Miami Hurricanes 50-1 Countdown: Ranking the top 50 post-spring players … No. 42 Chris Graves
No. 50 Miami DT Thomas Gore … No. 49 Malik Curtis … No. 48 Kaleb Spencer … No. 47 Ahmad Moten … No. 46 Jaden Harris … No. 45 Logan Sagapolu … No. 44 Markeith Williams … No. 43 Frank Ladson
CaneSport is breaking down the top 50 post-spring players on the roster, a list that doesn’t include any post-spring roster additions. Today we break down No. 42, Chris Graves
NO. 42 MIAMI CB CHRIS GRAVES
Why he’s No. 42
Chris Graves is the lone returning player on this top 50 list that didn’t play a down for Miami last season. The reason? He was injured. But prior to that injury we felt he had a chance to be special in year 1, the most one-on-one cover-ready new cornerback on the roster. Now in Year 2 it’ll be Graves’ chance to make up for lost time. In a thin cornerback room that saw the team add transfers Davonte Brown and Jaden Davis, there’s plenty of opportunity for Graves to prove this fall that he belongs on the field. A former four-star out of Ft. Myers (Fla.) Bishop Verot, the 6-0, 175-pounder had other offers from the likes of Michigan State, Minnesota, Ole Miss, Penn State, South Carolina and Virginia Tech.
What he needs to do to move up this list
Really just an opportunity to show that he’s back from injury that cost him last year and had him limited to some extent this spring. He has to show he can be a consistent one-on-one cover cornerback. Miami doesn’t have a lot of proven returning talent after losing corners Tyrique Stevenson and DJ Ivey, last year’s starters. UCF transfer Davonte Brown looked fine this spring, and probably would be in line to start as of now. Daryl Porter, Jr. was the other spring starter and looked okay, too. But are either world-beaters? Not so much. And that’s why Miami added Jaden Davis to the mix after spring ball out of the portal, but Davis struggled in his time at Oklahoma. Another transfer, Terry Roberts, came in before the spring but was a backup. The other outside corners are Malik Curtis and Jaden Harris (both struggled last year as backups) and true freshmen Damari Brown and Robert Stafford. So it really is a wide open deal here and Graves will get his chance to step up.
Realistic season objective
It’s a longshot for Graves to win the starting job given there are three experienced transfers Miami’s brought in plus last year’s transfer, Daryl Porter, Jr. So that’s an outside chance depending on how he looks this fall in drills. But realistically he should be in line to be a second-teamer and then step into a starting role in 2024 when nickel Te’Cory Couch, Terry Roberts and Jaden Davis all graduate.
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