5 star has "awesome" UM official visit, strength program big selling point
Katy (Tex.) Paetow High School DL David Hicks was the Canes’ 5-star on campus for an official visit this weekend.
He’s a huge priority for Mario Cristobal & Co. in this class.
The news coming off his weekend visit?
Well, Hicks came down with his father (who doubles as his high school DL coach), mother and stepfather.
And dad says “It was a great visit, really great. We had a great time, spent a lot of time with coach (Mario) Cristobal, coach Joe (Salave’a), coach (Rod) Wright, and Jason Taylor. It was awesome.”
This was Hicks’ second official visit, with a Michigan State trip already in the books. He will next go to Oregon, and he’s also taken unofficial visits this summer to Texas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma. All remain in the mix, as does Alabama, where Hicks may take an official visit in the fall.
The plan is for David, Jr. to announce his decision at the Under Armour All-American game, so if that remains the case there’s a long wait in store for all the above programs.
David Sr. says Miami put its best foot forward on this official visit, which was the third time he’s come to UM with his son.
“Miami’s always been high up with us,” he says. “We came and the Miami coaches just wanted to show us the program and let him make an informed choice. It’s `We are giving you the info” and you go from there, see if it’s the right fit.”
Jabari Ishmael was David Jr.’s host, and there was a reason for that.
Cane coaches gleaned from their conversations with the family that this isn’t just a case of a recruit who wants to find where he feels the most love and is the most comfortable and that’s his choice.
Dad David Hicks Sr. played LB at Grambling State before spending time with the Kansas City Chiefs, New York Giants and Cincinnati Bengals. He also played in the CFL for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. He’s coached David Jr. personally since the age of 5. And dad says perhaps the most important factor in all of this is which program will best develop David Jr.
Hence the son of a longtime strength and conditioning coach at UM (Victor Ishmael) was his host.
And UM made a big deal of letting the family spend as much time as possible around the strength and conditioning program, including a presentation from Aaron Feld and watching players going through workouts.
“Man, being with the strength and conditioning coaches, that was a big highlight,” dad said. “Yes, we also toured and all that, but we’d seen a lot already with this our third time coming. So the really different thing we were able to see was the movements, the way they do things. We got to see the work in action, got to talk about that kind of thing as far as football goes. You hear so much about what a great strength and conditioning program it is, you know, and to actually see it firsthand - it is, it is legit.”
The bottom line coming off the visit?
“He got a good vibe, we all had a great time family,” David Sr. said.
And if David Jr. wants to be a Cane?
“I’m totally okay with it,” dad says.
CaneSport’s take
This visit went great from a Miami perspective but this is a long-haul recruitment, so we’ll see what happens on upcoming visits. We think UM is in a good spot right now with Hicks, Jr., so it’s going to be a very interesting recruitment moving forward. We also found it interesting that the family is taking more of a professional approach to this decision instead of the usual “where I feel I fit best” deal. “It’s who has best chance of developing him,” dad said. “That’s big for us. He’ll fit in anywhere, but he wants to go where he can get developed and can grow.”