Miami Hurricanes Nab Four Verbal Commits

The Miami Hurricanes added four more recruits to the class of 2014 on Saturday as another Al Golden football camp is wrapping up and appears to have paid off.

The actions started with a commitment from Mike Smith of Northwestern, a 6-foot-3, 235-pound three-star weakside defensive end, who can also play linebacker. Smith had almost two dozen offers from some big time programs, but was all-Miami from the get-go.

Later in the day the Canes nabbed Orange Park linebacker Darrion Owens, Fort Lauderdale Dillard cornerback Dennis Turner and Norcross (GA) tight-end/h-back Chris Herndon.

Owens is a 6-foot-3, 217-pound three-star product, listed as a safety, but expected to play linebacker. Owens boasted offers from Georgia, Louisville, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio State, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia and about a dozen other big programs.

Turner is currently listed as a two-star prospect from just up the road. At 5-foot-11 and 157-pounds, Dillard was an under-the-radar cornerback with offers from Arkansas, Florida Atlantic, Florida International and visited Penn State last fall.

Herndon checks in at 6-foot-4 and 225-pounds and is another undiscovered talent who Miami caught on the way up. The Georgia prospect had an offer from Mississippi State and Western Kentucky, but after UM linebacker coach Micheal Barrow saw him at Norcross High, an offer soon came.

As this write-up was penned on Sunday afternoon, more commits rolled in for the Hurricanes. Charles Perry, a running back / linebacker out of Royal Palm Beach in West Palm gave his commitment for the 2015 class, committing on the spot after earning an offer from his efforts at Golden’s camp.

Trayone Gray also committed. Listed as an “athlete”, Carol City High’s Gray played a few different positioned as this weekend’s camp and is another under-the-radar guy, simply because UM coaches got a jump on him due to Golden’s summertime camp efforts.

Big time weekend for Miami and Golden and a half dozen “Welcome To The U” greetings to toss out. Sure, verbal commitments aren’t binding and a lot of time between now and February 2014, or 2015, for that matter.

Still, the summer camps appear to be paying dividends. Especially when you look back a few years and consider UM had less than a half dozen verbals in December 2010 when Golden took over.

Lastly, for those over-concerned with stars and rankings, definitely time to pump the brakes here as a lot of these kids are going to climb as their senior season rolls on. These current stars are due to being relatively unknown, yet full of potential.

This is also how the recruiting game works. A kid starts out a two-star and a big school catches wind. With an offer from Miami, now some UM rivals will start looking at these kids and if they like what they see, more offers pile up.

Also, one more year of high school ball remains this fall and as a kid gets some attention and takes care of business on the field, a two-star can easily become a three-star, and even a four, depending on the caliber of offers that roll in.

In other words, a verbal commitment of a two-star today could become a four-star by February, depending how things play out, so wait and see where it goes before playing the “star wars” game.

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