By Carlos Pineda
SouthernPigskin.com

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The past year has been an interesting one for Al Golden. After signing day perhaps his second and beyond will go in a whole new direction.

CORAL GABLES, Fla. — For Al Golden, this past year was considerably one of the most grueling of his career.

Through the off-field issues involving former rogue booster Nevin Shapiro, the suspensions, distractions and a self-imposed bowl ban, Golden was excited with how his first real recruiting class at Miami turned out.

“Just an incredible effort in light of everything that we’ve encountered, all of the obstacles the last couple of months,” Golden said Wednesday. “Great effort. I’m really proud of this class. It personifies and embodies what we’re looking for.

“A lot of guys that want to be Miami Hurricanes, what it takes to be part of the tradition.”

UM landed 24 players from the 2012 recruiting class, not including the nine players that enrolled early in the spring and count against last year’s class. In addition to running back Randy “Duke” Johnson from Norland, Miami Columbus safety Deon Bush and Palm Beach Central athlete Angelo Jean-Louis, the biggest signee for Golden came in five-star cornerback Tracy Howard out of Miramar.

Not part of the mix for much of the recruiting process, the Hurricanes made a strong push the past two weeks for the No. 1 cornerback in the nation and it wasn’t until Howard visited UM last weekend that he really considered the program as legitimate choice.

“I never really gave them a chance,” Howard said Wednesday morning. “I told myself, ‘Man, I don’t want to go to Miami.’ When I went to the University of Miami, it felt like I was away from home. It felt like I’m in another world.”

Miami closed the deal on Howard and gave the program the exclamation point it needed in helping fortify the fertile South Florida recruiting ground. It also solidified them as a Top 10 national recruiting class across the board.

A focused Golden made it perfectly clear that the Hurricanes will fight to defend Miami-Dade and Broward.

“We did a good job holding serve in Broward and Dade,” Golden said. “We’re going to be tough to beat [here]. We beat some good teams down here. We have to get back to doing that on the field and we will.”

One aspect UM endured down the recruiting path was the negative recruiting. Golden had alluded to getting crushed in recruiting earlier in his press conference and sent a message to the guilty parties.

“I won’t sit here and tell you we didn’t get absolutely crushed by opponents…and we fought back,” Golden said. “They saw a soft spot and they took it, went after. Guys took shots at it. It’s OK. Get your licks in now.”

The obvious hitting points were the looming the NCAA violations that hang above the program, but that didn’t deter players away. Instead, Golden’s honesty and selling points on the program’s core values was more than enough to calm concerns.

The combined signing 33 total players begins to help fill voids left behind, including: quarterback, receivers, defensive line, linebackers and the secondary.

With the new arrivals, the Hurricanes are set on taking the next step on the path back to the top.