Recruiting impact: Ishmael Aristide was Texas A&M’s ‘bulldog’ in Miami. He can do same for UM
Jimbo Fisher helped put the Texas A&M Aggies on the map as a national recruiter when he arrived in Texas before the 2018 season, but he needed Ishmael Aristide’s help to build real inroads in Miami.
It’s a long way from South Florida to College Station, Texas, and there isn’t exactly an easy way to get there. Texas A&M didn’t have much of a history of recruiting South Florida, either. In two years, Aristide changed that.
“He’s the bulldog on the recruiting trail,” said Miami Central coach Roland Smith, who had two star players sign with the Aggies last year. “He did a good job building a relationship with the kids, the kids’ parents. That’s how he got my two kids to go to Texas A&M. He’s a people person. He relates to the kids real well. He’s a high-energy guy. He’s a guy that’s going to do very well.”
These traits are what drew Manny Diaz to him when he had another vacancy to fill on the Miami Hurricanes’ defensive coaching staff earlier this month. The coach has spent the entire winter reshaping his defensive staff with young, energetic assistant coaches with recruiting pedigrees. Aristide, even though he has never been a position coach, fit the bill because of what did for the Aggies’ recruiting efforts in Florida.
He’s a Miami native, the son of Miami Northwestern’s principal and now one of the youngest assistants in college football at age 30.
Few out-of-state schools have recruited Miami-Dade County at Texas A&M’s level in recent years. In the Class of 2020, the Aggies beat out the Hurricanes to land four-star defensive end Donell Harris out of Miami Gulliver Prep. In the Class of 2021, Texas A&M lured two four-star recruits from Central when running back Amari Daniels and Yulkeith Brown signed with the Aggies.
Harris was the No. 3 player in Texas A&M’s 2020 recruiting class and one of three top-50 players the Aggies signed, according to the 247Sports.com composite rankings, and, like Harris, both Daniels and Brown were All-Americans with dozens of scholarship offers from Power 5 Conference schools.
Even though Aristide was only an analyst at Texas A&M and couldn’t go on the road to recruit, Smith said he almost functioned “as the lead recruiter” for the Rockets he pitched.
“He did a good job of being a contact person,” said Smith, who played for the Hurricanes and had an Under Armour All-American sign with Miami last year. “He’s just doing it on the phone. That’s a compliment in itself. ... He stayed in contact with those kids, and let those kids know how important they are to him and the program he’s at.”
Aristide has already reached out to Smith since officially taking over as the outside linebackers coach Monday. Central linebacker Wesley Bissainthe is one of the most coveted recruits in the Class of 2022, and Aristide told Smith he plans to make the four-star outside linebacker a priority.
“He told me he’s going to be all over him,” Smith said. “He’s the type of kids that he has to have at his position.”
Coincidentally, the No. 2 linebacker in the Miami area is four-star outside linebacker Travious Lathan, who plays at Gulliver Prep — the other school Aristide successfully recruited with the Aggies.
The linebackers coach will have to fix the current unit, but restocking the position group is also important. Only one linebacker on the roster is a former four-star recruit, and Aristide is capable of changing that.
He has good relationships in the region and a secret weapon on his side. Wallace Aristide, his father, has spent 30 years working in Miami-Dade County Public Schools.
“He knows this area inside out. He knows some of these kids’ parents,” Smith said. “If not, his dad may know some of these kids’ parents. He’s on the inside on a lot of these kids.”
This story was originally published February 26, 2021 at 10:27 AM.
