New Miami WR commit Keyshawn Smith will early enroll, according to his high school coach
The Miami Hurricanes have beaten the buzzer to get one more freshman early enrolled for the spring semester in Coral Gables. Keyshawn Smith, who orally committed to Miami on Tuesday after previously signing a national letter of intent with the Washington State Cougars last month, will start classes in South Florida on Wednesday, Smith’s high school coach said.
Just hours after publicly flipping from Washington State to the Cougars, Smith planned to board a flight from California to Florida to get started at Miami.
“He starts school tomorrow. He’s flying out in the next two hours,” said David Dunn, who coached the three-star wide receiver at Lincoln in San Diego. “He was going to early enroll at Washington State. ... He already had the credits, the stuff where they graduate early and he was like, Coach, I’m ready to go. I want to go and start getting acclimated, and start working. That’s the type of kid he is.”
As long as he was officially enrolled at the university by the end of the day Tuesday, Smith is eligible to participate in spring practice for the Hurricanes.
Miami’s late addition was made possible because of a coaching change in Pullman earlier this month. Former Washington State coach Mike Leach left to take the same job with the Mississippi State Bulldogs on Jan. 9. Smith, who had originally planned to fly to Washington on Friday, was instead let out of his letter of intent with the Cougars. With his recruitment back open, the Hurricanes swooped in.
Once Miami made it clear he had a spot, Smith felt he was ready to commit to the Hurricanes. Although he grew up on the West Coast, Smith considered Miami his “dream school.”
“It came together fairly quickly, in the last week or so. I was still hoping that he would’ve kind of waited around and let things kind of unfold, but, like I said, it’s the dream school. He said, ‘Coach, this is where I want to go,’” Dunn said. “He’s excited and this is where he wants to be.”
Smith was starting to gather late interest in the lead up to the early signing period last month. The Tennessee Volunteers offered earlier in the month and Dunn was hearing about other programs beyond the typical West Coast suitors. Smith, who still ranks outside the top 1,000 in the 247Sports.com composite rankings for the Class of 2020, put on about 20 pounds between his junior and senior seasons, which made coaches more confident about how the 6-foot, 170-pound receiver’s production would translate to the next level.
The offer from the Hurricanes, however, was the only one Smith really cared about.
“We kind of told him that he was going to get some late stuff not from the West Coast. He picked up a Tennessee offer, he picked up a South Carolina — all these guys came in late that weren’t from the West Coast,” Dunn said. “I heard some buzz about a month or so ago that Miami was going to come in on him, or thinking about coming in on him, and he fits the profile. He’s pretty quick. He has some swag to him like the old Miami Hurricanes players. His catch radius is off the charts. I mean, the kid can go up and get the ball anywhere.”
Miami, which loses two starting wide receivers from 2019, will now have four new additions at the position for spring practice. Under Armour All-American wide receivers Michael Redding III and Dazalin Worsham, and three-star athlete Xavier Restrepo all early enrolled earlier this month. Fourteen of the Hurricanes’ 21 commits — 18 of which signed in the early signing period — are early enrolling.
This story was originally published January 21, 2020 at 9:36 PM.
