BREAKING: Miami flips 4-star TE Gavin Mueller from Colorado

Miami has flipped a top-60 tight end commit from Colorado to add its 13th Rivals300 commit and fourth top-100 pledge.

The Hurricanes completed their flip of No. 56 overall prospect and No. 4 tight end Gavin Mueller from the Buffaloes following his official visit to Miami this past weekend for the Canes’ game against NC State. Mueller had remained committed to Colorado since mid-May but received an aggressive recruiting push from Miami’s staff — led by tight ends coach Cody Woodiel — since last month.

“A big part for me was just my relationship with the coaches,” Mueller told CaneSport. “The tight ends coach but especially coach (Mario) Cristobal. He took us, the recruits, he gave us a tour and he drove the recruits around, just me and three other dudes in his car. That’s different. You never hear of stuff like that. That’s very hands-on, and I definitely felt like my recruitment was very personal and hands-on from him. You don’t see that a lot.”

Mueller also attended Miami’s Oct. 25 game against Stanford for an unofficial visit and received strong interest from North Carolina and Alabama after skyrocketing into the Rivals300 this fall, but Miami emerged as the biggest threat to Colorado by the start of November. The Hurricanes scheduled him for a second visit to South Florida — this time an official visit — shortly after.

Confidence for Mueller began growing in Miami circles shortly after his first trip to campus, but the Hurricanes emerged as the outright leader for the 6-foot-6, 250-pound prospect after his official visit. Miami became the Rivals Recruiting Prediction Machine’s leader for him Monday.

Mueller said “a lot of prayer and thought” went into his decision before he informed the staff of his decision Tuesday. But he eventually knew Miami was the place for him.

“Everything just kept checking out,” Mueller said. “When I was first getting recruited it felt like a lot of spots I was just seeing, ‘Do I not want to go here?’ But then when I went to Miami, after the fact it was like, ‘This is the place for me I think.’ So that was just a different feeling that I wasn’t used to, so that kind of made me realize. Then after getting home and gathering my thoughts I was like, ‘Yeah, this is the place.'”

Mueller becomes the 30th commit in Miami’s tight end class along with fellow four-star tight end Israel Briggs, although Mueller projects as more of a traditional Y tight end than Briggs, who projects as a flex tight end. His commitment also builds on the Canes’ 10th-ranked class and gives Miami a chance to surpass Tennessee at No. 9.

Mueller said he’s shutting down his recruitment for the final two weeks of the recruiting cycle.

“I’m stoked!” Mueller said. “There’s not a team I would rather play for. The community, the fanbase, the coaching staff, even the teachers are excited for Miami football and that’s unique. So I’m really excited about that and just being able to play with a bunch of guys who are like-minded is just going to create the best competition. I’m stoked just to get out there and get with the guys and the people and play as hard as I can for the school.

CaneSport’s Take

Mueller suddenly jumped 100 spots in the most recent Rivals300 rankings update for good reason. We think there’s a strong argument he has the highest overall ceiling of any tight end Miami has landed in the Cristobal era and think Woodiel deserves a tremendous amount of credit for successfully gaining such a tremendous amount of ground in such little time.

Miami will now look to close with four-star safety Blake Stewart, four-star Wisconsin running back commit Amari Latimer and another top-100 prospect like five-star LSU ATH/DT commit Lamar Brown, five-star Oregon ATH/WR commit Jalen Lott or a top-100 defensive lineman like Alabama commit Nolan Wilson, Oregon commit Anthony “Tank” Jones or Texas A&M commit Bryce Perry-Wright.