Miami Hurricanes Hosting Syracuse Star Trebor Pena in Key Portal Visit

The Trebor Pena sweepstakes are heating up. The star Syracuse receiver promises to have a major payday coming his way in the second portal window, and the Miami Hurricanes are right in the thick of things. As first reported by On3’s Hayes Fawcett, Pena has set up visits to UM, USC and UCLA this week. He’s already visited Penn State, the program some view as the current leader.

Pena isn’t the only Miami portal visitor – CaneSport’s already reported on the Cane visit plans S Noah King, RB CharMar Brown, WR Tony Johnson and DT Braxton Fely.

Second Transfer Portal Tracker: Miami Hurricanes Looking To Make Moves

Miami is expected to take 1-2 portal receivers this cycle, and Pena would be a gem. That much was evident first-hand to Miami fans that tuned in for the Canes’ loss at Syracuse last year, a game in which Pena ate up the secondary for a team-high 128 yards on six catches.

Pena would be a versatile piece who could play slot or outside, and Miami needs his playmaking and experience considering no returning receiver has significant experience (Miami’s top four receivers departed). So far UM’s added one portal receiver in the first window, LSU’s CJ Daniels.

Pena lined up in the slot for Syracuse 56.2 percent of the time last season per Pro Football Focus, and in the aforementioned game against Miami he had back-to-back plays of 50 and 25 yards (the latter for a touchdown). He also had an 11-yard carry. At 6-0 and 184 pounds he possessess excellent speed and athleticism. Oh, and did we mention he’s also one of the top return men in the ACC?

A redshirt senior, last year he earned Second Team All-ACC honors after starting 10 games with a team-high 84 catches, 941 yards and nine TDs (he also rushed 12 times for 72 yards and another TD). Pena took back 15 punts for 120 yards (8.0 yards per return).

2024 was his breakout season – in 2023 he redshirted due to injury, in 2022 he had 22 catches for 203 yards (averaged 27.2 yards on 12 KOR and 8.7 yards on 21 PR), in 2021 he played in seven games as a backup receiver before a season-ending injury (had 552 combined kick return yards), and in 2020 he had one catch and a highlight 98-yard TD kick return against NC State.

Pena played high school ball at Ocean Township (NJ) High School, and in the Class of 2020 he was a 3-star who had only one major program offer, Syracuse.

He would be an excellent replacement for the departing Xavier Restrepo, although they are slightly different types of players. Pena is more in the lean, fast mold where Restrepo was more solidly built and thrived on quick moves to get open (per their roster listings last season Restrepo is two inches shorter than Pena but 14 pounds heavier). To that point Restrepo had 874 of his yards last year on passes of 10 yards plus, while Pena had 379 yards in that category per PFF. By the same token, it’s not surprising that PFF notes the majority of Pena’s yards came on throws within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage (80 percent of his catches, netting 553 yards).

Restrepo and Pena also differ significantly in their production from 10 yards and deeper. Restrepo totaled 874 yards and eight touchdowns from that range, while Pena accounted for 379 yards and five touchdowns. A plus for Miami when it comes to trying to land Pena could be that the slot receiver has led Shannon Dawson’s offense in receiving his four recent years as coordinator (twice at Houston with Tank Dell and the last two years with Restrepo at UM).

As of now Miami’s receiver corps top threats are Daniels (starred at Liberty but then was LSU’s fourth-leading receiver and had no TDs last year),  JoJo Trader (expected to be a playmaker in Year 2, but he was a backup last year), slot Ray Ray Joseph (backup previously) and talented true freshmen waiting to show out who had strong springs in slot Malachi Toney and outside receivers Joshua Moore and Daylyn Upshaw.

If Miami does add Pena it means the likely starting lineup would likely be Daniels and Trader as the outside guys with Pena in slot.

That would be a potentially very dangerous trio that could make plays for Georgia transfer QB Carson Beck.