If one would’ve made the third-year coach happy, he had to feel great about both honoring their commitment by delivering signed national letters-of-intent Wednesday, the first day high school seniors could official commit to colleges. He just didn’t want to single out one recruit above the others as being most coveted.
Banks, an Evanston (Ill.) High School product who was awarded three of a possible five stars by both Scout.com and 247sports.com, and Georgia native Gowan are part of Miami’s 21-member recruiting class. Scout.com and Rivals.com both had the class ranked second in the Mid-American Conference behind Western Michigan. Scout.com’s ranking of 76th in the nation was one above the University of Cincinnati’s.
“I’m super-excited about this class, and I’m super-excited that we covered all positions,” Martin said. “We’re starting to balance out our roster. It’s been a three-year process. There are some players who can come in and compete and help us right away. We hope this is the last year for that. The others have a rawness to their game, but their upsides are off the charts.”
The class includes five wide receivers and four each of defensive backs and offensive linemen, one of whom – Indianapolis Decatur Central’s Trent Maynard – already weighs 325 pounds. Two others, Lakota East’s Dalton Strunk and Indianapolis Bishop Chatard’s Danny Godlevske, check in at 290 pounds.
“We’ve improved our size and strength greatly,” Martin noted. “We’ve got some linemen who are throwing serious weight around already. We’re getting more and more kids who are close to being ready to compete.
“We have depth issues at corner, and we don’t have tons of wideouts going into spring camp,” he added.
Godlevske, Maynard and Banks are three recruits who earned three stars from Scout and 247sports. Incoming RedHawks also on that list at Edina (Minn.) High School offensive linemen Tommy Doyle, Indianapolis Ben Davis wide receiver Tyler Fleetwood and Columbus Upper Arlington defensive back Tyrece Speaight. Plainfield (Ill.) North tight end Kyle Speas is a Scout.com three-star recruit, while Covington (Ga.) Newton wide receiver DeAndre Huff and Libertyville (Ill.) High School defensive end Benjamin Kimpler both earned three stars from 247sports.com.
Huff returned six kickoffs for touchdowns during his high school career.
Miami landed six recruits from Georgia and 15 from the Midwest, including four each from Illinois and Indiana and three from Ohio. While some Miami fans would prefer to see more home-grown RedHawks, Martin believes the program needs to keep its search area wider.
“I’ve been coaching long enough to know people who recruit only in-state kids usually get fired,” he said. “We draw a circle around the Midwest and we live in Georgia. Georgia is driveable.”
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