{"id":128399,"date":"2026-01-22T22:54:01","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T22:54:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/128399\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T22:54:01","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T22:54:01","slug":"damon-wilson-ii-commits-to-miami-hurricanes-as-likely-fill-for-rueben-bain-jr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/128399\/","title":{"rendered":"Damon Wilson II commits to Miami Hurricanes as likely fill for Rueben Bain Jr."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"gettyimages-2253361150-1.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/p>\n

Missouri<\/a> transfer Damon Wilson II<\/a>, who was the top available defensive prospect in 247Sports’ Transfer Rankings<\/a>, announced Thursday that he is transferring to Miami<\/a>. Wilson, the No. 8 transfer nationally and the No. 2 edge rusher, chose the Hurricanes over the likes of Texas Tech<\/a> and LSU, among others.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In joining Miami, Wilson, a former Georgia<\/a> signee, will be on his third school in three years. He had a breakout year after transferring to Missouri ahead of the 2025 season, as he led the Tigers and ranked third in the SEC with nine sacks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He also earned second-team All-SEC honors after logging a team-high 12 quarterback pressures and one interception in addition to his sacks. Wilson had at least one sack in four of Missouri’s eight SEC games, including a two-sack performance in the Tigers’ 27-24 loss against Alabama<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A former top-50 high school prospect out of Venice, Florida<\/a>, Wilson spent the first two years of his career at Georgia. He played sparingly as a true freshman before earning a rotational role in his second season when he had 22 total tackles, three sacks and two forced fumbles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wilson is the seventh transfer that Miami has landed during the 2026 cycle and the fourth with at least a four-star ranking. He feels a huge need for the Hurricanes, who will have to replace both of their top pass rushers from 2025′ national runner-up squad.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rueben Bain Jr.<\/a>, who had five sacks during Miami’s College Football<\/a> Playoff run, is widely regarded as one of the top defensive players in the 2026 NFL Draft<\/a>. Bain’s running mate, Akheem Mesidor<\/a>, who actually led Miami with 12.5 sacks in 2025, is also off to the NFL<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That means Wilson should step into a big role on Miami’s defense immediately. He’ll likely slot in alongside top returning EDGE Marquise Lightfoot<\/a>, a former top-40 prospect that had 2.5 sacks off the bench, to offset the production left by Bain and Mesidor.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Images Missouri transfer Damon Wilson II, who was the top available defensive prospect in 247Sports’ Transfer Rankings,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[6004,2531,143,63483,2530,4669,944,63485,21656,123,4641,125,124,63484,10480,6005,2526,46266],"class_list":["post-128399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-akheem-mesidor","tag-alabama-crimson-tide","tag-college-football","tag-damon-wilson-ii","tag-florida-gators","tag-georgia-bulldogs","tag-hurricanes","tag-hurricanes-transfer","tag-marquise-lightfoot","tag-miami","tag-miami-fla-hurricanes","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-miami-transfer","tag-missouri-tigers","tag-rueben-bain-jr","tag-texas-tech-red-raiders","tag-transfer-portal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}