Frankie Tinilau makes it official with Miami: “We must do our part and help build this empire”
SIGNEES (with link to feature story on each): Francis Mauigoa … Damari Brown … Christopher Johnson … Antione Jackson … Collins Acheampong … Kaleb Spencer … Riley Williams … Samson Okunlola … Robby Washington … Bobby Washington … Rueben Bain … Mark Fletcher … Malik Bryant … Jackson Carver … Emory Williams … Antonio Tripp … Marcellius Pulliam … Jayden Wayne … Frankie Tinilau … Joshua Horton … Raul Aguirre … Robert Stafford … Tommy Kinsler … Ray Ray Joseph … Australian P Dylan Joyce
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Miami (Fla.) La Salle High School OL Frankie Tinilau may have set a record before ever stepping foot on Miami’s campus. That record? A 2 a.m. commitment tweet April 11. Of course, he was in his home country Australia at the time, so it translated into an 11 a.m. tweet in Miami.
Now the 6-6, 320-pounder with the athleticism to dunk a basketball is officially a Cane. He’s confirmed signing.
“The school is wonderful,” Tinilau said. “(Mario Cristobal has) told me all the big plans they have for the future.
“They’ve just said the best man will play, and just have faith in our coaching ability, and the rest is on you, whether you want to listen or you don’t want to listen and it’s going to show on game day.”
During his recruitment Tinilau initially had Oregon as his dream offer when Cristobal was still coaching there. He visited Cristobal and Miami in March and was sold.
Tinilau landed the UM offer March 1 – it was his fourth offer at the time, joining Florida State, Arizona State and Akron. He wound up with over 20 offers, and Oregon was one that did try to make a push in-season. But to no avail.
Others that offered during the season included Penn State, Auburn, Louisville, Missouri and Mississippi State.
“Miami is the type of college that they just show it’s all in the actions and they just say, ‘Just imagine when you come here and you have three to four years working with us,'” Tinilau said. “They say, ‘look at what we’ve done in the past’. A guy like Penei Sewell is someone I looked up to when I started everything off, and for them to be able to say we coached that guy is huge.”
Tinilau has an interesting background. He grew up in Brisbane, Australia, and never played football in the U.S. until enrolling in school here this year.
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He’d played club football in Autralia previously, and as a 15-year-old was playing against 20-and-over players in the league.
“Heck, his father played next to him on the team at left guard,” Tinilau’s high school coach, Helder Valle, says.
What has Miami landed here?
Valle, says “Miami got a gem. He has the athleticism, mentality and all the physical traits for him to be successful in college and on Sundays as well.”
An interesting note here? Tinilau went to a casting call for Young Rock featuring Dwayne Johnson and actually got a part.
“He’s the Rock’s stunt double in the season where he was in Canadian football,” Valle said. “They were filming in Australia, had casting calls, he went in and they filmed him.”
A final thought from Tinilau?
“I’m confident in what I can bring to The U that will help turn this around and make sure Miami never feels this pain (of a bad season) again,” Tinilau said. “There is a lot of missing pieces to the puzzle, but we must trust this coaching staff to work this out. We must do our part and help build this empire.”
