Tommy Kinsler commits to Miami in giant-sized pickup
It is not a secret that Mario Cristobal believes in big, physical offensive lines in the mold of what he used to coach at Alabama.
Now the Hurricanes made another move in that direction when they landed a commitment from Ocala (Fla.) Trinity Catholic OL Tommy Kinsler, who had decommitted from Florida recently after also considering Florida State and Rutgers.
Kinsler waited until his mother’s birthday to make the Cane news public, and he announced at her celebratory dinner this evening.
According to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies, Kinsler ranks as the No. 69 offensive tackle in the 2023 class and comes in as the No. 956 player regardless of position.
He is an excellent run blocker and dominates at the high school level by simply mauling guys. But he also moves his feet remarkably well considering his size. That makes him capable of playing guard or tackle at Miami once he develops pass protection skills.
Things weren’t looking great for the Hurricanes with Kinsler when he came off his visit to Florida the middle of June and committed to the Gators. But Kinsler decided to still go ahead with his Miami official visit the weekend of June 24 and that paid big dividends for the Hurricanes. He said then that he just wanted to see the academics at Miami, and Florida gave its blessing to make that trip.
Kinsler says the message he’s consistently gotten from UM coaches is that “they like my game, how physical I am on the field.”
He landed an offer from the prior staff and was quickly reoffered by the new staff when they came on board.
CaneSport’s take
This is a big win for Mario Cristobal and Alex Mirabal. They made it clear that they wanted Kinsler badly and worked hard to land the commit even after Kinsler was calling Florida his leader for more than a year and then wound up committing there. Now he’s all Cane.
