Miami keeps up recruitment of five-star athlete Nyckoles Harbor, but still no visit plans
A prospect such as Nyckoles Harbor — and, in turn, a recruitment like his — doesn’t come around often.
The term freak is thrown around too often these days, but Harbor deserves every label he gets. He’s 6-foot-5 and 225 pounds, the No. 16 overall prospect in the 247Sports composite rankings for the Class of 2023, and a sprinter with legitimate aspirations to one day make the Summer Olympics and a time as fast as 10.28 seconds in the 100-meter dash. As a senior at Washington’s Archbishop Carroll, he was the Lions’ top wide receiver with 439 receiving yards and five touchdowns, and their top edge rusher with 16 1/2 tackles for loss and 5 1/2 sacks.
Unsurprisingly, just about everyone wants the five-star athlete, which means Mario Cristobal and the Miami Hurricanes want him, too. Even if it’s a long shot, they’re not giving up on the top-ranked uncommitted prospect left in the 2023 recruiting class.
“It’s great communication with them right now,” Harbor said Tuesday after the Under Armour Next All-America Game in Orlando. “Communication’s going strong right now.”
To preface everything: It’s going to be very difficult for Miami to lure Harbor down to South Florida. The South Carolina Gamecocks, Michigan Wolverines, Maryland Terrapins and Oregon Ducks have seemingly separated themselves — the former three already hosted him for official visits last year and Oregon will get him on campus later this month, right before national signing day — and there aren’t many chances left to get him down to Coral Gables for the first time.
His January will mostly be filled with track and field, and the one trip out to Eugene, Oregon, where he will also get to see the Ducks’ elite track and field facilities. It means the Hurricanes’ only chance left to bring him in for an official visit would have to come in the middle of the week, rather than a weekend, and South Carolina, Maryland and Michigan all have him at the top of their lists of priorities, too.
At the same time, Cristobal proved in his first year at Miami he’s not afraid to take big swings at elite recruits across the country, and his pursuit of Harbor is just another reminder.
All throughout his week in Central Florida for the Under Armour All-America Game, Harbor was getting texts from Cristobal and defensive analyst Jason Taylor, telling him how excited they were to watch him play at Camping World Stadium and offering words of encouragement.
Those are some of the big guns for the Hurricanes — Cristobal, obviously, is the head man and Taylor is a Pro Football Hall of Famer — as they go all out to try to get him down to Florida for a visit.
“Coach Cristobal, Coach Taylor have been texting me throughout the week, just telling me to ball out, tell people to know who I am and stuff,” Harbor said. “They definitely want to get me down there, so we’re going to see about it. ... I’ve never set foot in Miami.”
Although Cristobal and Taylor place much of their focus in the trenches, the coaches are open to letting Harbor play receiver, he said. With his focus on track and field, Harbor plans to play wide receiver or tight end in college, not wanting to have to bulk up too much to play defensive line or linebacker and potentially sacrifice some of his speed.
It’s another wrinkle in an interesting recruitment: Whatever school lands Harbor will have to sell him on its ability to get him to the Olympics almost as much as the NFL.
With less than a month left until national signing day, the Hurricanes have a long way to go to really get involved in this recruitment, but they won’t go quietly.
Said Harbor: “We’re just going to see what happens.”
