Welcome to The Crootletter (sign up to get this in your inbox every morning!), SB Nation's daily college football recruiting newsletter.
After a great round of college football meetings, it’s time for a new edition of the Crootletter.
And we return with the Miami Hurricanes atop the 2018 recruiting rankings.
Longtime readers know early recruiting rankings, both at the player and team level, are not good compared to the product 10 months later at the end of the recruiting cycle. Still, it’s better to be rated highly than not.
The latest edition to Miami’s recruiting class is receiver Brian Hightower, of Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy, originally from Calabasas (Calif.). Hightower is legit. With verified measurements of 6’2.5 and 202 pounds, Hightower has strong ball skills and can win in the red zone, and he has good speed for his size. He’s a known commodity and a great get for the Hurricanes. I’d be surprised if he doesn’t finish ranked as one of the 10 best receivers nationally.
Miami also has five-star running back Lorenzo Lingard, who many I trust have compared, at least stylistically, to Todd Gurley. Lingard himself told me the same recently. He is a difference maker.
And defensive back commit Josh Jobe is a star. I wrote about him recently after traveling to Miami for a camp:
The Miami commit is every bit of 6’1 and 190 pounds. Jobe may have the athleticism to stick at cornerback, as he displayed quick feet for his size to cut off and mirror receivers. And he is much more physically advanced than his peers. On that note, several Miami media members I spoke with expect Jobe to attend Chesterfield Academy, a prep school in Connecticut, as players in Florida cannot play high school if they turn 19 before September. Jobe will miss that cutoff by a half-year. That’s not a bad thing — former South Florida stars like Calvin Ridley and Kelvin Benjamin also aged out as seniors. Jobe declined all interviews Sunday and earned an invite to The Opening Finals.
I’m interested to see how IMG QB Artur Sitkowski develops after his transfer from New Jersey to the Academy. He has great size and physical tools, but his on-field play in his junior season did not match up with those skills. Miami is taking a chance by offering and accepting his commitment this early, but it could pay off for the Hurricanes if he takes a big developmental leap. Other schools are waiting a bit.
Will Miami really end up with the No. 1 class in the country? Probably not.
For one, Alabama has signed the No. 1 class for seven straight seasons. For another, there probably aren’t enough five-star-type targets who are legitimately considering the Hurricanes. But this class does have a different feel, and a top-10 class for the first time in years is certainly possible. And Miami’s schedule is forgiving, with Virginia Tech, Notre Dame, and Georgia Tech all coming to Coral Gables. It could have its best season since 2003 if it finds a replacement for QB Brad Kaaya.
Quickly
Bill C’s team of the day Thursday was FIU! It's the most experienced team in the country. I also really like how FIU is recruiting. While FAU gets all the headlines for its recruiting and Lane Kiffin, FIU is actually doing a better job recruiting high school players, which makes sense given the presumptions of how long the respective coaches will be at their programs.
An emerging name to know is Melbourne (Fla.) Central Catholic runner Lavonte Valentine, who has picked up his first five offers in the last five days: from Kentucky, USC, Southern Miss, Oregon, and Akron. That’s a great way to start a recruitment.
Valentine’s team won the state title, and I would have likely seen him had the FHSAA’s credential policy not been archaic, banning media members who cover recruiting. Valentine has excellent size, at 6’2 and 190 pounds, and this spring he ran the fastest 60-meter time in the U.S. at 6.77. I’ll have more on Valentine soon.
Did you see Christian McCaffrey only did 10 reps on the bench press? I hope for his sake that the poor results are injury-related. If that is his true strength, yikes. Many gym warriors on social media claim they can do better in some of these combine drills than the future NFL players, but in this case, they are right.
South Carolina QB Brandon McIlwain is transferring. I always thought he was a much better baseball prospect than a football player, but now he’s free to pursue whatever.
Ohio State got a new four-star commit. He is Jaelen Gill, a running back from Ohio, and he is legit:
Gill is commitment No. 4 for the Buckeyes 2018 class joining QB Emory Jones of Georgia, RB Brian Snead of Florida, and S Jaiden Woodbey of California. He's also the fourth blue-chip pledge for Urban Meyer. Gill currently holds the 32nd highest grade of all prospects in the 2018 class. Furthermore, the newest Ohio State verbal is ranked as the third best player at his position and the second best player in the state of Ohio just behind '18 OT Jackson Carman — another major target for the Buckeyes. In what may come as a surprise to many, Gill is actually the first in-state player in the class to commit to Ohio State.
The Ole Miss latest: Egg Bowl rivals arguing about whether there's tape evidence of Mississippi State being dragged into it.
How Nick Saban turning down some home cooking helped Alabama recruit Jonathan Allen.
Tom Brady was once committed to Cal before Michigan. That’s cool.