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Published Mar 6, 2015
RCS Miami: What to watch for
Rob Cassidy
Recruiting Analyst
South Florida-based talent has a national reputation for good reason. Each season, the region produces a voluminous list of major college and NFL prospects, and the coming years will be no different.
When the Rivals Camp Series presented by Under Armour rolls through Miami on Sunday, the top athletes from one of the country's most fertile recruiting grounds will compete at Gulliver Preparatory High School. New names will emerge and familiar faces will shine at what promises to be one of the more talent-rich stops on the RCS tour.
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Dionte Mullins
Sunday's RCS stop will feature a pair of extremely familiar faces at the wide receiver position. Miami Gulliver Prep's Dionte Mullins and Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) St. Thomas Aquinas' Sam Bruce starred at the RCS Miami stop a year ago and earned their way to the 2014 Rivals100 Five-Star Challenge Presented By Under Armour. Both will be back in Miami on Sunday and in the hunt for return trips to the camp series' signature event.
Mullins is currently the No. 122 overall prospect in the 2016 class. Bruce ranks No. 36. And while Bruce's spot in the Baltimore-based Five-Star Challenge seems more secure, both proven commodities are in position to punch a ticket to the event with solid efforts on Sunday. The question of which first-time invitees will secure bids on Sunday is the more interesting one.
Top end talent
The RCS Miami stop does not lack for top talent. The list of players ranked in the Rivals250 that will participate is long. The wide receiver group alone includes Mullins, Bruce, T.J. Chase, Dredrick Snelson, and Freddie Pinder. Coconut Creek standout Binjimen Victor, the No. 138 player in America, will likely take reps at both wide receiver and defensive back.
Rivals100 offensive lineman Baveon Johnson will be in attendance, as will Rivals250 linebacker Devin Bush. Cornerback Trayvon Mullen, the No. 74 player in America is also registered. The entire list of four-star athletes registered for the camp is too tedious to type out here, but that's to say there will be no lack of star power on display.
Proving ground
The Miami stop of the Rivals Camp Series will feature plenty of prospects teetering on the verge of four-star status. Many of them are already off to tremendous starts on the camp circuit and hope to use Sunday's event to make an even more definitive statement.
Wide receivers Keyshawn Young, Josh Hammond, and Johnny Huntley have spent the offseason impressing at early stops and have offer lists that reflect their performances. On the defensive side of things stands Florida linebacker commit Vosean Joseph, Miami-bound defensive back Deion Jackson, middle linebacker Mike Pinckney, defensive back Malek Young and others. Athlete Jamel Cook could also add a fourth star with another impressive performance.
The summer circuit in Florida provides prospects with reps against other FBS-bound athletes and there's no better place to prove how one projects to the next level than a camp such as Sunday's, which is loaded with players holding major offers. Of course, there's always a prospect that comes out of nowhere to plant his flag on the recruiting map at these events, but attempting to predict which sleepers could accomplish such a thing is futile.
Chase's second act
T.J. Chase
Four-star wide receiver T.J. Chase, a Clemson commit, is on the hunt for a Five-Star Challenge invite and an improved national ranking. He's said as much and plans to earn both by showing up for the Miami camp the day after participating in the Orlando-based Rivals Speed & Skill Challenge.
Chase participated in the Rivals250 Underclassmen Challenge a year ago and turned in one of the event's best performances. This year, he hopes to follow it up with a dominant outing on a bigger stage. Chase, who attends Florida's IMG Academy, has never been one to shy away from top competition, and he'll see plenty of it in Miami.
The No. 79 wide receiver in America, Chase has attended plenty of national level camps in the past and will not be wowed by South Florida-based talent.
Young blood
Class of 2017 prospects Jerry Jeudy (WR), Stanford Samuels (ATH) and Trevon Grimes (WR) headline a group of underclassmen that will arrive at Gulliver prep with national offers and a wide-ranging reputation.
Sophomore quarterback Jake Allen has also built some buzz around himself. He carries a pair of offers as things stand now and countless schools are sniffing around his recruitment. The list of underclassmen that will also arrive with offers is long, but many of the top players for 2017 and beyond will test themselves against the top of the 2016 class on Sunday.
The youngest prospect invited to RCS Miami is athlete Mark Pope, an eighth-grader already on the radar of in-state programs. Pope, who has the look of a high school junior already, will be the only 2019 prospect at Sunday's camp and is hoping to make an impact against much more experienced players. Pope will attend Miami's Booker T. Washington High School, where he will play defensive back and wide receiver, next season.
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