Add Coley at UGA and then u nikkas may be competing with FAU for talent. (Hold up, Lane and Butch down there too)
MIAMI – Sometimes a run of commitments is simply a run of commitments. Other times, it’s a full-fledged movement. Four-star wide receiver Elijah Moore thinks this situation seems like the latter.
Moore took note of the situation in early February, when the Miami football program dominated the conversation between him and his teammates on a trip from Miami to Orlando for a 7-on-7 tournament. The topic didn’t change when they arrived.
Once off the bus and on the field, any recruiting conversation Moore had with another prospect on another team quickly turned to the Hurricanes. It was then that the Ft. Lauderdale (Fla.) St. Thomas Aquinas standout says he knew something had shifted. Perception of his hometown team had changed. He didn’t need to squint to see the transformation.
“I had kinda noticed that my teammates [at St. Thomas] had been talking about Miami more this year,” Moore said. “But when we were in Orlando and everyone there was talking about Miami too, that’s when I knew it was different. That’s when I knew it was happening.”
The “it” Moore references is a string of Rivals250 commitments. In the month following the adidas Tournament in Orlando, second-year head coach Mark Richt has assembled an 11-man 2018 recruiting class that includes a five-star (running back Lorenzo Lingard) and six four-stars.
The commitments from highly-ranked prospects came quickly and sometimes without warning. This was a full-fledged assault on in-state talent – the execution of a keep-talent-home mantra that began to feel like lip service months ago.
Rivals100 running back Camron Davis, who was part of Miami’s February run on Florida-based talent, has a simple explanation for the situation. Recruiting is a momentum-based game And with spots in recruiting classes at a premium, it pays to be trendy.
“That’s how it goes,” Davis said. “We all started hearing who was going to commit and we all starting getting excited. Then, it started happening. We all get together now, man, and we talk. When people start seeing, 'Hey, Lorenzo just committed to Miami. Hey, Cam just committed to Miami. Randy Russell just committed to Miami. Al Blades is gonna commit to Miami.' … That’s when other people start favoring Miami. That’s when other people start committing. That’s what’s going on now.”
