The Miami Hurricanes have landed Vanderbilt transfer safety Savion Riley. Alex Donno breaks down the impact he will have at Miami.
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00:00 Vanderbilt transfer safety, Savion Riley, who commits to Miami.
00:04 Now, as we've talked about, along with defensive tackle, and
00:08 Miami landed CJ Clark the previous day, safety, another big time position of need.
00:13 Miami's losing Cam Kitchens and James Williams to the NFL draft,
00:17 bringing in a safety.
00:18 He's not a super experienced guy, but Savion Riley obviously does have
00:22 some college experience coming out of Vanderbilt to add someone who's,
00:26 got a little bit of experience playing major college football is a huge deal.
00:30 And this is a really nice player, 6'2", 202 pounds with three years
00:36 of eligibility remaining.
00:37 So Riley, he's someone who can contend to start this year, but
00:41 he's also a long termer, which is nice.
00:44 And he's got at least one friend on the roster.
00:47 He joins his former Vanderbilt defensive back teammate,
00:50 Jadis Richard on the team.
00:53 There's even been some chatter that Richard might end up moving from cornerback
00:57 to safety, so maybe the two of them can end up starting together.
01:00 If it plays out that way, they're going to have some competition, of course.
01:03 So Savion Riley played in eight games last season as a redshirt
01:07 freshman at Vanderbilt.
01:09 He did miss the other four he missed due to a concussion.
01:11 He's fully recovered from that, by the way, don't worry about that anymore.
01:14 And despite missing four games, he was fifth on the team in tackles with 48
01:20 on the year, had some really good tackling grades throughout the season.
01:23 And Miami fans will like to hear this one.
01:27 His, arguably his best career performance came against Florida.
01:32 He had a career high 12 tackles against the Gators and yeah, he's going to see
01:37 the Gators again, you know, several months from now, August 31st to open up the season.
01:42 And so yeah, Savion Riley played in high school for a great
01:46 program in Georgia, Kennesaw Mountain.
01:48 He's a former three-star recruit from the class of 2022.
01:52 Here's what he told Keynes County, Miami's rival site about the hurricanes.
01:57 Riley said, quote, I keep mentioning development, but I just like the operation
02:02 that they have there at Miami when I came down, he said, I feel like I can be a
02:05 scheme fit in what they do, just my play style, matching what they want, my ability
02:11 to really run on the backend, I just feel like it's the best fit for me, he said.
02:16 And yeah, when it comes to development, Miami has done a good
02:20 job in recent years with that.
02:22 Riley was very complimentary about hurricanes, defensive backs, coach
02:26 Jamila die, you know, a die showed last year with Miami's corners coming out of
02:31 the 2022 season that he can get players drafted, and he's about to show that again.
02:35 Because I mentioned Cam Kitchens and James Williams both go into the NFL.
02:40 I expect both Kitchens and James to get taken within the first three rounds.
02:44 So Miami's about to put another showcase when it comes to putting
02:48 defensive back to into the NFL.
02:50 And so as far as the way Miami is setting up at the safety position for next year.
02:56 So you got Savion Riley coming in, he's going to have a good chance to start.
03:00 He's going to compete for a starting job.
03:03 Jaden Harris did a nice job last year as Cam Kitchens backup when he was injured.
03:08 I love Caleb Spencer heading into his second year.
03:11 This was a guy who really wowed me coming out of high school and wowed me during
03:14 fall camp last season.
03:16 And I like Marquise Williams heading into his third year, really good size on him.
03:20 So, you know, obviously you've lost, you know, you're two of the more important
03:24 players on your defense and Williams and Kitchens, but you do have a nice group of
03:29 young safeties that can push each other and can compete to start next year.
03:33 And I have no doubt that unit's going to be well coached, right?
03:35 We talk about coach a die, but it's not just coach a die because defensive
03:39 coordinator Lance Guidry safety is that's the position he played.
03:43 That's the position he specializes in and I've watched the way Miami practices and
03:48 you know, the way they do it, a die spends a lot of time with the corners and
03:53 Lance Guidry spends a lot of one-on-one time with the safety.
03:56 [BLANK_AUDIO]