Miami lands elite JUCO prospect

Beau Sandland resisted the urge to go with the tired "taking my talents to South Beach" bit. The result was exactly the same, though.

Sitting behind a table in the Pierce Community College basketball gym on Wednesday morning, the four-star tight end announced his commitment to Miami and signed a national letter of intent in one swift motion. No more visits. No more meditation. No more phone calls from coaches. Sandland's recruitment is closed.

And that's the way he likes it.

"I'm extremely happy to have it over with and I'm excited to be going to Miami," Sandland said minutes after his commitment ceremony. "I felt really comfortable with the coaches. I love the school. I love the NFL stuff. I love that it's a small, private university with only 10,000 students. I like the academic side of it."

But in the end this, like most verbal commitments, came down to fit. Sandland could talk about Hurricanes head coach Al Golden's history with tight ends for hours. Golden is a former tight end himself. And his track record along with that of his staff are what put Sandland at ease.

"They want to run a lot of two and three-tight end sets," Sandland said. "I know where [Miami tight ends coach Brennan Carroll] and [offensive coordinator Jedd Fisch] have been in their coaching careers. Coach Carroll was obviously at USC. And Coach Fisch, when he was in Baltimore and Houston and Seattle and Denver, always used the tight end right in the offense. I think they plan on using me everywhere. I'm going to be very versatile."

Sandland says he didn't settle on the Hurricanes until yesterday evening and alerted the coaching staff of his intentions this morning, roughly an hour before he made his announcement public.

The reception was about what you'd expect.

"They handed the phone around," Sandland said. "They were all yelling and screaming. They were all really happy."

Sandland, a four-star prospect, is thought to be the top junior college tight end in American and one of the top JUCO prospects overall. He chose Miami over a host offers that included ones from fellow finalists Arizona State and Nebraska.

Sandland was forced to rule out the entire SEC, from which he accumulated seven offers, because of the league's policy outlawing online math courses as transferable credit.

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