Santucci: Mario Cristobal's recruiting ability will change Miami for the better

No one knows if Mario Cristobal will return the University of Miami to its former glory.

But the Hurricanes new coach comes into the job with a well-earned reputation as an elite recruiter, which is something his predecessors didn’t have.

That’s not to say that Larry Coker, Randy Shannon, Al Golden, Mark Richt and Manny Diaz didn’t have their successes and notable signees. But recruiting wasn’t their calling card. Not like it is for Cristobal.

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This is a guy whose classes at Oregon have never ranked below 13th nationally — the lowest ranking came in his first year — despite not having a talent-rich home state to pull kids from. When he was an assistant at Alabama, Cristobal helped secure commitments from future first-round draft picks such as Alex Leatherwood, Calvin Ridley, Jerry Jeudy, Minkah Fitzpatrick and Quinnen Williams.

In Cristobal you have a Miami native with an almost spiritual connection to the community and a University of Miami graduate who is an outstanding recruiter with a proven track record of landing top players in South Florida.

When Cristobal recruits South Florida for the Hurricanes, he won’t just be trying to cast a vision for the future of the program and what life could be like for them.

He’s living proof.

A first-generation Cuban American who worked hard, earned a college scholarship, won two national championships, had success in his chosen profession and now is getting paid somewhere in the $8 million-a-year range to ply his trade at his alma mater.

Take that narrative and add it to the repertoire of an already great recruiter in one of, if not the, most fertile recruiting ground in the nation?

That’s why Miami fans can have hope after 20 mostly underwhelming seasons. The expectation is that Miami is going to start stockpiling talent like they haven’t in years.

Cristobal had success at Oregon, both on the field and on the recruiting trail, and that’s without having a legitimate backyard pipeline. Oregon has to go into other states to poach top talent because there are only so many FBS talents in the state. (Three-star defensive end Emar’rion Winston, an Oregon commit, is the No. 3 ranked player in Oregon in the class of 2022 on the 247Sports composite. In Florida, Winston would rank No. 55. The No. 4 player in Oregon wouldn’t rank in the top 120 in Florida.)

Miami fans like to reminisce about the days of Howard Schnellenberger’s “State of Miami” and all the elite South Florida talent that played for the Hurricanes.

The State of Miami’s borders have been wide open for years, with players opting to head out of state. Before Saturday afternoon, when Miami Central linebacker Wesley Bissainthe verbally committed to Miami, Diaz had not landed one player from South Florida in the class of 2022.

Ohio State, West Virginia, Indiana, Florida State, LSU, Florida, UCF and Pitt all landed commitments from USA Today Florida Newtork midseason top 100 players in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Miami didn’t have any until less than two weeks before the early signing period and they only had two other commits total from the entire state.

It’s almost impossible to see the Hurricanes struggling like that under Cristobal.

And before anyone says that Diaz was recruiting under a cloud of uncertainty about his job, that’s only partially accurate. The mob calling for Diaz’s firing didn’t really start forming until the Michigan State loss in mid-September, so it doesn’t explain the lack of recruiting success during the summer as Florida and Florida State were picking up quality commitments.

But Diaz is gone, and Cristobal certainly will hit the ground running.

And he doesn’t have to go far to find uncommitted talent.

Monsignor Pace defensive lineman Shemar Stewart, Dillard defensive end Nyjalik Kelly, Homestead defensive end Dante Anderson are among the players in South Florida who should expect Cristobal to be in touch — if he hasn’t already.

It may be too little too late for the class of 2022, but the talent pipeline to Miami is just starting to heat up again.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Santucci: Mario Cristobal's recruiting ability will change Miami