Golden Nuggets

In the annual college recruitment of high school football players, head coaches have to sift through a lot of sand to find just a few golden nuggets. And unfortunately, if you are University of Miami head coach Al Golden, you have to learn to do it with one hand tied behind your back.

With the negative attacks used by opposing coaches from the seemingly never ending saga of looming NCAA sanctions and a self imposed reduction of both scholarships that could be awarded in addition to a restriction placed on the number of in-home visits that he could conduct, there is no doubt that Golden has had the odds stacked squarely against him during the last two full recruiting cycles.

Nonetheless, the Miami Hurricanes' head coach announced Wednesday the signing of 16 highly valuable Golden nuggets to National Letters of Intent to play football at ‘The U’. Miami’s 16 signees feature 13 high school standouts, five January enrollees and three junior college transfers.  

Miami’s 2013 signing class is ranked No. 17 by 247Sports.com and No. 21 in the ESPN Top 40. 

Among the 2013 signees are six ESPN 150 recruits – WR Stacy Coley (Pompano Beach, Fla.), DE Al-Quadin Muhammad (Irvington, N.J.), CB Artie Burns (Miami, Fla.), QB Kevin Olsen (Wayne, N.J.), TE Standish Dobard (Belle Chasse, La.) and LB Jermaine Grace (Miramar, Fla.).

Coley is the nation’s No. 4-rated WR according to ESPN, while Muhammad is the nation’s No. 7-rated DE. Burns, considered to be the nation’s best prep hurdler from Miami’s Northwestern HS, is the nation’s 10th-best CB, according to ESPN. 

Dobard (seen above holding trophy), a January enrollee, is listed one of the nation’s Top 10 tight end prospects by ESPN,  247Sports.com and Scout.com. Grace is ranked as the 11th-best LB nationally by ESPN and No. 17 by Rivals.com. He played at the same high school as current Miami Hurricanes standouts Tracy Howard, Malcolm Lewis and Ryan Williams. 

Miami’s signing class also features nine signees on offense and seven more on defense. The Canes signed five from the state of Florida and inked recruits from 10 different states. 

Dobard, Sandland, LB Alex Figueroa (Stafford, Va.), OL Hunter Knighton (Pottstown, Pa.) and OL  Sunny Odogwu (Baltimore, Md.) are enrolled in classes at the University of Miami and will compete in spring drills. 

For complete bios on each of Miami’s 16 signees, visit gocan.es/WelcomeToTheU.

Comments

[Sarasota 'cane]

Trevor Harris - Dan Sileo interview is the best assessment of UM recruiting from a local H.S. coach that I have listened to this week!

The Al Golden interview with Joe Rose is awesome as well.

http://wqam.com/interviews

Go 'canes!

[jgatsby1112]

Second the Trevor Harris interview..F'you Sileo..

[Sarasota 'cane]

Trevor Harris makes Sileo and Luke look like two buffoons! Seriously! I would love to be a fly on the wall when Harris "undresses" Dan on their lunch date!

Go 'canes!

[Jack]

Thank you Trevor Harris! This is the last year that this NCAA BS will be relevant!

[Hassan]

The University of Miami’s comprehensive drug testing policy, enacted in 1995, continues to evolve as the methods and reliability of testing have improved and as more drugs have been introduced into the world of competitive sports. The University’s program is monitored by a University committee, which includes medical professionals, and is overseen by a Medical Review Officer--currently, a former UM Miller School of Medicine physician--who ensures the integrity and confidentiality of the drug testing program. An outside third-party firm administers the tests and provides results to the University. Since 2005, approximately 3,380 student-athletes have been tested more than 10,000 times by the University, in addition to drug tests administered by the NCAA. During that period, no student-athlete has tested positive for anabolic steroids. The University of Miami, like many of our peer institutions, the NCAA and many professional sports leagues, does not currently test for Human Growth Hormones. The University of Miami's drug testing policy is consistent with those at most NCAA Division I programs and provides more stringent penalties--including game suspensions for first-time positive results--than many of our peers. As stated last week, we have initiated an internal review involving an employee and will continue to monitor developments."

[TonyCane]

Some quick postscript on NSD for Miami:

-1: That's the total difference in this year's class between number of 4 and 5 star recruits versus the number of 2 and 3 star recruits. The previous three classes had a number that was heavily lopsided in favor of lesser star players.

4: Equal to the number of years since the Canes had been able to recruit two 4* defensive backs, as they did yesterday.

5: The number of years since Miami last landed a 4* quarterback, as it did with Olsen on NSD.

7: The number of years since Miami has landed a tight end as highly rated as Sandland.

8: The total number of wide receivers that Al Golden has signed in his first three years. That's one more than the total number of wide receivers that Larry Coker signed during his SIX year tenure.

[Ohio_Cane]

That's some FANTASTIC info there Tony. Well done!

[Sarasota 'cane]

As stated last week, we have initiated an internal review involving an employee and will continue to monitor developments."

Posted by: Hassan | February 07, 2013 at 10:01 PM

I personally don't like the tone of that message. I hope to God we are not sitting on a "PEDs" powder keg right now!

Hassan are you "Bo" on the radio?

Go 'canes!

[laquinton]

telly lockette ?? rb coach

[CGNC]

Maybe the Pens can trade Vokoun back to the Caps mid-game so they have a chance?

Lol, Pens > Caps

Posted by: Ohio_Cane | February 07, 2013 at 08:31 PM

LOL! They pulled the first goalie really quick and the other one was worse. Ovi still leaving his feet to hit people. Also nice slewfoot he got away with.

Pens looked good, even without Letang

[86Cane]

Tony nice work there.

Ohio, can U tweet some of that tomorrow?

[Ohio_Cane]

86, roger that!

[Ohio_Cane]

Ohio, can U tweet some of that tomorrow?

Posted by: 86Cane | February 07, 2013 at 10:31 PM
---------------------------------------------

Want it posted tonight or during day when more ppl are on?

[86Cane]

OFF TOPIC WARNING:

MIAMI (AP) — Two young men who became "stranded and disoriented" while taking part in a python hunt in Florida's Everglades were rescued Thursday afternoon, authorities said.

The Broward County sheriff's office said in an email Thursday night that units responded to a call about the missing men at about 4 p.m. Air rescue units began a search of the area, and the hunters were found about a half-hour later at a location 15 miles west of U.S. 27 at the northernmost border of the county. A helicopter landed in the Everglades and transported the two men to rescue units a few miles away.

The news release said the victims, ages 22 and 25, "complained of lightheadedness and weakness and were suffering from heat exhaustion and dehydration." Firefighters were told they were from Tennessee. The men, who have not been identified, were treated at the scene and declined to be transported to a hospital.

More than 1,500 participants of a month-long python challenge have helped to capture 50 Burmese pythons in the Florida Everglades.

[86Cane]

Ohio...tomorrow is fine.

[86Cane]

Thank you for your support of Miami Hurricanes Athletics. As a benefit of being a Hurricane Club member and/or men’s basketball season ticket holder you have the opportunity to request tickets for the 2013 ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament to be held March 14-17 at The Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina.

2013 ACC Men’s Basketball Priority Ticket Allocation Policy
The University of Miami’s Department of Athletics has an established ticket allocation policy specifically for an individual game, away game and post-season play. In accordance, this policy will be in effect for the 2013 ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament. All annual Hurricane Club contributions, including football and men’s basketball seating donations, will be used to determine your current donor level.

For more information regarding your Hurricane Club membership, please contact the Hurricane Club at 305.284.6699.

[WWIN]

Ohio,

Happy birthday! I hope you got what 2 Chainz got for his?

[WWIN]

86,

I need you to go to Pembroke and get my client that Swag hat that Coley wore yesterday, or better yet get him Coley's actual hat and have him autograph it.

Posted by: Willie Will in Nashville | February 07, 2013 at 03:55 PM

Soup I noticed how you tried to ignore my clients demands earlier so I posted it again. Lol

[BigWindyCane1]

Hey CaneRock, we have enough talent to beat UF, FSU, and Win the ACC! I truly believe that. And we do not require any recruits to do it. We match up well against the ACC and UF next season in my opinion.

Go 'canes!

Posted by: Sarasota 'cane | February 07, 2013 at 07:01 PM

The Canes have what it takes in 2013 to win the ACC in both basketball and football. Basketball is now obvious.

In football, the Canes have the ACC's best RB, best KR, best QB, the best OL and a good group of TEs. On defense, the Canes will have a lot more experience and through U tough will have more stanima, conditioing, strength and consistency. The Canes D can only get a lot better.

This is the year for the Canes to make that move back to the top of the ACC and college football. Go Canes~

[DeployedDiehardCane]

My final thoughts post recruting is that we landed a small but good and solid class. Honestly I wasn't too hurt bout Keef(needs maturity and dudes a clown) and DK(I trust Kehoe's eval, plus he gets paid to do that stuff not me) and from what I read he wasn't too impressive at the camps UM had, unlike what Kehoe said about Sonny. The 6 thing hurt but the more I read in between the lines of things, imo he was never coming here and the only thing the DK saga did was put USC above us acording to him. Not every blue chip kid from Miami is or wants to be a cane and if he wasnt down with us then f him. Hope our big boys on the line put his ass down when we play. His justification for choosing FSwho(so fam could go see him play was retarded btw). The one that really sucked was losing Bostwick to the Gayturds. He was supposedly a Miami lean for the longest and assumingly was ready to join his cuz Armbrister but that chump took one away from us that filled the biggest position of need. Maybe he'll be the next Luc, we'll see. Don't know if the AC being a silent and then renegging at the last minute is true or not but if it is $$$$EC and that phat phuck definitely swayed him cause of the boys he's got on the Arky staff. Hurt but I'd rather have players that WANT to be here. Good luck with that turf kid. BTW, McFadden injury prone and so is Felix Jones, coincedence? Grace and Coley are prime examples of local kids that WANT to be canes, it's in their DNA same as Artie and Jamal. Can't wait to see them ball out. Everybody that we got wanted to be here and that's all we should want. AQM and Bond will help the pass rush tremendously and while we did strike out at tackle hopefully one of our guys step up big time. The Nigerian boys could pleasantly surprise. If Gus the Bus does anything to resemble Mike James we'll be good with that. Upgraded our TEs drastically and Gall and Standish are OOT guys that repped us hard during the recruting process and showed us how much they want to help us get back to the old days of winning. We'll have Big Ray around to make sure lil Ray puts in work and we picked up a qb for the future both with UM bloodlines. Overall, with all the drama and NCAA black clouds hindering us even though not as exciting as last year Al did good. 7 out of 10. Good and solid. Look at the glass half full not the half empty portion. 86, I'm down with some more spanish stuff on herre, lol. Dimelo!! Great to be a Miami Hurricane, they wouldn't understand and GO CANES and to all the haters especially the ones on a Canes blog trolling GET A F'ING LIFE.

[86Cane]

NEW BLOG IS UP!