Top Hurricanes commit reclassifies to 2025 class. And notes on Francis Mauigoa, OJ Frederique
Plantation American Heritage wide receiver Malachi Toney, a Miami Hurricanes commit, is planning to go to college a year earlier than anticipated.
Toney, a four-star receiver according to the 247Sports composite rankings, has reclassified to the Class of 2025. He was originally part of the Class of 2026.
Toney is now the 22nd overall player orally committed to the Hurricanes’ 2025 class and the second wide receiver in the class along with Phenix City (Alabama) Central High’s Daylyn Upshaw.
Through four games this season, Toney has caught 25 passes for 417 yards and seven touchdowns, averaging 104.3 yards per game for American Heritage.
Francis Mauigoa making strides
With the Hurricanes’ offensive line featuring a lot of moving parts due to injuries early in the season, Francis Mauigoa’s steadiness at right tackle has been well noted.
Mauigoa, who was a Freshman All-American last season, hasn’t committed a penalty all season and has graded out as one of the top offensive linemen in the Atlantic Coast Conference throughout the first three games of the season.
On Monday, he was named the ACC Offensive Lineman of the Week.
“Our offensive line coach, coach [Alex] Mirabal mentioned that last year Francis — CiCi, as we call him — he was a Freshman All-American, but last year was nowhere near the player then that he is now,” Cristobal said Monday. “He has improved tremendously through an insane amount of strength and conditioning and film-watching and the way he practices. He’s taken more than a step. He’s taken a couple of steps, and it really has elevated his play to become one of the best players in the country at any position. And on top of that, he’s a great leader and member of our leadership council. Can’t say enough awesome things about him, and he’s just scratching the surface,”
Mauigoa said the playing experience during his first season of college football — he started all 13 of Miami’s games in 2023 — has been vital to his development.
“I feel like I got better on driving my feet and being able to be physical on the trenches,” Mauigoa said. “The experience from last year helped me know what the game is like. Now, the game for me this year has been slowing down just because of the experience I got from last year.”
The Hurricanes’ offensive line should get a boost this week, with Cristobal saying that left tackle Jalen Rivers and right guard Anez Cooper should be back for No. 8 Miami’s road game against USF on Saturday at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium.
OJ Frederique impressing
One of the Hurricanes’ pleasant surprises so far this season has been the development of true freshman cornerback OJ Frederique.
The former standout at Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas was just a three-star prospect coming out of high school, but has been a factor in all three of Miami’s games so far this season.
Through three games, Frederique has seven tackles and a pass breakup while getting steady reps with the starters.
While his performance and steady playing time might surprise outsiders, Hurricanes defensive coordinator said he’s not surprised considering what he saw from Frederique during the recruiting process.
“We saw on film that was a good player,” Guidry said Monday. “We didn’t know how big he was. I hadn’t seen him in person with my eye. He came to a camp over the summer before his senior year, and he locked up everybody. We kept bringing guys over. He was going up against different wide outs, and we’d kind of say, ‘Hey, go against that one. Go against that one’ and he wouldn’t bat an eye. It didn’t matter if it was a deep ball, post, go route. And I was impressed with the way he looked back for the ball, and he didn’t panic.”
“And of course, we got him to commit,” Guidry continued, “and he didn’t even come through spring football with us. He gets here this summer, and we really can’t do anything too much with him in the summer. He’s just going over scheme, and then you go into fall camp, and he’s going against our wide receivers, and it’s like he’s been here for a couple years. That was really, really impressive. And I told [cornerbacks] coach [Chevis] Jackson ‘That’s gonna be the one right there. He’s got a chance.’ And sure enough, he worked his way into a starting role. So you never know. Sometimes, you project a guy out of high school to be a great and when he gets here, he ain’t what you thought. And sometimes it’s a guy just like OJ, because you can’t measure what’s underneath, inside that chest. And he’s got that.”
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