Steve Mitchell – USA Today Sports
The Miami Hurricanes keep getting verbal commitments — even from prospects who have never even played high school football.
Today, the Hurricanes received a verbal commitment from Demetrius Jackson, a 6-foot-4, 225-pound defensive end from Booker T. Washington High School in Miami. He becomes the 19th commitment for the Hurricanes’ Class of 2014.
This signing is a bit bizarre since Jackson has never actually suited up for Booker T. Washington. This spring, he decided to come out for the football team and was so impressive that he earned scholarship offers from Miami, Arkansas, Louisville, and Florida International.
Interestingly, Jackson verbally committed to Arkansas last week, but the coaching staff didn’t accept the commitment because he’d never stepped foot on campus. He is close friends with Denver Kirkland, a 2013 signee at Arkansas, so perhaps the former Booker T. Washington player convinced him to commit to the Razorbacks. Either way, after Arkansas said no, he decided to pull the trigger for the local team, Miami.
While there’s not any film of Jackson, he has the measureables that coaches dream about. He’s tall, long and athletic — he’s a basketball player — and reportedly ran an impressive 4.6 40-yard dash this spring. It will take time to develop his skills playing football, but he has the raw materials to become a great defensive end.
Miami does not appear to be concerned with star ratings in the Class of 2014. Many of the recent commitments are unheralded players according to recruiting services like Rivals, Scout and ESPN. That hasn’t scared away the Hurricanes from pursuing them.
B.L. is an ACC writer for Rant Sports and can be followed on Twitter @coachlip.
