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Temecula (Calif.) Chaparral wide out Eli Woodard has committed to Miami and broke down why he chose the Canes.
Woodard is coming off a strong showing at The Opening Finals last week in Beaverton, Oregon and made out ‘Top Performers’ team following the event.
He’s currently the No. 156 player nationally in the Rivals Industry Ranking, an equally weighted average that utilizes all three major recruiting services and the No. 16 rated player in the state.
“I feel great about my decision and I’m excited to be a Cane,” Woodard said. “I’ve known it’s been Miami for a couple of weeks now. Right after my UCLA visit, I called Miami and told them I was coming.
“It was still a hard decision for me though. It was actually a lot tougher than I expected but I really thought hard about it, prayed about it and after talking with my family, we knew this was the move for me.”
Woodard said there were a lot of reasons why he chose Miami.
“I got that special feeling out there and knew in my heart, Miami was the spot for me,” Woodard said. “The people at Miami made it special. It’s hard to explain but it felt like I knew everyone my whole life, even though I was just meeting them for the first time.
“I love the coaching staff and I’m excited to work with coach KB (Kevin Beard). I’ve had some great talks with him and Mario Cristobal and I’m ready for this. The energy in that building is crazy and I’m ready to let it ride.”
Miami wasn’t involved with Woodard when he originally committed to USC but got involved shortly afterwards.
“They hit my coach up after I committed and told him they were interested,” Woodard said. “They started to ramp things up and then once I de-committed, they really got involved.
“Once I visited, I knew that was home. I knew I wasn’t going to commit on that trip since it was my first visit but after visiting Cal and UCLA, I was still feeling Miami. I had zero second thoughts or doubts about it once I knew in my heart I was going there and that was really re-assuring for me.”
As mentioned, Woodard had a dominant showing at The Opening and really put on a show for the West squad in their Championship win over a talented Southwest squad. We asked if that performance validated him and gave him even more confidence that he could play in what will always be a stacked WR room in Miami.
“No to be honest, I always knew I could play there,” Woodard said. “I never doubted I had the talent to compete on that stage. I had a great time out there, don’t get me wrong, I loved that competition but I was already very confident in my ability going in.”
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