Jacksonville Providence Top247 tight end Will Mallory informed InsideTheU late Friday that he has committed to Miami.
Mallory, who is listed as the nation's No. 11 tight end on the industry-generated 247Sports Composite, picked the Hurricanes over Michigan, Clemson, Florida State, Alabama, Notre Dame and Texas A&M.
"I think deep down in my head I have always had an interest in Miami," he said. "I think the thing that did it for me was the last time I went down to visit I got to hang out with everybody and talk with some of the commits. I think after that visit I finally saw myself at Miami and everything just clicked. I knew that it was going to be a fit and I knew that it felt like home."
While Miami might have appeared to be the team to beat for Mallory in recent weeks, that wasn't always the case.
The rising senior is the son of former Michigan offensive tackle Mike Mallory and had been favoring the Wolverines throughout the recruiting process.
Hurricanes tight ends coach Todd Hartley however was able to change that.
Hartley made multiple trips up to Jacksonville to watch Mallory play basketball this past January and spent much of the spring developing a relationship with the family.
That turned out to be the difference.
"He's a great guy," Mallory said of Hartley. "The relationship we have built over the past year is pretty strong and it's probably the strongest one I have out of all the coaches. He's definitely a huge reason why I committed to Miami."
Mallory becomes the second elite tight end to give a public pledge to Mark Richt & Co. this week joining Las Vegas Bishop Gorman's Brevin Jordan.
Miami hopes that duo can morph into a 'two-headed monster' at some point down the line and wreak havoc on opposing defenses.
"From the beginning [the coaches] have been straight forward about who they want. They want Brevin to be more of the in-line tight end and for me to be the guy that splits out wide and create mismatches."
"People are going to have to decide who to guard and what to do with us. He's actually been the one guy that I have been hoping would commit to Miami because for about a month now I have know that I wanted to go to Miami. As soon as he committed, I knew I had to join him as soon as I could."
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