Big-play potential a strength of FIU class on National Signing Day

Tough times showcase your flaws. A parade of injuries last fall demonstrated FIU’s lack of depth, especially in each front seven.

The often excruciating difficulty FIU often had scoring during the first three seasons under Ron Turner spotlighted a paucity of true big-play threats.

That’s what Turner wanted to address with FIU’s 2016 recruiting class. That and the spots on the defense stripped by graduation, defensive end and cornerback.

So when Turner says he’s happy with FIU’s Wednesday haul, he’ll point to the nine offensive or defensive linemen in the class, particularly junior-college transfer Newton Salisbury; the four defensive backs, especially junior-college transfer Khairi Reaser, a Westminster Christian graduate; and the four wide receivers, including Westminster’s Elbre Gaiter and Booker T. Washington’s Darrius Scott, he feels can start next year because of their speed.

Don’t believe for a second that the FIU staff doesn’t know that Rivals.com, the only site to list the entirety of FIU’s class, rated it as ninth in Conference USA and outside the top 100 nationally. Though 247Sports.com didn’t include Reaser or running back D’Angelo Ware, it had FIU placed similarly — eighth in Conference USA, 104th in the nation.

Don’t think for two seconds that they care. Turner will tell you an offensive line with several future NFL players drove his best team at Illinois, a 10-1 Big Ten champion, yet none drew much attention from recruiters.

“We think we’ve helped ourselves athletically, big-play potential, guys who can make plays on both sides of the ball and with our size,” Turner said.

On Tuesday, in a conversation with the Miami Herald, Turner likened Salisbury to 2015 senior defensive end Denzell Perine, second on the team in sacks in 2014 and 2015, and fellow 2015 senior Michael Wakefield. As for Reaser, he’ll get every chance to fill one of the spots vacated by 2015 seniors Richard Leonard and Jeremiah McKinnon.

“We didn’t recruit him too much out of high school,” Turner said. “We knew about him a little bit. We wanted to go out and get an older corner, a [junior-college] corner with a little more experience. We lost both our corners, two really good players.”

FIU lost no players via Signing Day flip. Though Jacksonville Ed White defensive back Jadarius Byrd was long listed as an FIU commit, Panthers sources said two weeks ago he wouldn’t be signing with the school. Around the same time, Byrd declared he was decommitting from FIU. He wound up signing with Ellsworth (Iowa) Community College.

The Wednesday surprise turned out to be Moore Haven running back D’Angelo Ware, who is 5-9, 190 pounds. Ware was named to the Class 2A All-State First Team after running for 1,472 yards and 17 touchdowns on 114 carries. A 12.9-per-carry average lends credence to his Hudl page’s claim that he runs a 4.3 40-yard dash.

“He does have great speed,” Turner said. “Whether he’s 4.3 or not, I’m not sure, but he’s fast. And not only is he fast, he’s quick. He can make the first guy miss. Guy has great cutting ability, and he does have the long speed. We’re excited about him. He’s not really tall, but he’s put together well. He can hit it up inside or bounce it out to the perimeter.”

The strength of FIU’s recruiting remains upstate, particularly the Jacksonville and Tampa areas.

This year’s class includes 21 players from Florida, but only four players from Miami-Dade County, none from Broward County and only Delray Beach Atlantic power running back Shawndarrius Phillips from Palm Beach County.

This story was originally published February 4, 2016 at 12:03 AM with the headline "Big-play potential a strength of FIU class on National Signing Day."