Wednesday marked our dear old friend The Fax Machine’s favorite day of the year – National Signing Day. This year was the first signing day untainted by clouds of scandal and looming NCAA sanctions.
“Man that felt good,” said coach Al Golden in reference to his freedom to FINALLY talk about all that the University of Miami has to offer and not having to defend or explain the negative repercussions of the infamous Shapiro scandal. At the close of the day, UM secured 26 official commitments, a recruiting class good enough to be ranked tenth in the nation by ESPN.
The first letter of intent came from St. Thomas Aquinas center Nick Linder at 7:01 a.m. and the commitments just kept coming with the final letter at the 4:00 p.m. deadline from running back Trayone Gray, of Carol City High School.
Here you have it readers of Distraction, your 2014 recruiting class:
Braxton Berrios, WR, Leesville Road HS (Raleigh, N.C.)
Tyre Brady, WR, South Dade HS (Homestead, Fla.)
Trevor Darling, OL, Miami Central HS (Miami, Fla.)
Marques Gayot, S, Park Vista Community HS (Lake Worth, Fla.)
Trayone Gray, WR, Carol City HS (Miami, Fla.)
Trent Harris, DE, Winter Park HS (Winter Park, Fla.)
Christopher Herndon, TE, Norcross HS (Norcross, Ga.)
Kiy Hester, S, DePaul Catholic HS (Wayne, N.J.)
Calvin Heurtelou, DT, Spring Valley HS/Scottsdale CC (Spring Valley, N.Y.)
Demetrius Jackson, DE, Booker T. Washington HS (Miami, Fla.)
Courtel Jenkins, DT, DePaul Catholic HS (Jersey City, N.J.)
Brad Kaaya, QB, Chaminade HS (West Hills, Calif.)
Darrell Langham, WR, Santaluces Community HS (Lantana, Fla.)
Nick Linder, C, St. Thomas Aquinas (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.)
Ryan Mayes, DB, Northwestern HS (Miami, Fla.)
Terry McCray, LB, Blanche Ely HS (Pompano Beach, Fla.)
KC McDermott, OT, Palm Beach Central HS (Wellington, Fla.)
Anthony Moten, DT, St. Thomas Aquinas (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.)
David Njoku, ATH, Cedar Grove HS (Cedar Grove, N.J.)
Darrion Owens, LB, Oakleaf HS (Orange Park, Fla.)
Malik Rosier, QB, Faith Academy (Mobile, Ala.)
Mike Smith, DE, Northwestern HS (Miami, Fla.)
Chad Thomas, DE, Booker T. Washington HS (Miami, Fla.)
Michael Wyche, DT, Oscar Smith HS/East L.A. College (Monterey Park, Calif.)
Joseph Yearby, RB, Miami Central HS (Miami, Fla.)
Juwon Young, LB, Albany HS (Albany, Ga.)
“We’re really excited about it … from explosiveness, size, maturity standpoints,” said Golden of his recruiting class, “I feel much better about our depth there now than I did at any point last year.”
words and photo_kristen spillane.