Make that two: Harrell decides to stay home, commits to Miami

Not even 24 hours after RB Jaylan Knighton announced his commitment to the Hurricanes, Champagnat Catholic safety Jalen Harrell followed suit early Friday afternoon on his birthday and chose to stay home to play for the hometown Hurricanes.

The 6’2” 181 lb. safety chose Miami over Georgia Tech and Nebraska.

COMMITED🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽Happy Birthday To Me🥳 pic.twitter.com/ebbXiP7RgC

— Jalen Harrell (@jayworld07) November 29, 2019

Harrell is currently ranked as the 23rd best safety in the country and 231st overall according to 247Sports. He transferred to Champagnat Catholic for his senior season after attending Miami Central previously.

According to MaxPreps, he currently has 48 tackles, one forced fumble, and one interception through nine games.

Harrell had been committed to the Seminoles for over six months before re-opening his recruitment in October. And even while he was committed, Miami safeties coach Ephraim Banda still kept in contact with Harrell and paid off dividends upon receiving the news.

Miami had him in Coral Gables for an official visit on November 9th and he got the chance to watch Miami’s beatdown of Louisville. 

With Knighton and Harrell now in the fold, Miami now has the 14th best class in the country and 2nd in the ACC with their 21 commitments.

While it is somewhat surprising that Miami received Knighton and Harrell’s commitments following the unfortunate loss to FIU this past weekend, this exemplifies coach Manny Diaz’s approach towards recruiting.

Diaz has reiterated that he wants players that understand the value of suiting up in the orange and green despite any turmoil or adversity that may get in the way.

In my opinion, the fact that both players mentioned “staying home” or “making the crib great” goes to show these are a couple of special commits on top of the fact that they have a chance to be impact players the minute they step foot on campus.