Analysis: Evaluating Miami’s biggest positional needs in 2025 recruiting class

Miami added 27 new faces in its 2024 high school signing class, but as the Hurricanes turn the page to the 2025 class, Miami still has plenty of roster needs it needs to address in this recruiting cycle.

For this exercise, CaneSport reviewed our Scholarship Eligibility Tracker, which takes a deeper look at how many Miami players are currently on scholarship and their remaining years of eligibility. The Hurricanes will also cut players as needed to ensure they aren’t over the 85 scholarship limit, but for these purposes, we won’t consider or hypothesize about which players may be shown the door, although we’re well aware players may enter the transfer portal.

Here are the positions we feel Miami most needs to address in this year’s recruiting cycle.

Defensive back (cornerback and safety)
+++ Head coach Mario Cristobal has made a clear emphasis on wanting to build his roster front to back — starting with offensive and defensive lines before working back to skill positions — but the Hurricanes need support at cornerback and safety in this year’s cycle. Miami hasn’t hesitated to turn to the transfer portal for help in the secondary with additions like safeties Savion Riley and Mishael Powell this cycle, but the Hurricanes’ secondary has been subpar to average in Cristobal’s first two seasons as head coach. Kam Kinchens and James Williams’ departures at safety also leave a void that won’t be easy to fill this season, and Zaquan Patterson is the only true blue-chip safety the Hurricanes have signed in a full recruiting cycle.

Cornerback Damari Brown should take a step forward as a sophomore and Robert Stafford now has a redshirt season under his belt, but given we’re still yet to see an elite playmaker emerge from the Hurricanes’ cornerback room, it would behoove Miami to add another blue-chip corner like it attempted to last year with Ellis Robinson (who eventually signed with Georgia).

Wide receiver
+++ Landing three top-150 receivers for the first time since 2008 in last year’s recruiting cycle was undoubtedly a massive accomplishment for a Miami program that has struggled to sign elite wideout talent for most of the last 15 years, but now, the pressure is on receivers coach Kevin Beard to begin stacking blue-chip talent in consecutive classes.

Xavier Restrepo became Miami’s go-to receiver early in the season, and Jacolby George had a handful of impressive moments, but it became clear last year the Hurricanes need to continue to upgrade their receiver room in future recruiting classes. There’s real hope at least one of the three freshmen in Ny Carr, Joshisa Trader and Chance Robinson can separate themselves as a freshman and make a meaningful contribution, and in an ideal world all three would be key contributors in future years. But Miami needs far more than one elite receiver class if it wants to upgrade the position in a major way.

Tight end
+++ Miami has technically signed three tight ends in the last two recruiting classes (Riley Williams, Jackson Carver and Elija Lofton), but Lofton is much more of an H-back than a traditional tight end, and the Hurricanes will only have three other playrers in the room after this season. There are still plenty of question marks surrounding Williams and Carver, but the Hurricanes already have their eyes set on a few On300 tight ends in this cycle in prospects like four-stars Brock Schott and Marshall Pritchett. Taking one or two in this class as they did in 2023 would be ideal.

Linebacker
+++ Linebacker isn’t a true position of need for Miami given the room is in substantially better shape than when Cristobal first arrived, but, like at receiver, the Canes need to start stacking linebacker classes if they want to truly elevate the position. Flipping Adarius Hayes from Florida last cycle was significant, and Cam Pruitt is somewhat of a raw but talented project, but the Canes need to add a few more elite linebackers in this class the way their 2023 class generated real excitement.

The post Analysis: Evaluating Miami’s biggest positional needs in 2025 recruiting class appeared first on On3.