National Signing Day: RedHawks sign highly touted 21-member class

Contributed photo by E.L. Hubbard Miami head coach Chuck Martin talks to the media during the 2017 Spring Showcase at Miami University’s Dauch Indoor Sports Center in Oxford Saturday, Apr. 22, 2017.

Contributed photo by E.L. Hubbard Miami head coach Chuck Martin talks to the media during the 2017 Spring Showcase at Miami University’s Dauch Indoor Sports Center in Oxford Saturday, Apr. 22, 2017.

After a 2020 football season he conceded was “mentally exhausting,” Miami coach Chuck Martin understandably was excited to talk Wednesday about the future.

The RedHawks announced on the first day high school seniors could sign NCAA national letters of intent a 21-member class. It includes five defensive backs, four 300-pound offensive linemen and two quarterbacks. The class is ranked by 247sports.com second behind Toledo in the Mid-American Conference and 79th in the nation.

“We’re really, really excited,” Martin said in a Zoom media session. “It was really hard to get excited about anything in 2020. Everything was always disrupted. Defensively, we got guys who like to run and hit. Our defense has been getting bigger and stronger and faster since we got here, and we think there’s another gear we can get it to. The general thing about our defense is we got some guys with length and nasty dispositions who like to hit.

“Offensively, we only had three scholarship quarterbacks going into this year. We felt like we had to get two. It’s hard to get two. Once you get one, it’s hard to get another. Our guys are highly competitive. They’re winners. They’ve done athletic things, and they can stand in front of a team and lead.”

Plainfield, Ind., Avon High School product Henry Hesson and Karnell Smith from Burlington, N.C., Eastern Guilford are the quarterback recruits. The 6-foot-2, 200-pound Hesson threw for 2,572 yards and 31 touchdowns as a senior and 1,965 yards and 22 scores as a junior. The 6-4, 210-pound Smith logged 2,647 yards of total offense and 30 touchdowns as a junior.

The press release focused on statistics from junior seasons because of erratic senior seasons truncated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The offensive line class includes two 6-8 recruits, Westerville Central’s Will Jados and Bridgeville, Pa. South Fayette’s Ryan O’Hair.

“You can never have enough big offensive linemen,” Martin said.

The counts at other positions are three each of wide receivers, defensive linemen and linebackers and one running back. Recruits from nine states comprise the class, led by five from Ohio, three each from Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Indiana, two each from Missouri and Michigan and one each from Illinois, North Carolina and Iowa.

Five of the recruits will be early enrollees able to participate in spring practice – 6-6, 300-pound offensive linemen Evan Azzara (Plum, Pa., Borough) and Kolby Borders (Lafayette, Ind., McCutcheon), 6-3, 233-pound defensive lineman Terran Hearn (Louisville, Ky., Ballard), 6-1, 185-pound wide receiver Matthew Reardon (Youngstown Ursuline) and 6-1, 185-pound defensive back Caleb Tubbs (Winton Woods). Hearn was a four-year starter. Tubbs, son of Winton Woods coach Andre Parker, blocked three field goal tries as a senior.

“Obviously, you have more of a high-end student if he graduates in three-plus years,” Martin said. “I’m always torn about this, because a lot of these kids play spring sports, but with all of the online stuff, this is the one year where it might make more sense.”

One highlight of this class is the versatility of Eli Blakely, who had 55 tackles and three interceptions as a 6-2, 200-pound junior defensive back as Louisville, Ky., DuPont Manual, but he also had 23 catches for 432 yards and six touchdowns as a junior. He was named first-team all-state.

Brett Coleman, a 6-3, 200-pound defensive back from Belfry, Ky., High, 6-1, 210-pound defensive back Dee Pierce (Chicago Phillips Academy), 6-1, 185-pound defensive back Jaymar Mundy (La Salle), 5-8, 185-pound running back Darez Snider (St. Louis DeSmet Jesuit) and 6-4, 195-pound wide receiver Jace Williams (Grand Rapids, Mich., Catholic Central) all played on state championship teams in their high school careers.

Martin felt confident that Miami filled its needs and didn’t fall short in any area or on any athlete. That might change if the NCAA approves a proposal to allow athletes to transfer from one school to another and play immediately instead of waiting a year.

“We covered our position needs,” Martin said. “We’re fine there. We have plenty of kids in this class. Sure, you want all the kids who went to Ohio State, but we want to get kids who want to go to Miami.

“The other piece is the NCAA coming in with this transfer rule. Everyone is bracing for it; 2021 is going to be a free-for-all. We have no idea what our roster is going to look like. It’s going to be very fluid.”

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