Mario Cristobal and Miami coaches work at ‘warp speed’ trying to impress 2023 recruits as June visits commence

Olaus Alinen is a 6-6, 315-pound offensive tackle from Finland, whose father, Klaus, played in the NFL with the Atlanta Falcons briefly in 2006.

Alinen benches 360 pounds, squats 560 and has bouncy, quick feet.

If recruiting were solely about relationships, coach Mario Cristobal, offensive line coach Alex Mirabal and the University of Miami would be in a great spot to land the talented 2023 four-star recruit who plays at the Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, Conn.

Two years ago, when Cristobal and Mirabal were at Oregon, the Ducks were the second Power 5 program to offer Alinen a scholarship — four days after the offensive line coach at Michigan working under current Hurricanes offensive coordinator Josh Gattis did.

“Coach Cristobal and coach Mirabal have big goals, represent good values. They always talk about family,” said Alinen, who first began playing football five years ago in Finland with grown men before coming over to the United States to play high school football in 2020. “They’re enthusiastic about their program, about developing and about helping you more than just as a player. Plus, their skills with the O-line and being the best version of yourself is what drives the relationship.

“Between coach Cristobal, coach Mirabal and the GA, there’s going to be three to four guys working with the O-line all the time in practice and that’s really, really unique. It’s really great to have all those people that have their resources in developing O-line.”

As good as that all sounds for the Hurricanes’ chances of landing Alinen, Miami is hardly standing at the front of a layup line. When you compete for elite recruits, you’ve got to beat out the best teams for them.

When Alinen announced his top four schools on April 1, Miami was among a quartet that included defending national champion Georgia and College Football Playoff regulars Alabama and Ohio State. On Friday, Alinen began the first of four consecutive weekend visits to his college finalists with his parents in Coral Gables. He said he’d like to reach a decision once the tour with his family is over.

Miami Hurricanes 2023 Targets @alinen_olaus, @JaydenBonsu & @TaMereRobinson3 on their OV visit at The U!!! 🧡💚🙌 #ItsAllAboutTheU pic.twitter.com/MkvoCgj1qG

— All Canes (@AllCanesU) June 3, 2022

Alinen was one of three weekend visitors for the Hurricanes. Four-star edge rusher Ta’Mere Robinson (6-3, 210), of Pittsburgh, and four-star safety Jayden Bonsu (6-2, 205), of Jersey City, N.J., were the others. Miami is set to host more than two dozen recruits in June, a busy month for official visits across the country for Power 5 programs.

Last year, 14 of the top 15 programs in the final 2022 247Sports Composite team rankings — Texas A&M, Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, Texas, Penn State, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Michigan, North Carolina, LSU, Oregon, Kentucky and Missouri — hosted a combined 377 official visitors in June. Clemson, which finished 10th in the team recruiting rankings, didn’t host any official visitors last summer. But Dabo Swinney’s team finally got with the times this summer.

How important is locking in an official visit in June with elite recruits? That’s hard to quantify considering how much coaching changes, name image and likeness and the transfer portal alter final decisions during the early signing period in December and the last one in February.

But if you look at the final results, Texas A&M, which finished with the No. 1 ranked class, had 19 of the 30 high school recruits they signed visit College Station in June. Penn State, which signed the sixth-best class according to 247Sports, had 21 of its 25 signees visit in June. 

Miami, meanwhile, which underwent a change at head coach and rallied late to finish with the 16th-best recruiting class, hosted only four of its 14 high school signees last June.

‘Excitement level is high’

Cristobal still feels like he’s playing catch-up. In his four seasons as head coach at Oregon, the Ducks finished 13th (2018), seventh (2019), 12th (2020) and 6th (2021), respectively, in the rankings, pulling in 52 blue-chip recruits over that span, including first-round picks Penei Sewell and Kayvon Thibodeaux.

Cristobal, who signed four five-star recruits, 15 top-100 players and 48 four-stars at Oregon from 2018-21, has cast a wide net for the Hurricanes on the recruiting trail with what will be his first full recruiting class at Miami. He’s sending assistants anywhere and everywhere to find talent — from lacrosse games in the northeast to track meets in the Pacific Northwest. And he’s chasing all the big dogs, too.

Among the top visitors expected this month: five-star defensive lineman David Hicks of Katy, Texas (June 10-12); four-star edge rusher Jayden Wayne (June 17-19) of Tacoma, Wash.; four-star safety Joenel Aguero (June 24-26) of Danvers, Mass., and four-star tight end Jaxon Howard (June 24-26) of Minneapolis, Minn.

“I think the excitement level (with recruits) is high,” Cristobal told The Athletic. “They know we’re headed in the right direction, and we’re going to have a hell of a (signing) class. We’re going after guys that we feel strongly about, and we are finding some other guys now that could be playing in the Super Bowl and you’ve never heard of them until we got to them. We trust our eyes. The board is deep and vast.”

At Oregon, Cristobal put most of his recruiting focus on the state of California. He signed 39 players from the Golden State. Arizona (7) and Utah (6) were next. Even though Cristobal enjoyed great recruiting success in the southeast when he was one of Nick Saban’s top assistants at Alabama from 2013-16, he didn’t raid Florida or Alabama or Georgia for talent at Oregon. He only signed three players from the Sunshine State, four from the Yellowhammer State and three from the Peach State.

Now, he’s back on this side of the country trying to reestablish his presence. 

“We’ve been on the other side of the country,” Cristobal said. “Even though we recruited some players over here, we really cherry-picked over here. We didn’t cultivate (relationships) over here. Very different. Now, you’ve got to cultivate on this side and cherry-pick the other side now. Recultivating, assigning areas and getting back into it, when you start, you’re always a year behind and it takes you a full year to fully catch up to be ahead of the kids in the 2024, 2025, 2026 classes. But we are at warp speed. We’ve got our foot on the gas and we’re rolling as hard and as fast as we can to get there.”

Miami hasn’t signed the consensus top player in south Florida in the 247Sports Composite since Duke Johnson and Tracy Howard — the top players in Dade and Broward counties — both picked the Hurricanes in 2012. The Hurricanes did, though, land the best player in Dade twice: defensive tackle Leonard Taylor in 2021 and offensive lineman Navaughn Donaldson in 2017. 

Cristobal made a run at 247Sports’ No. 1 ranked player in south Florida last year. But five-star defensive lineman Shemar Stewart opted to sign with Texas A&M. Stewart said Miami finished second. Cristobal thinks he still landed the best player in South Florida. 

“It’s important to get the No. 1 guy on your board,” Cristobal replied when asked how important it is to sign the No. 1 recruit in Miami’s backyard every year. “Was Wesley (Bissainthe) not No. 1 last year?”

Not all of Miami’s top targets have lined up visits for June. And none in Dade or Broward have so far. Many have stopped by campus multiple times on unofficial visits, including the No. 1 local recruit in the 2023 cycle: Plantation American Heritage five-star receiver Brandon Inniss, who has USC, Alabama and Ohio State all fawning over him. The receiver position is loaded locally this year.

It’s no secret the Hurricanes badly covet four-star receiver Nathaniel “Ray-Ray” Joseph of Miami Edison, a Clemson commitment; and hold four-star cornerback Damari Brown, also of Plantation American Heritage, in very high regard. 

The Hurricanes stand at five non-binding oral commitments entering June, with the 39th-ranked class overall. Miami Palmetto athlete Robby Washington (5-10, 170) is the only four-star recruit in the bunch. Washington’s brother, Miami Palmetto linebacker Bobby Washington, offensive lineman Antonio Tripp (Owing Mills, Md.), Miami Central receiver Lamar Seymore, and 6-5, 315-pound Australian-born offensive tackle Frankie Tinilau (Miami LaSalle) are all Miami commitments ranked as three-star recruits in the 247Sports Composite.

Whatever happens from now until next February, Cristobal has plenty of roster flexibility to work with in the 2023 signing class. With the “Aid After Departure of Head Coach” bylaw (15.5.17) in place for Cristobal through May 2023, which allows newly hired coaches to remove a player from their 85-man scholarship roster as long as they stop playing, there really is no limit on how much turnover we could see with Miami’s roster.

“I think it’s taken care of itself for the most part,” Cristobal told The Athletic when asked about how the rule helps him rework the roster. “We established certain standards and they’re very clear. Some guys have met it and some guys are still working to try to meet them. We must get to 85 when the time is right. We’ll get there when the time is right. But all this time right now is a time of assessment. We’re still building our team. Your offseason is the most critical part of the entire year leading up to the season. We’ll get to 85.

“At the end of the day, if someone is on scholarship, whether they were part of your recruiting class or not, whether they can compete with the other guys on the team or not, I mean, either way, they’re part of the football team. You’d like to give everybody a chance to prove themselves capable, or themselves finding out that maybe it’s best to seek an opportunity somewhere else. I think we’ve done that. And we’re not done. It needs to be challenging and rewarding to be a Miami Hurricane. And I think this right now is like the next phase in that process. Because every great organization has a process that establishes its leaders, protocols, chain of commands, rules, regulations, policies, standards, all that stuff. So that’s what we’re in right now. And we trust that gets us to the 85 every year. Always has.”

JUCO receiver target

The Hurricanes are not done looking for help at receiver and appear to have set their sights on trying to land Colbie Young, a physical 6-4, 216-pound leaper out of Lackawanna Community College in Pennsylvania — the same school that produced Hurricane great Bryant McKinnie more than two decades ago.

Young said he spoke to Cristobal and offensive coordinator Josh Gattis on Friday and received a scholarship offer. He’s visiting Miami on June 13 — after taking official visits to Pittsburgh (June 7-9) and Tennessee (June 10-12). Young, who had offers from Albany, Maine and Furman coming out of high school, caught 24 passes for 472 yards and nine touchdowns last season and began getting Power 5 offers as soon as he reclassified into the 2022 signing class.

He’ll have three years of college eligibility left. Young, who ran a 4.6 in the 40-yard dash as a sophomore in high school, said he has a brother who lives in south Florida.

“They’re up there,” Young told The Athletic of the Hurricanes. “I was (kind of) leaning toward Tennessee. It was Tennessee and Arkansas State who want me to play receiver. Tennessee wants me at tight end. Now, with this, Miami just shot up right to the top. If I commit there now, I’d be able to work out with the team. They like my size. They said they loved my film and just need a guy that can come in and compete.”

Josh Pardini, the offensive coordinator at Lackawanna since 2014, has coached several NFL receivers, including Kevin White, Juwan Green and Donald Jones. He said Young comes from the same pedigree.  

“He’s just a big dude, man. He could be 250 if he wanted to be. Just an athletic nightmare in terms of trying to match up from a defensive back perspective. Because his catch radius and body control are something I’ve never seen before, and we’ve had three or four guys make it to the NFL since I’ve been here. Playing basketball all those years definitely helped him. If the kid knows nothing at all, he can play 35 snaps a game inside the 25-yard-line at the next level. Go get it, Colbie. Everybody here knew it was coming and they still couldn’t stop him.”

(Photo of Olaus Alinen and his family from Finland with Mario Cristobal and Miami’s coaching staff: Courtesy of Alinen via Twitter)