Jacurri Brown said his mind spent the last week “racing” and his head spinning while the Miami Hurricanes put the final touches on their decision to fire Manny Diaz, and hire Mario Cristobal on Monday.
Last week, the four-star quarterback reaffirmed his commitment to Miami, even as Diaz’s future was in doubt, but it was always going to be impossible for him to be 100 percent certain he would wind up with the Hurricanes. After all, he didn’t know whether Cristobal would even want him.
After Diaz got fired, Rob Likens reassured Brown, “there’s just no [Cristobal] he wouldn’t want you,” the recruit said. After Cristobal got hired, Brown shot the new coach a direct message on Twitter and Cristobal immediately gave him a call.
“He kind of reassured a lot of things,” the 6-foot-4, 205-pound senior said. “I think he will be up here this week to meet my family and stuff like that.”
With a little more than a week until he can sign a national letter of intent, Brown said his “mind is set on being at Miami.”
“I’m in a good spot,” he said.
Brown orally committed to the Hurricanes since March and is one of only nine players committed to Miami in the Class of 2022. He’s the No. 22 quarterback in the country, according to the 247Sports.com composite rankings, and is coming off a monster season for Lowndes in Valdosta, Georgia.
As a senior, Brown went 136 of 242 for 2,165 yards, 23 touchdowns and only three interceptions, and ran for 882 yards and 10 touchdowns on 174 carries. His big season — paired with a wild coaching carousel — has gotten the Arkansas Razorbacks and Oklahoma Sooners to try to make a late push for Brown.
Both Arkansas and Oklahoma, which is reportedly hiring offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby from the Ole Miss Rebels on Monday, are trying to get Brown to campus for a visit this weekend. Brown, however, said he would like to make another trip to Coral Gables since he’s now allowed to take a second official visit there because of the coaching change.
“I know he’s racing like 100 mph right now with a lot of things going on, so I will talk to him later on this week and figure that out,” Brown said. “My priority would be getting back down there for sure, and I hate that I didn’t get down there during the season. … I definitely want to go where I’ve been familiar with. Like I said, I’ve been locked in on Miami.
Brown did note he didn’t like how the school left Diaz hanging for more than a week — “Coach Diaz is a good guy, so the way they handled it is dreadful,” he said — but, as long as everything goes well with Cristobal in the next week, Brown should officially be a Hurricane by the time the early signing period ends Dec. 17.
Brown thinks most of the recruiting class is in a similar place.
“Everybody’s straight,” he said. “Everybody’s on what I was on.”