Good morning OBB. It’s Friday! The Miami Hurricanes had some more portal news, recruiting visits are picking up and Discord-U is still salty no staff changes have been made. This is your Friday morning wake up call.

the Greentree

Brian Balom became the 15th Miami Hurricane player to announce his transfer. That is the sixth DB to announce their portal bound intentions and it leaves only three scholarship safeties on the roster. Reminder that Avante Williams, Jalen Harrel, Keshawn Washington and Al Blades Jr (moved to safety in 2022) have also entered the transfer portal. Did the emergence of Kam Kinchens actually deter individuals? It seems that way.

The former consensus three star from Miramar high school recorded 11 total tackles in his Miami Hurricane career. Balom was unfortunately out with an undisclosed injury in 2021. Now that Balom has entered the portal every single DB in the 2020 class is no longer a part of the program.

“Not a lot of buying in going on.”

“I think I saw something that said the entire 2020 DB class is gone.”

“Good going Manny.”

Miami made a good run at trying to get Jermaine Mathews and Ohio State fans took notice. After a reaffirmation that Mathews is 100% locked in with the Buckeyes and will be enrolling early this spring, his recruitment is trending back to Columbus. (not 100% over) But the OSU response is rich. Apparently the NIL market is simply pawned off as “buying players.”

I guess the Urban Meyer years and improper benefits and sanctions (albeit small ones) don’t matter here. The NIL market has brought what was under the table over the table and the Hurricanes are active participants in this modern wild west. Well Mr. Biddle, we will certainly say our record sucked last year, but we weren’t the only ones who were embarrassed by our rival. #goUM

Roster wise the Miami Hurricanes will essentially have a brand new team in 2023. The Hurricanes currently have 22 committed and currently 15 have declared for the portal. Just bringing in the 2023 class and replacements for the portal defectors will net approximately 40 new ball players. Of note, in 2021 the Hurricanes signed 15 and 11 transferred. in.

In 2023 you could seen in excess of 65-70 “Mario kids” between those two classes alone. The culture war at this point needs to be won by Mario and staff. The relentless struggle to have buy in should be much easier when most of the 85 players on scholarship are your guys.

“I’m going to be like, Who the F are you?”

Recruiting Central

Miami continues to put the full court press on Javion Cohen who has announced publicly his intentions to visit Miami. Coach Mirabal is taking a lead (among others) in his recruitment and the offensive line coach would be praised for nabbing the number one offensive line portal option. The former Crimson Tide member never allowed a sack in his Alabama career.

As reported in the early week’s edition of the Wake up, the Cormani McClain visit to Alabama is not apparently happening. This is good news for the Miami Hurricanes who will continually have to fight off the wolves to land the #1 CB in the country. Mario is being paid handsomely to win these battles. After a 5-7 season it intensifies winning the recruiting battles just a little more.

And in terms of the next flip….

“Could be the 5 star safety we’ve been waiting on….”  -Leeds OBBL Recruiting Director

“Lol he got dropped to a 4 star. That’s amazing. .9823

“He is a 5 star in my heart.”

“Flip is definitely happening then.”

Sports Talk

The NCAA needs to be applauded for its decision to grant every Virginia football player whose eligibility ended in 2022 an extra year of eligibility. Virginia had to cancel its final two games last season after the tragic murders of Lavel Davis Jr, Devine Chandler and D’Sean Perry. This was exactly the correct call and our thoughts and prayers continue to go out to the Cavalier program.

Join the discussion today and be part of Discord-U. The OBB Legend is its exclusive home and we will put a welcome mat out for you. (Quotes were provided from Discord-U) #staydangerous #BANG