ANALYSIS: Football has a basketball team full of transfers at CB, and how it shakes out could mean either big success or major letdown

The Miami Hurricanes can now field a starting basketball team’s worth of transfer cornerbacks. There are five on the roster: Prior to last season the team landed Daryl Porter, Jr. from West Virginia, then before this spring Miami added Davonte Brown from UCF and Terry Roberts from Iowa with the second portal window seeing the Canes pick up Jaden Davis from Oklahoma and Ja’Dais Richard from Vanderbilt.

So that’s five transfer corners, more than a two-deep at the two boundary positions. It’s also equal to or more than the entire transfer portal additions regardless of position this year for programs like Clemson (1), Alabama (5) and Georgia (3).

Yes, Miami is fairly invested in transfers at this point, with 11 and counting after taking 11 in 2022.

The handful of transfer talent at cornerback for Miami now actually almost outnumbers the team’s players that used the – we’d like to stay traditional – route of actually signing with the team. There are six of those: Senior Te’Cory Couch, junior Malik Curtis, redshirt freshmen Jaden Harris and Chris Graves and true freshmen summer arrivals Robert Stafford and Damari Brown.

So what does it all mean?

Well, in Lance Guidry’s 4-2-5 system there is a huge emphasis on shutdown corners since he likes to blitz with safeties and linebackers and leave his CBs one-on-one down the field. If they don’t hold up, well, the defense falls apart … or Guidry won’t be able to blitz as much as he’d like.

With Tyrique Stevenson and DJ Ivey last year’s starters taken by the NFL, there just wasn’t much experienced talent behind them in the backups Curtis and Porter – who both struggled in limited reps in 2023 – plus Harris (struggled in very limited time as a true freshman last year) and Graves (out injured last season as a true freshman). You also can’t really rely on true freshmen like Stafford and Brown to come in and be big immediate impacts, right?

So you saw the team do what it needed at the position: Create competition through the portal.

And boy will there be a lot of competition when fall drills kick off.

CaneSport’s unofficial depth chart currently lists five players – all the transfers – as co-first teamers at the boundary spots. Does that mean a guy like Graves, Harris, Curtis or one of the freshmen won’t show they are the best guy for the job? Not at all. It’s just our projection. The success at corner this year very well may show how successful Miami can be in supplementing its roster through the portal in general, since this is the position most heavily invested through that avenue.

A legitimate question is if Miami can succeed long-term by recruiting at a high level while trying to upgrade its current roster talent through the portal at the same time … since portal additions that aren’t seniors will take up multiple years of roster spots.

That’s a question that won’t be answered for a while.

But we will know a lot sooner how the cornerback depth chart shakes out.

This spring it was Davonte Brown and Porter, Jr. working as the primary first-team corners, but the fact that Miami went out and added two more transfer corners shows Cane coaches feel they can get more from that position.

Davis in particular is coming in with a ton of pressure, since this is his final year of eligibility after starting at Oklahoma. He needs to win that starting job to prove to the NFL what he can do in a system like Guidry’s. Roberts, by the way, is in the same boat after starting at Iowa. But he wasn’t particularly impressive this spring. Richard, meanwhile, can work at the STAR spot manned by Couch and Harris. He’s got good versatility, a reason Miami wanted to add him.

As for the Pro Football Focus grades of the corners that played reps last season? The only one to break 70 percent, which is considered a good grade, was Roberts. But he played limited reps due to injury.

A closer look from 2022, per PFF:

Roberts: 202 reps. 79.0 percent overall, 79.9 cover grade, opposing QBs hit on 7 of 17 passes against him last season for 49 yards with 0 TDs and 1 INT. 4 PBU.

Couch: 670 reps. 66.5 percent overall, 65.3 cover grade, opposing QBs hit on 36 of 56 passes against him last season for 342 yards with 0 TDs and 0 INTs. 6 PBU.

Davonte Brown: 316 reps. 65.6 percent overall, 63.6 cover grade, opposing QBs hit on 24 of 50 passes against him last season for 360 yards with three TDs and two INTs. 3 PBU.

Porter, Jr.: 205 reps. 64.1 percent overall, 61.7 cover grade, opposing QBs hit on 10 of 16 passes against him last season for 110 yards with 0 TDs and 0 INTs. 1 PBU.

Davis: 402 reps. 63.2 percent overall, 60.8 cover grade, opposing QBs hit on 16 of 30 passes against him last season for 202 yards with 1 TD and 0 INTs. 2 PBU.

Richard: 203 reps. 62.4 percent overall, 60.3 cover grade, opposing QBs hit on nine of 13 passes against him last season for 211 yards with two TDs and 0 INTs. 1 PBU.

Harris: 18 reps. 45.1 percent overall, 50.6 cover grade, opposing QBs hit on two of four passes against him last season for 75 yards with 1 TD and 0 INTs. 1 PBU.

Curtis: 23 reps. 43.0 percent overall, 41.6 cover grade, opposing QBs hit on all three pass attempts against him last season for 74 yards with a TD.

Including the above, you’ve got 11 cornerbacks on the roster.

Typically three will play at a time.

So buckle up for what should be a really interesting battle for spots atop the depth chart.

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