Canes Land First 2009 Commitment

Not more than a few hours after I posted the Sean Spence video yesterday, saying nothing much was going on so far in Hurricanes recruiting, AJ Highsmith committed to the University of Miami.

If the name sounds familiar, that's because he is son of former Canes great Alonzo Highsmith. AJ is a quarterback/athlete and currently is unranked by major recruiting services, but is still a talented kid. From what I've heard about him, he'll probably be in the 3/4 star range.

AJ is the 2nd of Alonzo's sons to commit to Miami, but the first, Ali, didn't qualify academically and instead had a stellar career at LSU. Shame.

As far as other recruits go, there continue to be rumors about silent commits, and the number is up to 6 now. Who knows. None of it really counts until NSD 2009 anyway, so it's not a big deal. We've offered a bunch of kids by now and many of them have come out as having the Canes on the top of their lists.

Some, like CB Darrell Givens have claimed they've always wanted to play for Miami. Doesn't surprise me considering many of these guys were 10-12 years old when Miami was last on top of the world. A young mind is a malleable thing so I'm sure many of them grew to like the Canes (what kid isn't a bandwagoner?).

Truth is, most of it is all for show until we get some verbals and then some LOIs in front of these kids. Chances are if a kid is highly rated and has an interest in us, then he's probably getting an offer from us, regardless of what the services have on their player profiles. That's just common sense. Then they'll tell us what we want to hear until Signing Day.

Look for Shannon to target OL, TE, DL and some corners in this class. I'm sure they'll still sign a QB (maybe two since Highsmith is technically a QB and Eugene Smith is super-high on us) and some running backs (I'm guessing 2 5-star guys in Lamar Miller and Bryce Brown), but those 4 areas are ones we should be concerned about heading into the 2009 season. The staff did an excellent job of stocking up on the other positions in this past class.