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Eleven days after former Texas Longhorns safety Adrian Colbert announced his intentions to become a graduate transfer, a visit to see the Miami Hurricanes secured the final season of eligibility from the former four-star prospect:
So blessed for the opportunity to continue my career at THE U. We got work to do, and it will come. #ACCTAkeOver pic.twitter.com/mM6EpQ7g9e
— A.D Colbert (@AdrianColbert26) February 28, 2016
And it's not exactly shocking -- while ending up at a high-profile football school is a bit of a surprise, Colbert committed to new Hurricanes defensive coordinator Manny Diaz as a member of the 2012 Longhorns class before redshirting during his first season in burnt orange and white. There's another connection, too -- Miami safeties coach Ephraim Banda was a quality control assistant at Texas from 2012-2015 and appears to have hosted Colbert on his visit.
Now Colbert will have a chance to earn some extensive playing time under Diaz, who will have to replace both starting safeties from 2015, though both back ups played significant snaps. Since there's not much experience behind those players, however, Colbert could certainly feature in the rotation, something he was not able to do at Texas in 2015.
The 6'0, 210-pounder appeared in 26 games over his first two seasons, including four starts in 2014 before losing his position to freshman Jason Hall. In Colbert's first career start against UNT that year, he was able to record his only career interception. And despite losing his starting job, Colbert remained engaged enough to tie for the team lead in special teams tackles with six and downed two punts inside the five-yard line against West Virginia that year. As a freshman in 2013, Colbert was a second-team Academic All-Big 12 honoree and finished tied for third on the team in special teams tackles with six.
After getting passed by Hall in 2014, though, Colbert fell almost entirely out of the rotation and wasn't credited with any statistics last season, according to cfbstats.com. And he wasn't making a dent on the depth chart, either, as more young players like freshmen DeShon Elliott and PJ Locke pulled ahead of him in the rotation.