Good morning OBB. This is your Thursday morning post Early Signing Day wake up call. How did everyone sleep? Good, good. The Miami Hurricanes currently sit with a top five class in the country with 26 commitments but only 25 of them have signed Letter of Intents. There is always that one. Let’s head on down to the Greentree in haiku form. #LETSGO.

the Greentree

Golden sun on orange helmets

Miami Hurricanes take the field

Victory is ours -MB

Cormani McClain made national waves yesterday. The top prospect in the Hurricanes class did not sign his Letter of Intent as initially intended. As with any delay on signing day, the natural reaction is to expect the worst. However the explanation for the delay could also not be that nefarious.

The Hurricane staff, including Mario Cristobal, feel confident that they will sign McClain. Several national beat writers have stated that Deion Sanders, new head coach of the Colorado Buffalos, has been the impact driving force here. However, if there was a prime lurker in the shadows, it would have to be the Alabama Crimson Tide.

“So my only counter Leeds and it’s more of a hypothetical question, is why hasn’t Cormani come out and just said sorry about the delay, still signing with the Canes tomorrow?”

“Miami wasn’t ghosted. Miami has not only spoken to the mother today but also Cormani and his camp throughout the day. There is no mystery here, Colorado didn’t just come in out of nowhere and steal Cormani and make him go dark on Miami. There are very good reasons that Miami is not worried.” -Leeds

The consensus over in Discord-U is that the reason for the delay in McClain’s signing was in fact over a minor hiccup. There is no panic from the staff over this and that messaging and confidence they will sign McClain has been portrayed in exuberance. This situation however will be something to closely monitor throughout the day.

Trouble in paradise? Shortly after signing with Miami, Antoine Jackson tweeted out at 9:23 PM that he would be backing out, he would not be attending the University of Miami. The tweet has since been deleted. Jackson is the 6-0 safety out of Dillard high school in Ft. Lauderdale who also had offers from Alabama and Georgia.

Jackson is listed as signed and the University of Miami Hurricanes made it official yesterday speaking on his name directly. It is of course a direct NCAA recruiting violation to speak about a recruit’s name until they sign. Of Note: The NLI is a binding agreement between a prospective student-athlete and the college/university.

“If the student changes his mind, (after signing NLI) he is free to leave the school. However, he can lose his financial aid and may be prohibited from playing the sport at another school for one season. That’s why you often see transfers sitting out for a year after arriving at a new school.” -FindLaw Publication

“He deleted the tweet last night.”

“(Hopefully) Got hacked.”

A big Orange Bowl Boy salute to Dr. Scott Patchan. (He is not really a doctor he was just in school long enough to be one.) In the middle of the hysteria known as Early Signing Day, he provided the quote of the day. “Boston College really said they don’t care about sports when they hired Blake James.” 

That a boy Scott. Let that shoe stealer know who is boss. Patchan of course played for the University of Miami from 2015-2018 until transferring to Colorado State. Blake James was Patchan’s Athletic Director during his time as a Hurricane so you could say there is familiarity there. Dr. Patch was rated the 19th best defensive end coming out of high school according to Rivals.

“Looks like he learned a few things during all that time in college.”

“He has as many years in athletics as James.”

X's and Ro

As the dust settles on the recruiting front the shift is expected to move onto staff changes. We have said on numerous occasions inside Discord-U that major staff changes are to be expected. That includes embattled current offensive coordinator Josh Gattis. In addition to his on the field woes this season, his off the field game was rather uninspiring in terms of recruiting.

Coach Cristobal expressed the need for outside wide receivers in his recent presser. The additions of Nathanial Joseph and Robby Washington were game changers at the receiver position however more firepower was needed. According to 247, Gattis was credited with only one commit this class. (Joseph) The Miami Hurricanes will need to aggressively attack the portal for impact outside WR help now.

Sooner rather than later. Now that the bulk of the recruiting class is in and the focus will shift to the portal, an efficient offense is required. The recruiting prowess of Mario Cristobal should be commended and the strength of the 2023 class despite coming off a 5-7 season was noteworthy. But attracting high end portal talent in our opinion requires a new offensive system. We expect one soon.

“We went to Clemson. Hit a deer in a rental car.”

“The Deer was the lucky one here. You still had to drive and watch that game.” -Ro

the Shake

Don’t be surprised to see the Miami Hurricanes starting a softball team in the near future. Not only did former Clemson AD and current Miami AD Dan Radakovich start a softball team at Clemson, this is near and dear to the Assistant AD as well. Patsy Flynn, aka Jen Straws, aka Jennifer Strawley was a two year captain of her University of Pennsylvania softball team.

At a previous luncheon with the AD’s, they expressed how they were looking at spots to construct a stadium and had some potential sites on campus in mind. Currently the focus however is to build the multi-story football operations building first. You know, because football is king. However a softball team at the University of Miami is long overdue.

Also congratulations to the baseball team are in order as they were ranked pre-season #8 in the Collegiate Baseball top 25 poll. Gino is cool now because Toast’s Nephew signed with the Hurricanes this past season. Let’s go nephew. And let’s be honest, we are prone to our bias nature. Just ask anyone.

“4 of the top 11 are from the ACC.”

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