Need for speed: Canes make top 5 for one of nation’s fastest recruits. He visits this week
Isaiah Bond was only 8 the first time he could claim to be the fastest kid in the United States.
When he was in third grade, he decided to start doing track and field, and he capped his first season by winning three gold medals at the USATF National Junior Olympic Track & Field Championships. His time in the 200-meter dash was the fastest in the country.
“Ever since I was young,” Bond said Tuesday, “I’ve always had that quick twitch to me.”
He hasn’t slowed down since and his speed has helped make him one of the most coveted football recruits in the country, with a new top five loaded with traditional powers, including the Miami Hurricanes and Alabama Crimson Tide.
This month, his recruitment has jumped up another level. On March 1, he ran a 100 dash in 10.73 seconds for Buford in Georgia — at the time, it was the fastest time in the country. The next day, the Georgia Bulldogs offered him a scholarship and Alabama followed a week later.
The three-star athlete now claims more than 20 offers with a number of traditional powers involved. Those powers dot a top five he announced Monday. Miami is there, and so are the Crimson Tide and Bulldogs. The Pittsburgh Panthers and Wisconsin Badgers round out his top group.
This weekend, the Hurricanes will have a chance to get an early leg up in Bond’s recruitment. The 6-foot, 175-pound athlete is slated to travel to South Florida with some of his 7-on-7 coaches and teammates to check out Miami. While coaches won’t be able to make in-person with Bond while he’s in Coral Gables because of the ongoing dead period, Bond will still get his first chance to see what the Hurricanes have to offer.
“We’ll just be going through the city, on campus and off campus,” Bond said. “I’m hoping to see just really a great atmosphere, an atmosphere I could see myself living in for 3-4 years, just basically it feeling like home.”
Bond will take his visit alongside four-star quarterback Jacurri Brown, who has emerged as Miami’s top target at the position for the Class of 2022. The two juniors have gotten close this winter and played 7-on-7 together over the weekend with DOMO at a Pylon 7on7 Footblal tournament in Norcross, Georgia.
Some schools like Bond as a two-way athlete. Some — like Alabama — want him to play cornerback. The Hurricanes and Bulldogs are both recruiting him as a wide receiver, which stands out to Bond.
“Right now, I’d probably be leaning toward the offensive side of the ball,” Bond said, “but that could be changing any time.”
While Bond isn’t even a top-1,000 prospect in the 247Sports.com composite rankings for the 2022 recruiting class, his speed is near unmatched in the current recruiting class. On Friday, he ran a 10.60 in the 100 dash. With Miami emphasizing speed in recent recruiting cycles, Bond is an obvious top target.
His connection with Brown could help, too. Bond said the two have talked about playing together at the next level and the Hurricanes are the only overlapping team in their top fives.
“That’s something definitely we have discussed,” Bond said. “Just because of the connection we have, I could really see us doing that in the future.”
Bond doesn’t have a decision timeline in mind yet, as he’d like to visit more schools once the dead period — which has now stretched for more than a year because of COVID-19 — ends in the coming months.
He said he decided his top five mainly based upon which coaches have been talking to him the most and Miami has multiple coaches involved in his recruitment.
Wide receivers coach Rob Likens is the lead recruiter, but Bond is also close with defensive line coach Jess Simpson, who was a legendary coach at Buford in Georgia, where Bond plays.
He never has been to Miami, though. The Hurricanes are the favorite, according to the 247Sports Crystal Ball, and this weekend could solidify their status.
“It’s just my relationship with the coaches right now,” Bond said. “It’s always been one of my dream schools since I’ve been a kid, growing up.”
