After a signing-day delay, South Dade’s Jaiden Francois finally picks Nebraska over Miami
By the end of the morning, Jaiden Francois was finally smiling. He wore a gray Nebraska Cornhuskers sweatshirt inside the gymnasium at South Dade Senior High School and posed for photos with family members, all of whom were decked out in Nebraska gear, too.
This was always clearly part of the plan for the four-star cornerback from South Dade. Although he had only a Miami Hurricanes hat sitting on the table in front of him in Homestead, he hid a Cornhuskers T-shirt beneath the black button-down he wore. Miami was never going to land his signature Wednesday, but Francois was at least close to not signing a national letter of ntent with anyone on the first day of the early signing period.
“I was about to walk out,” Francois said. “I was like, I’ll sign on Friday or anything.”
He actually did walk out twice. The signing ceremony was slated for 9 a.m.. A little after 9 a.m., Francois headed out into a hallway adjacent to the gym to deliberate with his parents and coaches. He stayed outside for about half an hour as Keshawn Washington, Jonathan Denis, Jose Mirabal and Bretli Reyna — the four other athletes signing national letters of intent — plus everyone in the bleachers to watch waited on him.
He reemerged a little before 10 a.m. and only for a few minutes, clearly upset. He frowned, and rubbed the back of his head over and over. He went back out to the hallway less than 10 minutes later and faculty members removed his nameplate and paperwork from the table. For at least a couple minutes, it seemed Francois, who will early enroll at Nebraska, would wait until at least the second or third day of the early signing period to make a final decision.
The ceremony began without him in the room. Reyna, a wrestler, signed with the Iowa Hawkeyes and then Francois reemerged. Washington, a four-star safety, signed with the Hurricanes. Mirabal and Denis, a pair of guards, signed with the FIU Panthers and Oregon Ducks, respectively. Francois looked at the table. His knee bounced up and down as his decision approached.
The senior briefly feinted toward the Miami hat sitting in front of him, then reached for the buttons on his shirt. He unclasped the top few until a pop of red poked through. Francois was signing with the Cornhuskers. He was trying to confirm the Nebraska coaches he felt comfortable with would be sticking around.
“A lot of personal issues with my family. Nothing too serious. … They were just telling me to follow my heart,” Francois said. “It was a long, stressful process, but I just followed my heart and it had me make my decision I made here.”
Francois’ commitment gives the Cornhuskers two of the four blue-chip defensive backs from Miami-Dade County in its Class of 2020. Nebraska also landed a signature from four-star Miami Central safety Henry Gray on Wednesday. The Hurricanes, who once held oral commitments from Francois and Gray, wind up with just Washington fellow four-star safety Jalen Harrell.
Francois was one of Miami’s biggest targets entering the early signing period. The 6-foot, 183-pound defensive back was the only uncommitted prospect the Hurricanes hosted for an official visit during the weekend. They pushed hard to make Francois, who tied the county record with 12 interceptions as a junior in 2018, an addition to their secondary.
The athlete first committed to Miami before his junior year in 2018, but decommitted before the end of the year when Manny Diaz, then the defensive coordinator, left for his brief stint as the Temple Owls’ coach. Francois rejoined the class in February when Diaz returned as coach, then decommitted again in October as the Florida Gators, Ohio State Buckeyes and a handful of others began recruiting him. Neither of those two was still in the mix Wednesday and Florida never even offered him a scholarship.
Francois took an official visit to Lincoln in November and felt good about the Cornhuskers’ coaching staff, particularly coach Scott Frost, who turned the Central Florida Knights into a powerhouse.
“He built UCF from the ground up, and I feel like he can do the same at Nebraska. It’s all about trusting the process.”
The Cornhuskers were different than the Hurricanes, in Francois’ eyes, even though they’re in similar positions. Although Nebraska didn’t even qualify for a bowl game, Francois feels good about the direction of the program with Frost at the helm. At Miami, Francois didn’t see enough of a change from previous years to Diaz’s regime.
“A little bit of changes to the program,” Francois said when he was asked what more he needed to see from the Hurricanes. “Just change the structure of the program a little bit.”
Miami hoped his final trip to Coral Gables would sway him to stay home. Instead, he’s heading off to the Midwest.
“I was just trying to get a feel to see if this is really what I want,” Francois said. “It didn’t work out how I planned.”
This story was originally published December 18, 2019 at 12:34 PM.
