The Head Hurricane touches down: Mario Cristobal, Miami football visits Buchholz players

Buchholz High School's Jessie B. Heard Field serves multiple purposes.

It's where the Bobcats' football team practices in the fall, where the track and field team trains and it will be the site of the boys soccer team's district tournament match Saturday night.

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But on Thursday afternoon, Jessie B. Heard Field served a different purpose: helicopter-landing pad.

"I've been told they've landed a chopper on it a few years ago," Buchholz head football coach Chuck Bell said. "But in my four years at Buchholz, this is the first time I've ever seen a helicopter land on the practice field."

And while the chopper was a spectacle in itself, its passengers were what had the hallways buzzing.

Touching down at 11:52 a.m. were University of Miami head football coach Mario Cristobal and defensive coordinator Kevin Steele, who were greeted by Mark Whittemore, Buchholz's former head football coach who stepped down in December.

The Hurricanes' tandem prefaced their trip to Buchholz with a visit to Bradford in Starke to meet with head coach Jamie Rodgers and discuss prospective recruits with the Tornadoes.

The purpose of Cristobal and Steele's trip was to meet with Buchholz's football staff and discuss prospective targets.

"It shows the level of our program now," said Bell. "We've got a great tradition with the University of Miami. We've always had a really good recruiting tradition with them. It even likens back to having one of the best University of Miami receivers of all time being a Buchholz grad."

Lamar Thomas, who graduated from Buchholz in 1988, went on to have a brilliant career with the Hurricanes, which paved the way for his induction into the University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame in 2014. Thomas was honored by Buchholz last year when he was named a distinguished alumnus alongside former UF and NBA great Vernon Maxwell.

"Coach Lamar Thomas, who is down with the Orlando Guardian right now, I know he's fired up to have the University of Miami and coach Cristobal here," Bell said.

Certainly, among those names discussed was junior defensive end Kendall Jackson, who was offered by the 'Canes on June 11, 2022, after attending a camp there.

Having just finished up his junior season with the Bobcats, who made their second consecutive appearance in the state Final Four, Jackson has seen no shortage of attention after tallying 54 tackles, 10 sacks and 18 tackles for a loss in 2022.

Jackson also holds offers from Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, UCF and USF.

"We've probably had in the upwards of, just this week, probably 30 Division I schools, really the who's who of college football," said Bell when asked about what other programs have visited the Bobcats. "I expect that they'll continue to come by ... The first day we could be contacted, the first person through the door was, again, the University of Florida."

And Jackson isn't the only one worth the attention. The Bobcats have a number of players who will be signing college scholarships on Feb. 1, while several others are still on the hunt for their future homes.

"Overall, I think it just shows the trajectory of our program and how important Buchholz football has become as one of the best programs in the country," Bell said.

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Buchholz football gets visit from the Miami Hurricanes' Mario Cristobal