Rueben Bain: Cole McConathy plays with his hair on fire at all times

There may not be a better player in the ACC than Rueben Bain. He met with reporters after practice to discuss how he’s dealing with the hype, his new teammates, and more:

On the depth at DE: That's something I'm very excited for. We get the chance to rotate at any given moment in the game because we're so loaded. We have so much depth. We get to push each other every day in practice. Not only are we making each other better, we're making the whole line better. So this is like one big puzzle.

On being named one of the Top 100 Players by ESPN: It means a lot. It's something that I very much look forward to, especially awards of that caliber. But if I don't live up to whatever the expectation is, it means nothing. If I don't go and play my best and my hardest, it means nothing. The watch list is just like a nice pat on the shoulder. It really doesn't mean nothing. You still have to go out and put the work in to get the actual award. So I'm just like, “Thank you for looking out for me.” But I know what I have to do to get that award.

On the young DEs: All the freshmen are looking pretty good, but the one that stands out to me the most is Cole McConathy. He's a guy that plays with his hair on fire at all times. He's rocking my number, too (#44). He's just a smart, athletic kid. He's very active. It's like everything comes natural to him.

The advice I'm giving him is to be patient. Let football be football. At the end of the day, it's all the same game. I don't think that changes. People get a little big in the numbers and in the uniform. It's really nothing to sweat about. Football is football. The game is going to come to him because he's a great player. So just be himself.

On playing with Akheem Mesidor: He helped me a lot. That was my main guy, especially when I first got here. He was always trying to help me. He could have been the bad dude. I'm behind him and I'm a young guy with all this hype around him. He could have been a guy that was just an a-hole and turned his back. But he wasn't.

He was the person that helped me the most out of everybody. Somebody that I always went to when I had a question. He always answered it, always wanted to watch film with me, always gave me some little insight and details. Now that we get the chance to team up, I'm so excited for that. I can't even explain. I'm just ready for that. This season is going to be special for me.

On playing inside: It’s really a mix-up. It's whatever Coach G sees or Coach JT sees that [dictates] how much I'll play that. I honestly feel like the whole D-line can play inside, especially the older guys, because we're so versatile. Wherever they need us to be, we can go there and get the job done.

I can't even explain it, man. The stuff we'll be doing in practice will be crazy, because we’ve got this chemistry and connection with each other. We just flow off each other, we trust each other, we work together, play good football, and everybody can play all five positions in my mind, because at least that's what I'm seeing in practice.