Another day, another position room for Miami ranking Top 10 nationally. Top 3, in this case.
Again, for the score keepers, this is now the RB group, WR group, OL group, and DL group all ranked in the top 10 nationally. And this doesn’t even include the most important position in sports, where we clearly have a Top 10-ish player there as well.
I believe our 4 veteran edge players have 47.5 career sacks between them. I’d venture to say that’s best in the country.
I will continue to say it. Barring some catastrophic injury luck, this team has to be good. Really good. I was as vocal in support of bringing Mario here as anyone on Earth. But there is massive pressure on him this season, as there should be. IMO the 10 wins or bust I’ve been giving him all off-season might be too low. Any fully competent and accomplished coaching staff who has Ward, and room after room of Top 10 talent is honestly a trendy national championship pick. We’re just saying buddy has to win 10 games. So Mario is my guy, and this is what I fully expected when we got him. Talent EVERYWHERE. But it’s time to put the coaching demons to rest.
Miami has the deepest group of edge defenders in the nation. Rueben Bain Jr. is the best of the bunch and is my No. 6 edge in the country after a spectacular freshman season. In fact, his 89.3 pass-rushing grade last year was the second-best PFF has seen by a Power Five true freshman. The only one above him is the reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year,
Myles Garrett.
Starting opposite of him will be former
Tennesseeedge defender Tyler Baron. He was sixth among SEC edges last year with 41 pressures. The Hurricanes also added
Marshall edge Elijah Alston from the portal as well. His 91.3 grade last year was third among all edge defenders in the nation. Akheem Mesidor missed all but two games this past season due to a foot injury but was fifth among Power Five edges the year before with an 87.2 grade.
Miami also added Simeon Barrow from
Michigan State in the transfer portal and welcomed three five-star true freshmen along its defensive line as well, setting this unit up beautifully for the present and the future.