A UM top recruit ready to start full-time. And insight from Jason Taylor
A six-pack of Hurricanes notes on a Monday:
▪ In this instant gratification world, where college football players can enroll in one school on a Thursday and leave for a better deal on a Friday, it’s a credit to Samson Okunlola that he stuck it out at UM, persevered through two seasons of injuries and very limited playing time.
The payoff has now arrived in year four. After splitting guard snaps with Matthew McCoy last season, Okunlola is positioned to become a full time starter this fall.
When offensive line coach Alex Mirabal and coach Mario Cristobal decided that Okunlola and McCoy would split left guard last season, Mirabal expected the former five-star recruit would ace the role.
And Okunlola met or exceeded any reasonable expectations for a player who had to work off rust from not playing regular game snaps for two years.
Okunlola was very good all season, allowing four pressures and no sacks in 254 pass blocking snaps. (McCoy, who split left guard with Okunlola, permitted 12 pressures and three sacks in 329 pass blocking snaps.)
As a run blocker, PFF rated him Okunlola second best among UM’s six heavy-usage offensive linemen, behind only NFL-bound right tackle Francis Mauigoa.
Overall, PFF rated Okunlola 18th of 47 players who took snaps on offense for UM last season.
“I always had the ability, always had the tangibles, always had the speed and the power,” he said in January. “The growth was brilliant. I just needed to get confidence in my ability.”
That confidence came not only from experiencing success in college games, beginning with the Notre Dame opener, but from his deep faith. “All the adversity I faced, I found confidence in the Lord,” he said.
The 2026 season will be an audition for NFL scouts in his first year as an every-down player.
“I’m going to come back another year [2026], do what I have to do,” he said.
Mirabal couldn’t be more proud of the progress.
“To me, he can be elite at whatever he wants to do,” Mirabal said in January. “He’s a very determined young man. I’m very proud of him. He graduated in 2 1/2 years. He’s very intelligent. A lot of people wanted to [say] ‘Why are you still here? Why didn’t you join the portal?’ Because he believed in the program and the people believed in him, even though he wasn’t getting the reps.. He’s in a great place.
“He had probably trust issues [when got here]. He’s dropped his guard completely,... and he’s trusting the people who believed in him and had his back when he wasn’t playing. He wasn’t ready [early in his career]. Now he’s ready and he’s doing phenomenal and he’s blossoming.”
Instead of splitting snaps with McCoy again, Okunlola “will have that opportunity to be a full-time starter, and he will be ready,” Mirabal said.
▪ McCoy almost assuredly will start, at either tackle or guard. If he starts at tackle, then Max Buchanan, Georgia transfer Jamal Meriweather, Juan Minaya and perhaps SJ Alifatuli -- one of the top-rated centers in the 2025 class -- would be options for the starting guard spot opposite Okunlola.
Ryan Rodriguez looks like the clear front-runner at center. Asked if Alifatuli is ready to be a good starting center, Mirabal said: “Or a guard. Is he more comfortable at guard? Yeah, because that’s where he’s played. I’m going to play them where they can be the best version of themselves. Is he training at center? Yes.”
▪ It will be fascinating to see if Jackson Cantwell - considered the top offensive line recruit in the 2026 class - can be a day one starter, which has been the assumption. He’s already enrolled.
“He’s had three weeks of practice,” Mirabal said in mid-January, referring to UM’s postseason run. “It’s been awesome. He’s learned how we do things. Just the experience for Jackson to be on the sideline against Ohio State, to be able to be on the sideline for Ole Miss, see everything and what it takes, and what a college guy across from you takes [to block]
“What I think is awesome, too, is he probably never got beat in high school. Now, you’re getting beat. Now, you’re taking a pass set and Herbert Scroggins; you put your hand out, and he’s going to slap it down and go by you.
You’re like, ‘Oh my.’ Now, you’re having to deal with, ‘Hey, go to the next one, go to the next one, go to the next one.’ One bad play doesn’t make one bad day, but it’s been awesome.”
▪ LSU coach Lane Kiffin keeps poking at the Hurricanes and NFL-bound quarterback Carson Beck. On X, Kiffin recently posted a photo of himself on a tennis court, alongside former UM basketball players/social media influencers Haley and Hanna Cavinder with the post: “Beat them like we did Beck in ‘24” when Kiffin was at Mississippi and Beck at Georgia.
Beck dated Hanna Cavinder before a very public breakup last year.
▪ During a wide-ranging January conversation with me and veteran reporters from the two other South Florida newspapers, I asked Dolphins legend and Hall of Famer Jason Taylor why he never considered some arduous parts of his UM defensive line coach job beneath him, such as needing to coddle 16-year-old recruits and beg them to come to Miami.
“There’s no job too big or too small for all of us,” he said. “I’ll be the first one to pick up garbage off the ground in the [facility] today, and then I’ll jump Rueben Bain’s [butt] if he doesn’t run to the ball. It doesn’t matter what I did and who I am. If there’s a job to do, just freakin do it.
“I’ve never looked at myself like that. Is it fun sometimes chasing 15 year olds who don’t want to call you back? No. At the end of the day, when you end up with these guys, it’s worth it. Being blessed with the ability to impact people’s lives” makes it all worth it.
▪ Taylor said in learning how to be a coach, “I took stuff from Jimmy Johnson and Nick Saban –- what to do and what not to.
“I saw Jimmy the last few weeks; I still talk to coach Saban, texted back and forth with Dave [Wannstedt]. Sometimes Saban jumps our ass, and sometimes you need to get your ass chewed out. I’ve taken pieces from all of them. I’m going to coach them hard but love you harder.”
This story was originally published March 16, 2026 at 2:56 PM.
