Inside the Miami Hurricanes’ no-holds-barred recruiting effort for No. 3 prospect DJ Pickett with announcement set for Wednesday

Zephyrhills (Fla.) Five-Star Plus+ cornerback DJ Pickett has privately made a decision and is set to announce his commitment Wednesday at 7 p.m. with On3. And Miami is throwing everything but the kitchen sink at the No. 3 overall prospect and No. 1 cornerback as the seconds tick away.

Miami has made a no-holds-barred recruiting effort for the 6-foot-4, 180-pound defensive back ahead of his announcement and worked tirelessly to separate itself from Oregon and LSU , who Pickett is also considering. Head coach Mario Cristobal , defensive coordinator Lance Guidry , secondary coach Chevis Jackson , defensive analyst Marc St. Felix and several other off-field staffers have been in constant contact with Pickett. Cristobal has personally led the recruiting charge.

However, the Hurricanes’ recruiting push is nothing new to Pickett, who has felt the same level of attention from Miami’s staff for more than a year. And it’s given the Canes a chance to land their second-highest rated commit in Cristobal’s three full recruiting cycles (only behind Cormani McClain , who was the No. 2 prospect at the time of his commitment but later fell in the rankings and decommitted).

“It’s been revved up by everybody since he decided to push his commitment date up, but Miami has been relentless the entire time,” DJ’s father, Damien, told CaneSport . “They’ve been relentless for years. The efforts that we’re seeing now (from Miami), they don’t surprise me.”

Miami was the first school to offer DJ under former head coach Manny Diaz and has well-documented connections to the Picketts (including his cousin, Booker , who signed with the Hurricanes in 2024) but has faced stiff competition from the Ducks and Tigers since DJ narrowed his list to three schools this month. DJ has a long-standing relationship with LSU defensive coordinator Blake Baker from his time on Miami’s staff and has liked Oregon for more than a year. He holds each of the three schools’ secondary coaches and defensive coordinators in high regard.

But Damien said a school’s position coach wasn’t the be-all-end-all in DJ’s decision, although it did play a factor.

“We feel like you have to have a great relationship with a position coach,” Damien said. “You don’t necessarily talk to your head coach day-in-day-out. You meet with him and everything, but your relationship is mostly with your defensive coordinator and your position coach. That did play a big part in his decision, but at the same time we know those position coaches and defensive coordinators do change.

“When you take that out of the equation, you have to factor in the school itself. Will he be okay if his position coach left for another job and they added another one? Are you okay with being at this school if things change with the coaches? The answer has to be yes.”

DJ initially planned to announce his decision in October but moved up his commitment shortly after his official visits. Damien said DJ has seen what he needed to see and wants to focus on his senior football season.

“We honestly don’t feel like no matter what the results are for Miami, LSU, Oregon or Georgia (who DJ also official visited), their coaches are not going anywhere,” Damien said. “We hear a lot about a warm seat for Cristobal, but we honestly feel like coach will be there when my son gets to campus. We don’t feel like the culture of any of these schools will change within the next six months. Why not (announce) and let’s get it over with?

“We’ve seen everything about these schools. We’ve been to all of them multiple times. Let’s get it over with, concentrate on football and being a kid. Just being relaxed and being a kid and enjoying his senior year.”

Damien said the connections DJ has built with all three coaching staffs have made the decision particularly difficult, but he’ll be confident in his decision.

“This is very hard,” Damien said. “It’s hard. But there are going to be two fanbases and (coaching staffs) that we feel that, I don’t want to say we let them down, but we went another direction. That’s hard, because you do build relationships and you do a lot of talking and you put a lot of time in with these coaches and you understand that it’s a job for them, but at the same time, they’re human also.”

CaneSport’s Take

There has been some positive buzz around Miami leading into his decision, and I’m currently about 60% confident in the Hurricanes’ chances despite the Ducks leading on the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine. This decision Wednesday night should be between Miami and Oregon.

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