With sister's birthday present commitment gift, Jayden Wayne catapults Miami to No. 7 in national recruiting rankings
Bradenton IMG Academy DE Jayden Wayne chose his sister’s birthday today to announce his college decision.
Her present was, quite literally, his commitment. During his announcement, the 4-star pulled out a box with a bow from under the table and presented it to her. She took the top off, and inside was a Miami hat that she quickly donned.
Just as quickly, the University of Miami had its own present. And not just the addition of this talented defensive lineman.
For those that believe in the national recruiting rankings, well the Hurricanes just jumped from No. 11 to No. 7 in the On3 Consensus rankings with the placement of that hat on her head.
It was Miami’s 13th commitment, and UM now only trails No. 6 Georgia (12 commits), No. 5 Alabama (10 commits), No. 4 Clemson (17 commits), No. 3 Texas (18 commits), No. 2 Ohio State (17 commits) and No. 1 Notre Dame (19 commits).
The Canes leapfrogged USC, Penn State and LSU.
Of the team’s 13 commitments, there’s one five-star (Francis Mauigoa) and seven four-stars.
The Canes also rank second on the list in Avg. NIL, which tabulates what worth players have at the next level – at $112k the team trails only Texas’ $236k.
Mario Cristobal’s hastily cobbled together 2022 class, which signed shortly after he was hired, wound up ranking No. 11 in the nation (no five-stars, 12 four-stars in the 15-player class), and in Manny Diaz’s final year of a full recruiting cycle that 2021 class was a solid No. 10 including a pair of five-stars (Leonard Taylor and James Williams). That group was helped in a sense by COVID, which prevented top local players from taking other visits.
So the argument can be made that UM will now have three highly rated classes for Cristobal to coach up, with more on the way.
The issue for Miami – at least in terms of ranking highly in recruiting – was really pre-2021 in recruiting. The 2020 class was ranked No. 17 and 2019 was No. 25.
With Cristobal and his acumen for recruiting and relentless attitude toward it, Miami has its sights set on a top 5 class.
That hasn’t happened since 2008, when the Canes finished ranked No. 3 behind five-stars Arthur Brown and Marcus Forston.
It’s been a while.
But Cristobal & Co. are building the Miami Hurricanes back up, with their sights set firmly on the top of the recruiting rankings and, eventually, the national rankings.
