FIU Panthers making inroads with Miami-Dade players

In the third full year of recruiting Miami-Dade County under coach Ron Turner — Turner got hired just a month before National Signing Day in 2013 — how you look at FIU’s progress with the locals depends on your angle.

There’s not the gross numbers that might be expected. There is, however, quality. And FIU seems to be opening a pipeline with perennial state champion Central High, a place that once might as well have been The Lost City of Atlantis on FIU’s recruiting GPS.

“They made a commitment to come into one of the best programs in the state and nation that’s in their backyard,” Central coach Roland Smith said.

Last year, FIU snagged highly regarded running back/wide receiver Anthony Jones and defensive end Fermin Silva as early signees. Offseason shoulder surgery delayed the arrival of cornerback Olin Cushion, who will come in with the Class of 2016.

Before he announced via Twitter a late Sunday night flip to Utah, FIU’s top-rated local commit this year was linebacker Donavan Thompson, No. 19 on the Miami Herald’s Top 50 list for Miami-Dade.

FIU also offered one of the Toledo commits, defensive back Jamal Hudson, as well as a less likely flip, defensive end Kenny Turnier, an Oregon State commit. The Panthers already made a scholarship offer to Central wide receiver Jernard Phillips, the younger brother of Florida State wide receiver Da’Vante Phillips.

Before the past two years, “I was calling them, and they should’ve been calling me,” Smith said.

Smith saw a difference when FIU hired Kerry Dixon away from Florida Atlantic as running backs coach. So did other local coaches. Dixon gave FIU a presence on the local high school scene missing since Mario Cristobal’s firing. Dixon’s departure to South Florida removed only him, not FIU — the school hired Booker T. Washington coach Tim Harris Jr. as running backs coach. Smith coached Harris at Northwestern High.

Under Turner, FIU’s larger inroads remain in the Tampa and Jacksonville areas. So far the 2016 recruiting class includes only five verbal commits, four every-down players and a kicker from the county in which FIU sits. Toledo’s got that many.

On the flip side, FIU is a mid-major recruiting against every school that can afford to send an assistant down here. And those five verbals include four in the top 41 of the Herald’s Miami-Dade Top 50.

“First, we had him playing receiver, then running back, then trying to do both,” Turner said in a postseason interview. “We weren’t getting him in as much as we wanted to because of that — where does he fit in? So we put him in at running back and said, ‘OK, he’s going to go in every other or every third series.’ Then he got hurt.

“That game he got hurt [Oct. 24 vs. Old Dominion] on the opening kickoff blocking for Richard [Leonard], that was the game we said, ‘He’s going in every other series. And we’re going to give him the ball and do the things he knows he can do.’ ”

Said Smith: “Everybody can’t go to the University of Miami. Kids see an opportunity to play. Modern kids, if they have a chance to stay home and play right away, some are going to take it.”

This story was originally published January 31, 2016 at 6:16 PM with the headline "FIU Panthers making inroads with Miami-Dade players."