Miami Hurricanes Football Scandal: Predicting Which 2012 Recruits Will Decommit

So I was asked to do this piece by B/R and began research on the topic. The first thing I did was take a another look at Miami's current recruiting class, just to make sure I'm on top of things.

Miami has 24 commitments for the class of 2012, six of whom, according to Scout.com, are rated four stars or higher; "great looking class," I said to myself. Then I started looking at who would possibly back out of their Miami commitments due to the uncovering of the long-running Nevin Shapiro, a.k.a. "Teddy Dupay," scandal.

It's hard, no, nearly impossible, to predict a de-commitment or a transfer in college football. So bear with me, Miami fans.

See, the thing is, your new head coach has put together and executed a great recruiting strategy. Even before he knew of any scandal, Al Golden and his staff locked up the Miami-Dade County and surrounding region. It used to be loosely referred to as "The State of Miami" in earlier times.

Golden wanted players from the prep ranks that grew up loving "The U" who he knew would take pride in being a part of the program.

That plan and strategy has served Golden and his staff extremely well thus far. But that is also why I think there may be a lot fewer de-commitments from Miami than people expect.

Usually when you look at potential de-commitments, you take a first look at the out-of-state commitments. Only thing is, out of Miami's 24 recruits, only four are out-of-staters. Credit Golden and his staff again.

Duke Johnson and Keith Brown are two of the higher-rated players committed to Miami, and you quickly realize these players grew up Miami fans. They grew up loving "The U" and find it a dream come true to be headed there.

Brown has garnered a reputation as a great player-recruiter from other top recruits, as he has been said to be carrying the Miami flag proudly and rallying people to join him.

Johnson loves Miami, and has told Scout.com that unless they get the ultimate death penalty, he's staying committed.

Other players on the class listing feel similarly, and Miami beat out Florida State and Florida for DE Jelani Hamilton, so that shows he has strong feelings for the Canes.

Even Raphael Kirby, who is from Georgia, grew up idolizing Ray Lewis, and sees it as an honor to be following his idol to Coral Gables.

While there may be one or two de-commitments down the road that I can't really predict, I think, for the most part, this Miami recruiting class will stay mostly intact.

Again, credit Al Golden and his staff for assembling a class of players that want to play for Miami, take pride in the program, grew up fans of the program and are "Miami kids."

If this class stays intact as many experts believe it could, Miami could finish with a top-10 or top-15 class, which could very well be one of the greatest recruiting feats ever, considering their circumstances.