker Raul Aguirre, who lived in Miami before Fayetteville, Georgia, and whose father played at Columbus. The Miami-Dade players: Washington twins Bobby, a Palmetto linebacker, and Robby, a receiver; offensive tackle Frankie Tinilau (LaSalle); defensive end Rueben Bain (Central); and receiver Nathaniel Joseph (Edison). The Broward newcomers: safety Antione Jackson (Dillard), running back Christopher Johnson (Dillard), cornerback Damari Brown (Plantation American Heritage) and running back Mark Fletcher (Plantation American Heritage).
Brown, a consensus four-star, didn’t reveal his choice until late Wednesday afternoon — two days after his older brother Davonte, also a cornerback, announced he was transferring to UM from UCF. The younger Brown was deciding between Alabama and the Canes.
“Just a lot of emotion going into it,’’ Damari said. “Never thought I’d get to this moment. My whole life, I worked for this. Just seeing it come in front of me was a dream come true.”
“I think we can turn things around because we have a lot of players that are going to come in with passion and want to work hard,’’ Robby Washington said. “As you can see, we’ve gotten rid of some of the players who didn’t wanna work hard and didn’t want to play with that passion. We’re bringing the U back. The first few games, even the spring game, you’ll see things changing.”
Why the U? Fletcher was asked.
“Why not The U? Why not?’’ he said. “It’s home. The coaches have really been on me since the eighth grade. When things started to fall down, they relied on me to just make the program better again. I told them before I just admired their hunger to get Miami back to the top. They feel like I can really help them do that. I want to show the world that I can do that.”
True to his offensive line roots, Cristobal, who won a national championship at Miami in 1991 helping to protect future Heisman Trophy winner Gino Torretta, had five offensive linemen sign their letters of intent to bolster a position group that was plagued with injuries last season. That group allowed quarterback Tyler Van Dyke, Jake Garcia and Jacurri Brown to be sacked a combined 36 times — tied for 103rd of 131 ranked FBS teams. On Wednesday, incoming quarterback Emory Williams was added to the list.
“It doesn’t get better than those guys,’’ Cristobal said of his five-star linemen Mauigoa and Okunlola. “It doesn’t get better coming out of high school... These guys are elite monstrosities. They are ginormous human beings that don’t move like big guys... They play with power, have exceptional football IQ, relentless work ethics. They are as mean and nasty on the field as you can imagine.’’
Those linemen included 3 star/4 star 6-3, 300-pound Bradenton IMG guard Antonio Tripp; 6-6, 330-pound interior man Tommy Kinsler of Ocala Trinity Catholic; and 6-5, 315-pound Tinilau. They’ll block for the two highly rated South Florida running backs the Canes didn’t secure until the past two weeks: 6-1, 225-pound Plantation American Heritage consensus four-star Fletcher; and 5-11, 178-pound speedster Johnson, Miami Herald’s Broward County Boys’ Track and Field Athlete of the Year last season after winning a pair of gold medals as a sprinter.
UM’s bounty included 12 players on defense, several of them elite, such as Central defensive end Bain, Bradenton IMG Academy edge Jayden Wayne and linebackers Malik Bryant of Orlando Jones and Aguirre.
When Cristobal was asked about a commit who hadn’t signed Wednesday (McClain) and whether he was optimistic, the coach said, “We’re optimistic and hopeful about every single person that we have recruited due to relationships,’’ Cristobal said, “and just a long time being invested in these guys from a personal and professional standpoint.’’
Miami’s full list of signings
QB: Emory Williams (Milton); RB: Mark Fletcher (Plantation American Heritage); RB: Christopher Johnson (Dillard); WR: Nathaniel Joseph (Edison); WR: Robby Washington (Palmetto); TE: Riley Williams (Bradenton IMG Academy); TE: Jackson Carver (Loomis Chaffee School (Windsor, Conn.)); T: Francis Mauigoa (Bradenton IMG Academy); T: Samson Okunlola (Thayer Academy (Braintree, Mass.)); T: Frankie Tinilau (LaSalle); IOL: Antonio Tripp (Bradenton IMG Academy); IOL: Tommy Kinsler (Ocala Trinity Catholic); DL: Collins Acheampong (Santa Margarita (Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.)); DL: Joshua Horton (Langston Hughes (Fairburn, Ga.)); EDGE: Rueben Bain (Miami Central); EDGE: Jayden Wayne (Bradenton IMG Academy); LB: Malik Bryant (Orlando Jones); LB: Raul Aguirre (Whitewater (Fayetteville, Ga.); LB: Bobby Washington (Palmetto); LB: Marcellius Pulliam (Sandy Creek (Tyrone, Ga.)): LB: Kaleb Spencer (Life Christian Academy (South Chesterfield, Va.)); CB: Robert Stafford (Melbourne Eau Gallie); CB: Damari Brown (Plantation American Heritage); S: Antione Jackson (Dillard); P: Dylan Joyce (Australia).
Herald sportswriters Jordan McPherson and David Wilson, and deputy sports editor Andre Fernandez contributed to this report.
This story was originally published December 21, 2022 at 7:31 PM.
