DT Simeon Barrow, Jr. commits to Miami

May 3, 2024 1 min read

When Miami lost senior Jared Harrison-Hunte to SMU, adding an upgrade at defensive tackle became their top objective. They have checked that box with the addition of Michigan State transfer Simeon Barrow, Jr. One of the most coveted players in the Portal, Barrow chose Miami over LSU, Texas and Missouri.

The 6'3, 290 redshirt junior is a two-time Honorable Mention All-Big 10 selection who compiled 110 tackles, 18.5 TFL, 10.5 sacks and 76 pressures over the past three years. He also blocked two kicks, displaying his explosive power, and was voted team captain.

As a three-star recruit out of Grovetown, Georgia, Barrow weighed 252 pounds and was listed as a DE prospect. He has maintained his quickness (verified 4.44 shuttle) while adding almost 40 pounds.

Barrow joins QB Cam Ward, RB Damien Martinez, WR Sam Brown, DT CJ Clark, DT Marley Cook, DE Elijah Alston, LB Jaylin Alderman, S Meesh Powell and CB D'yoni Hill in Miami's Portal class.

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JHallCanes

Jun 8, 2024

PFF is a bag of ****s

/btw some of you I’m saying that’s a bad thing

JHallCanes

Jun 8, 2024

BoxingRobes said:
This guy is definitely better than JHH. JHH is good, but about hit his ceiling as a 3-star player here, but every team in the nation takes a Barrow for Harrison-Hunte swap. I think JHH will do well in SMU, too. Elijah Roberts balling out and now being recognized as a Top 100 player nationally probably slants my opinion, considering JHH was always significantly ahead of him on the depth chart here, so I have to assume JHH will improve his production out there, but that doesn't mean SMU themselves wouldn't take this either, hypothetically.

We essentially took the production of 5 players and consolidated it into 3 on the interior and all are better scheme fits. Clark is a better and more willing NT option than Leonard Taylor and we now have some versatility behind him to get him reps elsewhere to see if he can flash rushing the passer. And considering the latter didn't get drafted, I think its safe to say Clark has a higher draftable ceiling than Taylor. Marley Cook provides at least a theoretical upgrade over Thomas Gore despite some similar questions. Barrow provides legit All-Conference level production into the mix, something the rest of the roster couldn't account for. Nevermind the five and fourstars and our developmental tackles (Moten/Horton). This should be a room ready for battle. These guys have played a lot of football, the next guys up are a year older. The young guys have sky high talent and should be able to flash with limited snaps.

I just see us having a nice room now. Not up to bar necessarily. I am sure we'd like more size and higher end talent...but this is a good room now. Significantly upgraded just by reconfiguration.

I don’t think he’s definitely better. I watched him a lot and I think more people should instead of looking at ranking and PFF.

Jun 8, 2024

JamesQuall said:
No, I want to talk weather not football.

Do you think the cooler mid-high 80s weather swayed him to stay here? He probably thought "Hey it's not that bad."

I agree with you rok, it's probably the first time he had ever experienced 100 degree heat AND humidity. I was ready to move out of South Florida that week too.

I have a strong psychic belief that record temperatures did indeed play a role in Barrow's decision to leave.

JHallCanes

Jun 8, 2024

rok said:
I have a strong psychic belief that record temperatures did indeed play a role in Barrow's decision to leave.

I waited for February 14th 2016 for a long time

Just to see

Jun 8, 2024

just checking in to make sure everyone survived the heat today

Memnon

Jun 8, 2024

JHallCanes said:
I don’t think he’s definitely better. I watched him a lot and I think more people should instead of looking at ranking and PFF.

PFF is simply a grading system based on metrics. People who don't understand their methodology always downplay what they do, but are the first ones to use their metrics when it shows that Miami actually has a good roster & good players.

I've watched a lot of Mich ST tape going back to 2021 in review of their Secondary, & watching their overall Defense & it's clear that Barrow has been their best pass rushing Interior lineman with 18.5TFL's & 10.5 sacks as a 3 year starter.

JHH in that same time span as a 4 year starter has had 20.5TFL's & 9 sacks, even with an extra Redshirt year & a full extra season as a starter JHH has put up the same production as a 3 year starter who's played since he was a TF.

Barrow is better in by every metric you wanna measure it by. If you wanna go by cold stats, Barrow has him beat; if you wanna go by eye test, Barrow has him beat there. Raw skills & capabilities, Barrow once again. So even if you throw out PFF metrics, there's no good argument to be made for JHH.

He was a 5th year player that maxed out 2 years ago & has already hit his ceiling. He added nothing to the DLine that we didn't already have over the last 3 regimes.

Barrow is a definite upgrade or JHH in every aspect of DL play.

JHallCanes

Jun 8, 2024

Memnon said:
PFF is simply a grading system based on metrics. People who don't understand their methodology always downplay what they do, but are the first ones to use their metrics when it shows that Miami actually has a good roster & good players.

I've watched a lot of Mich ST tape going back to 2021 in review of their Secondary, & watching their overall Defense & it's clear that Barrow has been their best pass rushing Interior lineman with 18.5TFL's & 10.5 sacks as a 3 year starter.

JHH in that same time span as a 4 year starter has had 20.5TFL's & 9 sacks, even with an extra Redshirt year & a full extra season as a starter JHH has put up the same production as a 3 year starter who's played since he was a TF.

Barrow is better in by every metric you wanna measure it by. If you wanna go by cold stats, Barrow has him beat; if you wanna go by eye test, Barrow has him beat there. Raw skills & capabilities, Barrow once again. So even if you throw out PFF metrics, there's no good argument to be made for JHH.

He was a 5th year player that maxed out 2 years ago & has already hit his ceiling. He added nothing to the DLine that we didn't already have over the last 3 regimes.

Barrow is a definite upgrade or JHH in every aspect of DL play.

That’s just like your opinion man

Memnon

Jun 8, 2024

JHallCanes said:
That’s just like your opinion man

Corroborated by fact.

JHH's best season he had 7.5TFL's & 2 sacks
Barrow's best season he had 9TFL's & 4 sacks.

The best game of JHH's career was 2021 against VA Tech.

JHallCanes

Jun 8, 2024

Memnon said:
Corroborated by fact.

JHH's best season he had 7.5TFL's & 2 sacks
Barrow's best season he had 9TFL's & 4 sacks.

The best game of JHH's career was 2021 against VA Tech.

Truly overwhelming evidence

How silly of me

Memnon

Jun 8, 2024

JHallCanes said:
Truly overwhelming evidence

How silly of me

Well let's go by tape then, which games has JHH shown that he's better than Barrow?

Post'em.

JHallCanes

Jun 8, 2024

Memnon said:
Well let's go by tape then, which games has JHH shown that he's better than Barrow?

Post'em.

I was gonna do that and then remembered I don’t give a **** if you agree with me or not

Memnon

Jun 8, 2024

JHallCanes said:
I was gonna do that and then remembered I don’t give a **** if you agree with me or not

Exactly

JHallCanes

Jun 8, 2024

Memnon said:
Exactly

Hopefully you feel better bouncing back after that UGA display you put on

Glad I could help

TheOriginalCane

Jun 8, 2024

rok said:
I have a strong psychic belief that record temperatures did indeed play a role in Barrow's decision to leave.

Sure.

Squid Bumciorek

Jun 8, 2024

Memnon said:
Corroborated by fact.

JHH's best season he had 7.5TFL's & 2 sacks
Barrow's best season he had 9TFL's & 4 sacks.

The best game of JHH's career was 2021 against VA Tech.

Seems like having both on the rooster would have been the wise solution.

Memnon

Jun 8, 2024

JHallCanes said:
Hopefully you feel better bouncing back after that UGA display you put on

Glad I could help

Snide sarcasm only works when it's relevant to the discussion.

Either make an argument to support your claim or move on.

Memnon

Jun 8, 2024

Handsome Squidbum said:
Seems like having both on the rooster would have been the wise solution.

Unfortunately there's not enough snaps & roster space to facilitate that.

You would've had to convince one of them to come off the bench & neither would've accepted it.

JHallCanes

Jun 8, 2024

Memnon said:
Snide sarcasm only works when it's relevant to the discussion.

Either make an argument to support your claim or move on.

I already did.

Actually have explained it quite a bit. To use your words it’s not my fault people can’t follow along.

Barrow to me a likely upgrade to JHH caveat being I think JHH started to put things together last year under Guidry. Saw some flashes.

Barrow similar builds similar styles, been productive. He’s gotta buy into Guidry and the team which it’s a big question mark at the moment that he’s gonna do that or has. Hence my explanation of why I don’t just accept he’s definitely an upgrade because PFF rankings don’t matter when it comes to those things

We will see. Hopefully I’m way wrong. Have been plenty of times.

JamesQuall

Jun 8, 2024

rok said:
I have a strong psychic belief that record temperatures did indeed play a role in Barrow's decision to leave.

Thank you

Memnon

Jun 8, 2024

JHallCanes said:
I already did.

Actually have explained it quite a bit. To use your words it’s not my fault people can’t follow along.

Barrow to me a likely upgrade to JHH caveat being I think JHH started to put things together last year under Guidry. Saw some flashes.

Barrow similar builds similar styles, been productive. He’s gotta buy into Guidry and the team which it’s a big question mark at the moment that he’s gonna do that or has. Hence my explanation of why I don’t just accept he’s definitely an upgrade because PFF rankings don’t matter when it comes to those things

We will see. Hopefully I’m way wrong. Have been plenty of times.

Having flashes after being in college for 5 years is exactly why he's not better. JHH has been inconsistent as a starter throughout his career. 1 or 2 games of good play followed by 3 or 4 more of average play. If JHH played the way he did vs VA Tech in 21 for the entirety of his career he would've already declared for the draft by now, but his problem is that in 5 years (going into 6 this season), he cannot string together good performances.

He also has been a mostly below average to average Run defender, hence why we've needed to take multiple DT's via the Portal over the last 3 seasons.

It's a comparison of upside production vs precedent production. A fully bought in JHH gave us 3TFL's & 2 sacks last year.

Did we bring in player that can duplicate that same production, is younger & has the possibility to be better? I'd say objectively we did.