UM’s approach with 2-sport football players. And update on status of football season.
A six-pack of Miami Hurricanes notes on a Wednesday:
▪ Eyebrows were raised last week when Penn State informed Hollywood Chaminade-Madonna running back Thaddius Franklin — the highest rated player in UM’s 2021 football recruiting class — that he has a scholarship offer to play both football and basketball for the Nittany Lions.
Which raises the question: Have UM football coaches in recent years asked the basketball coaches to allow them to offer a two-sport opportunity to select football recruits?
The answer is no, according to someone with direct knowledge inside the program. That didn’t happen in three years with Mark Richt as coach and one season with Manny Diaz. And Diaz hasn’t asked the basketball coaching staff to allow Franklin to play basketball.
For now, UM will take its chances that football will be enough to lure Franklin, who’s rated by Rivals as the 13th best running back and 205th best player in the 2021 class.
And that very well could be enough. When InsideTheU’s Andrew Ivins asked Franklin if the basketball offer from Penn State has changed anything about his commitment to UM, Franklin responded “No!” He has said he’s solid to UM and likes the Canes’ move to a spread offense.
Franklin ran for 333 yards and five touchdowns on 47 carries in Chaminade-Madonna’s state championship game win this past December.
As a basketball player, he averaged 8.9 points last season.
One UM official said playing both football and basketball for the Hurricanes has proven to be too difficult. Former UM cornerback Corn Elder tried playing basketball for a few days before realizing it was too hard to make it work.
▪ In response to a Sports Business Journal report last weekend that the NCAA had discussed moving up the college football season to a July through September schedule, UM athletic director Blake James said he has heard no discussion of that and that Miami’s intent is to play games on its scheduled dates.
There has been no confirmation of any kind for the SBJ report, which stated that the season might be moved up in anticipation of coronavirus becoming a problem again this fall.
In the meantime, Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott told bayareanewsgroup’s Jon Wilner that the end of May is the approximate deadline to determine the direction of the college football season.
“The optimistic model has an elongated training camp and on-time start [to the season],” Scott said. “The most pessimistic has no season at all.”
Last week, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said the next 60-to-90 days would determine if there was a football season and admitted “the fall is in jeopardy.”
And long-time college football writer Brett McMurphy tweeted Wednesday: “Group of 5 president recently suggested to another G5 president they should go ahead & move the 2020 college football season to spring, source told @Stadium. Obviously, it’s too early for that, but these are among options presidents & ADs are considering if season is delayed.”
McMurphy reported nearly one-fifth of Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) athletic directors believe there is at least a 50 percent chance a full college football season won’t be played this fall because of the impact of COVID-19.
▪ Two of ESPN’s most prominent college football voices have offered different views on what might happen to the college football season.
ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit has said he expects the season to be canceled.
“Just because from what I understand, people that I listen to, you’re 12 to 18 months from a vaccine,” he said. “I don’t know how you let these guys go into locker rooms and let stadiums be filled up and how you can play ball. I just don’t know how you can do it with the optics of it… Next thing you know you got a locker room full of guys that are sick. And that’s on your watch? I wouldn’t want to have that.”
Kansas State athletic director Gene Taylor then said in a radio interview: “I appreciate Kirk becoming a medical doctor and telling us what we should or shouldn’t do. But I’m not ready to go there yet. I certainly am hopeful that if we maintain the recommendations of some medical folks and stay away from one another and be careful and not do any public events in crowds, maybe life in 60-90 days will be at a point where we can bring our kids back to campus and at least practice sometime in July.
“I think a lot of coaches feel that if we had a 10 or 12 or 14-day re-acclimatization period that they could get into fall camp in the early August time frame. So I’m not ready to pull that plug yet, I’m just hoping that we maintain the things that the medical folks are telling us to maintain.”
Meanwhile, in an appearance on ESPN’s First Take, Rece Davis said:
“I’m far more optimistic and more hopeful than Kirk’s quote there at this point. I just think that’s a little bit premature at this juncture while offering the caveat that there is so much unknown out there. Kirk’s right based on everything I’ve read in terms of medical experts, in terms of the facts. I’m hopeful and optimistic that with so many people working on this that we’re going to have some kind of treatment, some type of break over the next several weeks that will make it far more feasible to have football. At this point, I’m far more optimistic. Might there be adjustments to the schedule? Might things change a little bit in terms of how the business is conducted? Sure.
“All I’m saying is that I think we’re a little premature. Because all you have to do is look back at the recent stats and look at the number of people in New York City, which has been decimated, and six weeks ago we’re encouraging people to go to festivals. Now that seems foolish. What I’m saying is on the other side of that, it’s not just hopeful optimism and belief in the power of people to figure things out. It’s saying, let’s wait and see. We have some time. We have the best minds in the world working on (a cure). It’s not just a vaccine, it’s treatment options, how will the virus react at different times of the year, things that we don’t know.”
▪ UM expects five-star forward Earl Timberlake to sign this month, and the Canes will be getting a player who’s already rated as a potential mid-first round selection in the 2021 NBA Draft, should be turn pro after one season.
The 6-5 Timberlake is rated by Rivals as the fifth-best small forward and 24th best player overall in the 2021 class.
A source who has scouted Timberlake at a Dematha High in Maryland described him as a “willing passer with good size to play in pick-and-rolls, good vision, multi-faceted, physical, can make a mid-range shot and a three-point game. Can be a plus defender.”
UM’s other freshman addition, New Hampshire-based 6-8 power forward Matt Cross, is an elite shooter and one of only nine players in the history of the Nike Elite League to finish in the top 10 in both scoring and rebounding, joining NBA first-rounders DeAndre Ayton, RJ Barrett, Marvin Bagley and Miles Bridges, among others. Cross has already signed with UM.
▪ The Canes have two basketball scholarships remaining and could use them on a prep player and a transfer with multiple years of eligibility remaining. UM is reluctant to add a grad transfer senior because Miami already has five seniors next season.
The Canes are among seven schools who are finalists for Illinois sophomore wing Alan Griffin, the son of Toronto Raptors lead assistant and former NBA player Adrian Griffin.
Griffin averaged 8.9 points and 4.5 rebounds 18.1 in 28 games (one start) for the Illini last season. He shot 48.3 percent from the field and 41.6 percent on threes (47 for 113).
The 6-5 Griffin told national college basketball writer Jeff Goodman last week that he’s considering UM, Arizona, Marquette, Dayton, Texas, Iowa State, Syracuse and Duke. His younger brother, AJ, is committed to Duke, so the Blue Devils could have an edge.
Among prep players the Canes are still in the mix for: Georgia-based center Dylan Cardwell, rated by Rivals as the 115th best player in that class.
Beyond Timberlake and Cross, UM also next season will get the services of former Cincinnati center Nysier Brooks, a projected starter who’s a skilled rebounder and defender. He sat out as a transfer this past season.
▪ Quick stuff: Former UM kicker Bubba Baxa transferred to Houston. With the Hurricanes, he’s being replaced by FIU grad transfer Jose Borregalas… The Canes have offered several quarterbacks in recent weeks, including Texas-based Jalen Milroe (a friend of D’Andre King who’s committed to Texas) and Arizons-based Kai Millner….Franklin has been trying to persuade his three-star defensive tackle teammate, Allan Haye, to commit to UM, and that’s a good possibility.
This story was originally published April 1, 2020 at 1:40 PM.
