Offense? Defense? Both? Miami commit Malik Curtis says Canes coaches open to anything
The Miami Hurricanes first offered a scholarship to Malik Curtis in January thinking the athlete had exciting potential as a cornerback.
While Curtis almost exclusively played wide receiver in his first three seasons of high school football, Miami viewed Curtis as the perfect prospect to bring a needed infusion of speed to its secondary. Jonathan Patke and Mike Rumph were able to sell Curtis on trying out defense at the next level, so he orally committed in April.
His first few weeks of the 2020 season, though, have the Hurricanes thinking about all different options for Curtis. The senior already has more than 400 yards from scrimmage in four games for Fort Myers Bishop Verot and he said he has started to talk with Rob Likens about opportunities at receiver, too.
“They’ve been saying that they might have been thinking about using me on both sides of the ball,” Curtis said Monday in Fort Myers, “since I’ve been showing that I can be a threat on offense, too.”
Curtis started his senior season on fire. In Bishop Verot’s season-opening loss to Tampa Jesuit, Curtis caught eight passes for 179 yards and two touchdowns, and ran for 53 yards and another touchdown on two carries.
The three-star athlete, who only holds one other offer from a Power 5 Conference school, has taken a leap as a senior by unleashing his speed on Florida.
“I’ve been doing well on the offensive side of the ball, showing that I can be a good athlete on both offense and defense,” Curtis said. “I think I’ve been showing a lot on the field.”
While the COVID-19 pandemic forced high schools across the nation to shut down in the winter and prevented offseason workouts throughout the summer, Curtis was working with a college athlete.
Marshall Thundering Herd wide receiver Willie Johnson is Curtis’ cousin and spent the pandemic back in Lee County. They built a routine throughout the shutdown to go to a park near Curtis’ home, and run routes and do footwork drills. It meant Curtis was fresh and sharper than ever once football resumed late in the summer.
Curtis remains ranked outside the top 1,000 in the 247Sports.com composite rankings for the Class of 2021, but the 5-11, 160-pound wideout has been one of the most impressive players across the state this year.
“It was bad not being able to play spring and everything, but we just kept on putting more and more work,” Curtis said. “We’ve been putting work in the whole summer.”
At least so far, other schools haven’t tried to enter the fray. Curtis said he hasn’t yet heard from any other college football teams this fall and Miami’s impressive start has him locked in with the Hurricanes. As of now, he said he doesn’t plan to sign a national letter of intent in December, but Miami has typically done a good job of convincing committed recruits to sign in the early signing period.
The one concern Curtis had is he has not yet visited Coral Gables. He never got to campus before the coronavirus pandemic began and he has only seen the school via a virtual tour through Zoom Video Communications. He is, however, cousins with former Hurricanes cornerback Nate Dortch, who spoke highly of his time in South Florida to Curtis even though he eventually transferred to the FCS Youngstown State Penguins. Ideally, Curtis would like to visit Miami before he enrolls next year.
In the meantime, he can focus entirely on his senior season for the Vikings, where he still mostly plays offense while chipping in on defense whenever Bishop Verot faces a good passing team.
As much as he wants to prove the Hurricanes coaches this year he could play offense once he gets to Miami, he remains open to anything the Hurricanes ultimately ask him to do.
“It didn’t really like knock me off or anything. I feel like I’m an athlete and I can perform well on both sides of the ball,” Curtis said. “I wasn’t really surprised because I know that I can show them on the field this year I can be a threat on both sides.”
