College coaches begin ‘general correspondence’ with Class of 2017 recruits

A popular slang phrase that has developed in recent years with the rise of social media is the description of contacting someone privately on such a medium: “sliding into your DMs.”

According to UrbanDictionary.com, the highest-rated definition for sliding into DMs reads: “When you send a direct message to someone on Twitter confidently and smoothly.”

College football coaches were doing plenty of sliding into plenty of recruits’ DMs as the clock struck midnight from Monday to Tuesday, marking the first day that college programs could contact juniors via “general correspondence,” as stated in the NCAA’s recruiting regulations chart.

The initiation of telephone communication with juniors is still not permitted until April, so the most popular way for coaches to spark up a conversation with their most coveted class of 2017 recruits is through the direct message feature on Twitter.

Up to this point, college coaches could only express interest in communicating with a 2017 recruit to his high school coach and then have the recruit initiate any communication with the coach.

All the Florida schools, most of the Southeastern Conference schools and several other programs that are known to recruit South Florida rushed to get in contact with the top juniors from Miami-Dade and Broward County.

Among those who received the most interest: Pembroke Pines Flanagan cornerback Stanford Samuels, Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas quarterback and UF commit Jake Allen, linebacker and UM commit Tyler Dunning, running back and Illinois commit Mike Epstein, Plantation American Heritage running back Kyshaun Bryan and cornerback Marco Wilson, Miami Carol City linebacker De’Andre Wilder, Miami Norland offensive lineman and UF commit Kadeem Telfort and Hialeah American defensive back Naytron Culpepper.

From those polled, it didn’t seem like coaches had too many interesting, new things to tell recruits. A lot of the same pitches and attempts to get prospects to visit were received.

“Most said [they are] looking forward to going through the recruiting process with me and stuff like that,” Cypress Bay defensive end Jake Lichtenstein said. “Purdue said, ‘Try to get up here to campus.’ ”

Samuels had Clemson and Georgia offer official game invites to their home openers.

BRANDON JOHNSON COMMITS

Four-star American Heritage wide receiver Brandon Johnson announced a commitment to Tennessee on Wednesday.

The 6-3, 172-pound prospect tweeted out a photo of him in the Tennessee locker room under a large, illuminated, orange ‘T’ logo with the caption “It’s great to finally be a Vol!!!”

He chose Tennessee over other notable offers from UM, LSU, Georgia, Clemson, South Carolina and Wisconsin, among several others.

Johnson is the son of former Miami Hurricanes and Marlins catcher Charles Johnson. Charles has previously mentioned that he wanted his son to be a Hurricane, but although he had a UM scholarship offer, the Canes weren’t recruiting him as actively as other schools.

HOMER SOLID TO THE U

West Palm Beach Oxbridge Academy running back and UM commit Travis Homer is as solid as it gets to UM.

“I just wanted to be a man of my word, and I wanted to stay committed wherever I committed,” the four-star prospect said after a win against Miami Gulliver on Friday. “That’s why I took a little while to commit.”

Both he and mother Karri Valot have mentioned the impact coach Al Golden made on his decision.

“Golden appears to have a great character,” Valot said in a message. “It seems like his moral compass points in the right direction, and those qualities are important to me when it comes to my kids.”

Homer, with 90 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 12 carries, took out fellow UM commits in defensive end Joseph Jackson, safety Cedrick Wright and running back Robert Burns in the 46-0 win.

Jackson and Wright were active defensively, and Jackson even had a pair of catches at tight end.

Another UM commit for Gulliver, wide receiver Dionte Mullins, did not travel with the team due to academic ineligibility. Burns only had one carry for reasons unspecified by the team.

This story was originally published September 3, 2015 at 4:23 AM with the headline "College coaches begin ‘general correspondence’ with Class of 2017 recruits."