‘My Twitter talk wasn’t just talk’: Miami freshman Joseph is already emerging as a leader
The alarm goes off for Nathaniel Joseph just about every day at 4 a.m.
“And I don’t snooze it,” the wide receiver said Tuesday, speeding through a lighthearted recap of his first spring as a Miami Hurricane and his first few months as a college student. “I jump right up.”
The confident-and-colorful freshman has gotten in a veteran’s routine already — awake before the sun rises, into the Carol Soffer Indoor Practice Facility by 5 a.m. and already through an hour-plus workout by the time team activities start at 7:30 a.m. — because it’s the way he’s wired and how he knows he needs to carry himself.
Joseph knows what Miami fans think about him. He was always the guy posting on social media about how he wanted to be a Hurricane, tweeting out positive thoughts even in the program’s darkest times and rallying the rest of the Class of 2023 after Miami’s losses.
His personality is infectious — he cracks jokes, and makes tongue-in-cheek boasts about his speed and self-effacing quips about his size — and it rubbed off on the rest of the Hurricanes’ 2023 recruiting class. The receiver wants to make sure it rubs off on everyone else, too.
“My Twitter talk wasn’t just talk,” Joseph said. “It’s about action.”
Although most Miami fans won’t get their first real look at Joseph in action until the spring game Friday in Fort Lauderdale, the wideout is speaking through his actions behind the scenes already.
In spring practices, Joseph is often working with the second-team offense, giving the Hurricanes another high-upside option in the slot. In the fall, he’s hoping to get on the field, perhaps as a return specialist if he can’t quite crack the wide receivers rotation as a freshman. Most importantly, he’s already setting a tone off the practice field and in the time away from team activities.
“I’m here every morning before the sun comes up, catching JUGS,” Joseph said. “Whoever comes to get that work, they come get that work.”
As Joseph tells it, there were some days when it was just him and maybe one or two other receivers for those early-morning sessions at the Indoor Practice Facility. Now, the number is up to four or five and “it keeps growing,” Joseph said. Usually, the target number is somewhere between 50-100 catches from the JUGS Football Passing Machine.
“Once they see the performance out on the field, once I’m constantly catching the ball and they’re dropping the ball, they’re like, Man, we need to come out and get on the jugs in the morning early,” Joseph said. “It’s a culture. That’s a part of building culture and that’s where it starts. Somebody has got to start it.”
Joseph is a natural fit for it, both because of his personality and reputation, and the work he needs to put in to be the player he is.
Listed at 5-foot-10 and 175 pounds, Joseph might be the smallest player on scholarship at Miami, but was an All-American at Miami Edison because of his speed and his prowess with the ball in his hands. He had 47 catches for 850 yards and 11 touchdowns as a senior at Edison, and also made plays as a runner and returner. He’s solidly built, big enough to bounce off defenders and muscle through press coverage, and also — he claims — already the fastest person on the team.
“I’m the fastest person on the team, without a doubt,” Joseph said. “We can set up a race, baby. I know I’m the fastest guy.”
Of course, Joseph isn’t good enough with just his current level.
In high school, Joseph was used to turning the corner and being able to outrun just about anyone else on the field. He could run past cornerbacks on deep balls and turn quick slants into big gains.
College football, he has learned without even playing in a game, is different.
“The players were way more faster,” Joseph said. “A lot of plays, I know in high school I would’ve been gone. Now, I see it’s just a little bit more.”
The spring game this weekend at DRV PNK Stadium will be something of a milestone, then. Joseph grew up dreaming about playing for the Hurricanes and he’ll sort of accomplish his goal by the end of the week, suiting up in front of fans in a game-day uniform with some sort of score being kept.
It will only be the first step, though. Spring will end and then the offseason truly begins, and Joseph wants to do whatever it takes to help out Miami later this year, no matter how many early mornings it takes.
Said Joseph: “I’m trying to get to warp speed.”
