Where's The Beef?

It seems that much ado has been made recently about Miami head coach Al Golden's apparent lack of ability to recruit some big, beefy defensive lineman to secure the interior of the Hurricanes' defense.

In spite of several failed attempts over the last two recruiting cycles to land the BIG Kahuna in the middle, Golden will try again in 2014.

The only problem is there are some slim pickings in South Florida when it comes to big, beefy guys to clog up the middle.

One quick glance at the Miami Herald's Dade and Broward top 20 lists for 2014 shows exactly two light defensive ends and two big interior defensive tackle targets for the Canes, one of which is most likely to wear the orange and green:

"As strong as the secondary will be in this class, the line is already attracting big time prospects. Ends Chad Thomas (Booker T. Washington) and Mike Smith (Northwestern), and interior linemen Khairi Clark (Chaminade-Madonna), Anthony Moten (St. Thomas Aquinas) and Cypress Bay standout Justin Rae are already among the top recruits."

MIAMI-DADE PRE SPRING TOP 20

1. Ermon Lane, WR, 6-1, 180, Homestead.
2. Dalvin Cook, RB, 6-0, 190, Miami Central.
3. Joseph Yearby, RB, 5-10, 195, Miami Central.
4. Treon Harris, QB, 6-0, 185, Miami Booker T. Washington.
5. Quinton "Winky" Flowers, QB, 6-1, 200, Miami Jackson.
6. Steve Ishmael, WR, 6-2, 180, North Miami Beach.
7. Chad Thomas, DE, 6-4, 230, Miami Booker T. Washington.
8. Mike Smith, DE, 6-3, 230, Miami Northwestern.
9. Nigel Patton, DB, 5-9, 175, Miami Booker T. Washington.
10. Deatrick Nichols, DB, 5-8, 175, Miami Central.
11. Tyre Brady, WR, 6-4, 185, South Dade
12. Joseph “Jo-Jo” Robinson, Athlete, 5-11, 185, Miami Northwestern.
13. Jacob McCrary, WR, 6-1, 175, Miami Coral Reef.
14. Nicodem Pierre, QB, 6-2, 205, Miami Coral Reef.
15. Alin Eduoard, QB, 6-2, 180, Hialeah.
16. Trevor Darling, OL, 6-5, 310, Miami Central.
17. Lamar Parker, WR, 5-10, 175, Miami Booker T. Washington.
18. Henderson "Prince" Gray, WR, 5-10, 175, Miami Monsignor Pace.
19. Cornelius Floyd, WR/DB, 6-1, 160, Miami Gulliver Prep.
20. Kendrick Edwards, WR, 6-6, 220, Miami Norland.

BROWARD PRE SPRING TOP 20

1. Sony Michel, RB, 6-0, 210, American Heritage.
2. Khairi Clark, DT, 6-3, 300, Chaminade-Madonna.
3. Anthony Moten, DT, 6-4, 270, St. Thomas Aquinas.
4. Brandon Powell, RB, 5-9, 180, Deerfield Beach.
5. Quincy Wilson, DB, 6-2, 190, University School.
6. John Battle IV, DB, 6-2, 190, Hallandale.
7. Sean White, QB, 6-2, 200, University School.
8. Mardre London, RB, 6-1, 196, St. Thomas Aquinas.
9. Marquese Dudley-Gordon, S, 6-0, 180, Cypress Bay.
10. Richard Yeargin III, LB, 6-4, 218, University School.
11. Corey Holmes, WR, 6-1, 190, St. Thomas Aquinas.
12. Emmanuel Soto, WR, 6-2, 171, University School.
13. Alshinard Harris, DB, 5-11, 160, St. Thomas Aquinas
14. Chris Lammons, Athlete, 5-11, 175, Plantation.
15. Ravian Pierce, TE, 6-4, 210, Plantation.
16. Ryan Crozier, OL, 6-4, 280, St. Thomas Aquinas.
17. Wade Freebeck, QB, 6-4, 185, St. Thomas Aquinas.
18. Carter Jacobs, S, 6-2, 200, American Heritage
19. Isaiah McKenzie, Athlete, 5-9, 170, American Heritage.
20. George Rushing, WR/DB, 6-1, 185, Cardinal Gibbons

Khairi Clark is an early Hurricane favorite to land but Anthony Moten is a Florida Gator commit.

So if Golden wants to find out "Where's The Beef?" he may have to venture outside of South Florida and into the midwest or northeast to find his next prized run stopper in the mold of Cortez Kennedy, Russell Maryland or Warren Sapp. Let's hope Golden gets the job done because if not blogger Herbibis may just finally blow a gasket after all.

Comments

[HawaiiCane]

First! On it this morning...

[NativeCane]

Dos!

Good article SOUP!

I love this place!

Go Canes!!!

[TJL]

tres!!!

[TJL]

Who's online from Phuket? I was there last summer-awesome place!

[Terrance Sullivan]

Good article Soup.

[roachcane77]

Hey, what's the new Gameday Canespace hotel going to become now?

[TJL]

Barry:
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/sports-buzz/2013/05/golden-on-ncaa-ncaa-punts-on-um-shapiro-explains-k-wright-move-fins-heat-marlins.html

[Dude on a Pale Horse]

Nice article. My boy Kehoe knows where the BEEF is. We have a great OLine playing next year and a bunch of fresh bulls committed to play for the U. Kehoe is an all timer folks. So is Don Soldinger. Why isn't he employed by us again?

[Dude on a Pale Horse]

SOUP, I love any article and any opprotunity that let's me point out that Coach Soldinger is not on our staff. Thanks.

[Account Deleted]

Top 10....and you can never have enough D in college football...

[Dude on a Pale Horse]

SOUP, I love any article and any opprotunity that let's me point out that Coach Soldinger is not on our staff. Thanks.

[Dude on a Pale Horse]

Are either one of those DTs, Moten and Clark ready to plug in right now? Aren't we going after Valentine also? Erik Flowers' are rare. Freshman that can come in and play year 1 at a high level don't come along easily. Especially on OL and DL playing against seniors. We really need to get better with who we have and get some top talent to come in. I think Pierre could have a breakout year.

[orange 'n green in the vein]

/\/\/\

He is an all time great, but a lot of people lump him in with the man in the big hat and say he's got nothing left in the tank The Dude. Thankfully posts like that are flashing neon signs on the blog that say, "No taking hiring advice from this poster in the future."

Art put together the best line in college history in 2001, going into this year though I like the starters a little more man for man at almost every position there, we'll see if they can live up to that benchmark this year.

If Al can't sign a DT this year, he can't sign DT's at all and UM will be running the never before seen 2-4-5 before long. That defense will work even worse than the one they've fielded at UM to this point, though Mike Barrow will dress up like an indian and chuck a flaming spear before he lets that happen.

In fact, I think that's the official season theme this year for the team, "Help me Mike Barrow, you're my only hope . . ."

[Dude on a Pale Horse]

Michael Barrow to Al Golden and D'Onofrio: "This is not the defense you are looking for."

[86Cane]

Barrow must already have massive input into this defense and own part of its failure or he must be massively unhappy under D'No.

Which is it?

[CoCane]

Good question Soup...

[orange 'n green in the vein]

I think Barrow is too secure in his accomplishment (UM legit legend, national champ, Super Bowl champ, the dance at midfield at Cal all time highlight, etc, etc, etc . . .) to let even D'No's corny @$$ bring him down. LB's keep playing well and he's in charge (with Al as well) of special teams isn't he? Both those parts of the team are doing fine even with the constant revolving door at the LB corps, heck, Al might have put McCord at LB during the spring just to keep Jethro's knuckle dragging @$$ from wasting anymore practice time with the guy so he could get decent defensive coaching somewhere on the staff for all I know.

[TonyCane]

Appoint Ray Lewis as DC.

[laquinton]

Al coaches special teams

[roachcane77]

My vote is Barrow is massively unhappy under No' D.

[86Cane]

OGV...Barrow had ST last year but this year Golden took it from him to give him 100% of his time to focus on DEFENSE.

[CaneRock]

If Al can't sign a DT this year, he can't sign DT's at all and UM will be running the never before seen 2-4-5 before long.

Posted by: orange 'n green in the vein | May 05, 2013 at 01:52 PM

OGV, there is acutally a version of the 4-4 that lines up like that, with only 2 down linemen (DTs). It's an old school defense, but it's still prevalent at the HS level.
GB actually ran it some in the Super Bowl against Pittsburgh.

[86Cane]

Hockey Fans check this out:

https://twitter.com/Dave_Stubbs/status/331221800161779712/photo/1

[Canesteeler]

Good article.

[My Balls are Sweaty]

Is there any team outside the sec doing well signing DTs?

[TJL]

parents always asked: So if Johnny jumps off a bridge you will do it?

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/05/05/3382500/woman-jumps-off-rickenbacker-causeway.html

[Ohio_Cane]

Hockey Fans check this out:
https://twitter.com/Dave_Stubbs/status/331221800161779712/photo/1

Posted by: 86Cane | May 05, 2013 at 10:34 PM
-----------------------------------

Watched the whole game last night. Was awesome. 232 penalty minutes. Reminded me of the Pens/Flyers from last year. Only this one was more entertaining because I don't care if either of those 2 advance. Lol

[UMike]

From Pete Ariz..

Miami’s search for a quarterback to pair with Alin Edouard in the 2014 class continues. One of the newest names on the radar is 6’3”, 210-lb Malik Rosier of Faith Academy in Mobile, Alabama. Hurricanes’ offensive coordinator James Coley stopped by Rosier’s school last week to get an up-close look at the dual-threat quarterback.

“He told me he was coming out there. He messaged me on Facebook and I went berserk. I called all my coaches and said ‘Did anybody know Miami was calling me?’ and a guy named David Morris knows Coach Coley from his FSU days and he told Coach Coley there was a kid he wanted him to see. He liked me a lot, but I won’t know anything official until tomorrow when I talk to the coach. I’ll be down on June 1st to throw for the head coach,” said Rosier.

The 6’3” QB got a good vibe from Coley.

See More..
http://canesinsight.com/content/1707-Emerging-QB-prospect-Rosier-has-Canes-up-top?

[UMike]

Michael Johnson Close to Offer
2014 S Michael Johnson (6'3, 185, 4.49/40) of Champagnat Catholic met with Coach Williams recently, apparently he's close to an offer. Getting his transcripts. Per Baistan from CI. Do Want. Johnson is committed to Louisville

[UMike]

More from CanesInsight...

WR Travis Rudolph update

Miami, FSUck, and Tennessee all visited Rudolph this week. Rudolph said the meeting with Brennan Carroll went well, Rudolph went to the Spring game and was impressed by the offense, his HS is more run focused and it's clear Rudolph wants to be part of a passing attack, might camp in Coral Gables this Summer and will probably go to Tennessee, will announce at the Under Armour AA game.

Some quotes:

“He’s straight forward, he’s himself, he doesn't sugar coat anything. That’s what I like about him,” Rudolph said. “He basically was being ****y, but not ****y -- he has confidence that I’m going to be there, and he’s like, ‘When you get here you’re going to be a ball player and ball out.”

“It really just worked out,” Rudolph said of the visit. “There really wasn’t a reason for it, but when I got there I saw how their offense was doing and stuff."

“The set plans are to get on campuses I haven’t been to. I have been on Miami’s campus before, so I don't really have a plan to go on that campus, but other plans are to go up north and tour around,” Rudolph said.

“Wherever I feel like I can fit into the program well, that’s where I’ll be at," Rudolph said.

[86Cane]

Is there any team outside the sec doing well signing DTs?

Posted by: My Balls are Sweaty | May 06, 2013 at 06:36 AM

In the class of 2013 recruiting cycle outside of the SEC schools ND, USC, FSU, UNC, Michigan, Ohio State, Washington and Baylor signed a top 25 DT.

In the State of FL there were 4 DTs rated in the top 30 by Scout. FSU signed 2 of them the #7 and #18 ranked DTs and UF signed 2 also the #17 and #19 ranked DTs from 2013. Which means UM signed 0.

According to sources there are allegations are that at least one of the UF recruits had the kitchen sink of recruiting enticements thrown at him which according to "rumors" is why the UF DT coached recently "resigned" to "spend more time with his "family".

[86Cane]

In 2012 according to Scout there was only ONE DT from FL ranked in the top 30: Omari Phiilps from Venice, FL. He was ranked #19 and went to Tennessee.

In 2012 UF signed a JC transfer who was ranked #20 and that's all.

In 2012 FSU sigend 2 DT's ranked in the top 25 on Scout. FSU signed the #4 and #10 ranked DTs that year but neither was from FL, one was from Wash D.C. and the other from Alabama.

So in the last two years FSU has signed the #4, #7, #10 and #18 ranked DTs to Miami's ZERO.

My intial analysis of these facts is consistent with recruiting expert UMike and is as follows: "NOT GOOD".

[UMike]

Once D'No and Franklin get the boot..more DT's will come lol...I have read/heard from multiple places that Franklin is an azz clown on the recruiting trail and many families just dont like him. Now obviously he doesn't solely recruit DT's, but it could still be a factor.

On a brighter note, the same could be said about our DB's getting burned due the scheme and lack of pass rush, but we have still be able to pick up a lot of talent for the secondary so their is hope lol