UM can’t officially host recruits in 2020, but at least 1 commit is going to games anyway
The Miami Hurricanes will not be hosting recruits at Hard Rock Stadium in any sort of officially capacity this year.
On Monday, the NCAA extended an ongoing dead period through the end of 2020, meaning coaches can’t have any in-person contact with prospective recruits, either at their own facilities or at high schools across the country.
Until at least the end of September, the Miami Hurricanes won’t officially be hosting recruits at Hard Rock Stadium on game days. The NCAA currently has a dead period implemented through Sept. 30, meaning coaches can’t have any in-person contact with prospective recruits either at their own facilities or at high schools across the country.
It didn’t keep Andres Borregales from being in Miami Gardens when the Hurricanes opened their season with a 31-14 win against the UAB Blazers last Thursday.
The three-star kicker is the younger brother of Jose Borregales, so he was there in the family section — one of 8,153 in attendance — to watch the kicker make his Miami debut after transferring from the FIU Panthers in January.
“I think I was probably more excited than him because it’s like a good feeling seeing my brother live his dream,” said Borregales, who has been orally committed to the Hurricanes for more than a year. “It was a little weird seeing him with UM gear on because I got used to seeing him in FIU gear, but it was good.”
It was an atypical game experience for a Miami commit. He didn’t get to talk with any coaches or even his brother. He couldn’t stand down on the field during pregame warm-ups and didn’t get any behind-the-scenes look at how the program operates. Instead, he just sat in his seat with his family and heard the occasional excited word from Hurricanes fans eagerly waiting to watch him suit up next season.
Miami is trying to create some sort of remote game-day recruiting experience by video chatting prospects ahead of the game, but it’s still far from normal.
“It was weird because I’m used to the whole bottom section packed and everybody screaming,” Borregales said. “It got really quiet at times, but you expect it since there isn’t that many people, but, overall, it was fun because it’s a college game.”
With the Borregales brothers, the Hurricanes hope they have their kicker situation figured out for the next four or five years. Jose Borregales, a redshirt senior, is entrenched as Miami’s starter this year and could leave after this season, although the NCAA is granting everyone an extra year of eligibility. Whenever Borregales does leave, his younger brother will be ready to step in. Andres Borregales is the No. 2 kicker in the Class of 2021, according to the 247Sports.com composite rankings, and sunk 50-yard field goals with regularity as a junior in 2019.
He might not kick at all this fall, though. Borregales transferred from Hollywood Chaminade-Madonna to Hialeah Champagnat Catholic earlier this summer in part so he can enroll early. The senior is currently taking online classes — Champagnat Catholic is entirely remote to start the year —and focused on finishing his last few classes so he can graduate in December and join the Hurricanes for spring practice in 2021.
Borregales isn’t sure yet whether he’ll kick at all for Champagnat, but for now he isn’t planning to. In the meantime, he’s working out mostly on his own, kicking at a park near his house about three times each week. Occasionally, Oscar Castaneda, the kicking coach for NAIA St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens, or Anthony Giugliano from Kohl’s Professional Camps will work with him.
“Personally, I showed what I can do last year. I had a really good season and I don’t really have that much to prove anymore, and I’m just turning a page for another chapter in my life, which is college,” Borregales said. “I didn’t want to risk myself getting sick because I know high schools aren’t going to have the same precautions as college because they don’t have the money for it. So I wasn’t trying to like take a risk and also I’m almost done with high school, so I might as well just enroll early.”
Borregales, who strongly considered the North Carolina Tar Heels earlier this summer, said he only hears from the Hurricanes now as special teams coach Jonathan Patke mostly checks in to make sure Borregales’ academics are on track. Other suitors are done trying to flip the 5-foot-11, 140-pound specialist away from his hometown team after he shut down his recruitment in July.
North Carolina had an appeal because of the college’s academic profile and an exciting new coaching staff, but Miami offered something no one else could.
“I’m a big family guy, and almost all my family and my friends live in Miami, so it would be fun to just be at a game and then I’ve got my whole family, friends in the stands,” Borregales said. “Even in the offseason, I have a lot of stuff to do. I can come back home, eat some homemade food. Not a lot players get to experience that since they go out of state and I just wanted to stay home.”
This story was originally published September 17, 2020 at 10:39 AM.
