Legendary Scouts Larry Blustein, Dwight Thomas Talk Miami, Recruiting Florida
ORLANDO - During the Varsity Sports Network media day over the weekend, the opportunity to interview two Florida icons came about. Larry Blustein and Dwight Thomas have been involved with Florida high school football for a long time and their knowledge is incredible.
With Miami bringing in Mario Cristobal to be its head coach, it was a good time for All Hurricanes to ask each of them what they thought about Miami recruiting now and moving forward.
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The first question, for Blustein, focused upon him discussing how the Miami staff would recruit?
“Well, he’s gotta win,” Blustein started off regarding head coach Cristobal specifically. “That’s been Miami’s problem. They’ve been getting kids in the past couple of years, maybe eight, nine years, but they haven’t developed them.”
Blustein also discusses how this staff has coaches that have been around the country and how that can help inside and outside the borders of Florida.
“(Cristobal is) a guy who knows the area. Coaching at FIU, coaching at Rutgers, coaching at Alabama, coaching at Oregon, so he’s got a national appeal. He’s won. He’s surrounded himself with a really good coaching staff. You see, that’s what I think is the key.
“He was very fortunate to get a guy like (offensive coordinator Josh) Gattis. He was arguably one of the best assistants in the country (at Michigan and before that at Alabama). Charlie Strong has been a head coach at three different schools. Frank Ponce, who was at Appalachian State, who was at Louisville.”
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Cristobal and his staff are hitting the greater Miami area hard for recruits, and Blustein feels that will continue. He’s also going into other areas of Florida as well.
“It’s not just Central Florida. They went up to the Panhandle and got a quarterback in Emory Williams. I actually watched him before anyone else last year at an FSU camp last year. I told Frank (Ponce). I said, ‘You gotta check him out. The kid makes every damn throw.’
“So, you take a look at guys like that. As long as they continue to win, they are going to get a national appeal. They’ve never had many guys from IMG (Academy in Bradenton). Right now they’ve got three (committed). Perhaps four if Samuel M’Pemba comes in. So, that’s the one thing. He’s got a national appeal. He’s recruited on the West Coast.
“It’s amazing. (Offensive line coach) Alex Mirabal, he coached one of the best offensive lineman in the last 10 years (Penei Sewell), a first-round draft pick of the Detroit Lions. You take a look at that type of thing. When you come into a living room and you go, ‘Oh, wow! They’ve been there, they’ve done that.’ If (Cristobal) wins, this could be an endless loop, but they have to win.”
Speaking of winning, Blustein thinks Miami will be successful very early in Cristobal’s tenure as the Miami head coach.
“I think they will. Because they’ve gone about it extremely well. They have an athletic director (with Dan Radakovich) who gets it. They have a chance to be really special and he’s a really good coach.”
Next, Thomas has been a Florida high school head football coach, including helping Pensacola (Fla.) Escambia win the state championship in 1986. The top player for that squad was none other than NFL Hall of Fame running back and all-time leading rusher Emmitt Smith.
Since getting out of coaching, Thomas helped create high school football combines in the 1990s, and now he’s scouting for Catapult Sports, covering the state of Florida. Here are Thomas’s thoughts on Miami and other Florida programs recruiting the Florida Panhandle.
“Well, I’m prejudiced because…I coached all up on the I-10 corridor. And, I know what type of players we have up there. I know the (player) skill set; I know the discipline. I know…that there are great players up there, and because of what I call geographic isolation, you gotta go distances to see players.
“Too many college coaches fly into one area and try to get all their players. When there are in the outlying areas, and less-trafficked areas, there are great players. So, I believe that all of our (Florida) colleges should recruit the I-10 corridor.”
The talent shifts that take place in Florida can be random. In the 1980s and 1990s, there was more talent coming out of Tallahassee and Pensacola than there probably is now. That could shift again. It's hard to say when, but that’s the nature of recruiting. Coaches have to adjust.
“There’s been years when all the state champions (in Florida) come off the I-10 corridor. So, that backs up what I’m talking about. Athletic ability, physicality…It’s a big deal.
“I’m for all our colleges to recruit the whole state of Florida. It may sound corny to you, but that’s what I believe. Like I said, I live up there and I’ve coached up there all across the Panhandle, from Big Bend. Been in the state playoffs up there, and I know how tough it is up there.”
Miami has 16 verbal commitments in the class of 2023, including 11 set to play high school football within state lines in 2022.
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