2020 Fall Camp Preview: DE

2020 Fall Camp Preview: DE

Stefan Adams
Offseason Additions: Qunicy Roche (Transferred from Temple), Chantz Williams (2020 signee), DE Quentin Williams (2020 signee), Elijah Roberts (2020 signee)

Offseason Departures: Gregory Rousseau (Opted out), Jon Garvin (NFL Draft), Trevon Hill (Graduation/UDFA), Scott Patchan (Tranferred to Colorado State)



During the Manny Diaz era at Miami going back to his time as DC, the Hurricanes’ stop-unit has been known for the play of their defensive ends. Over the past 4 seasons, Miami DE’s have set up shop in the opponent’s backfield, regularly creating havoc plays and putting offenses in tough down and distance situations. That production has made them the engine that drives the defense and sets the table for the back seven to make plays, which was certainly true again in 2019. Hurricanes’ defensive ends combined for a whopping 27.5 sacks and 44 TFL last year, helping UM rank among the nation’s leaders in both categories yet again (6th in sacks, 4th in TFL).

However, with yesterday’s news that redshirt sophomore and projected top 10 NFL Draft pick Gregory Rousseau will sit out the 2020 season acting as the final domino, all of that production is now completely gone. Miami does not have a single returning DE that played any meaningful snaps for the team in 2019; Jon Garvin and Trevon Hill are off to the NFL, while Scott Patchan elected to use his 6th season of eligibility at Colorado State. For most programs, that would cause a huge crisis at a position, or at least lead to a ton of question marks in the offseason. Miami, though, has set themselves set up to the point where this could be nothing more than a blip.

That’s a bit of an exaggeration: You can never replace a top 10 player in the country like Rousseau with a snap of the fingers, but it doesn’t hurt when you add one of the top 5 sack artists in the country to your roster. That’s what Diaz did over the offseason when he went out and landed Temple senior grad transfer Quincy Roche, who dominated the AAC in 2019 to win the conference’s Defensive Player of the year Award. Roche finished the 2019 season as the Owls’ leader in tackles for loss (19) and the single-season record holder for sacks (13). He also owns the AAC record for career sacks with 26 and most tackles for loss in a single season. Roche showed up at Miami in spring and demonstrated his speed and quickness off the edge from the get-go, so he is expected to be a major piece in the reload effort in 2020.

Across from Roche, there is a battle brewing that most around the program feel is being led by redshirt junior Jaelan Phillips based on his spring performance. A former 5-star and #1 overall player in the country in the 2017 class, Phillips transferred to UM last year from UCLA after deciding to pick football back up again; he medically retired from the sport for a few months following the 2018 season with the Bruins due to injuries. Phillips sat out for the Canes in 2019 due to transfers rules and was able to use the year to rejuvenate his body, proving that was the case in spring by sporting a bulked up frame that he used to terrorize Miami’s offensive tackles with violent physicality and burst. Phillips was one of the stars of the abbreviated spring and has taken another step towards fulfilling the promise many saw in him out of high school.

Phillips’ main competition for the #2 job will come from Jahfari Harvey, who also had a strong spring camp after adding more muscle while keeping his explosiveness. Harvey saw limited time as a freshman last season in blowouts before shutting it down and taking a redshirt year; while his lack of experience will likely prevent him from winning a starting role out of the gate in 2020, there’s no doubt he’s going to play a key part in this season’s defense. Miami used Hill and Patchan a ton off the bench last year, and Harvey could actually be an upgrade from either of those two in the rotation.

Miami also brought in a strong freshman class at this spot to keep the good times rolling, beginning with Chantz Williams, a national top 100 overall prospect that was able to enroll early for spring. While Williams was limited with a wrist injury in spring, he was able to add an additional 15 pounds of muscle over the offseason to prepare himself for the rigors of the college game. Williams at a minimum will be able to contribute a few snaps per game as a third down specialist or when giving the starters a breather, with the upside for much more.

Redshirt freshman DT Jason Blissett also saw some time working at end in the spring, but it’s unclear if he will permanently stay at the spot or will swing back over to DT in fall. Cameron Williams took a redshirt as a freshman last season and could work his way into the mix as well.

Over the summer months, UM added two more freshmen to the roster in Elijah Roberts and Quentin Williams. Coming in so late, it’s difficult to imagine either of them playing enough to justify burning a redshirt with all the talent in front of them, but Roberts in particular has the versatility and the frame to play inside if necessary, which could help him see the field early on; many see him ending up at DT at some point down the line regardless.


Bottom Line

Without Rousseau, the dynamic really changes here, and the pressure will intensify on each member of the position group to step their game up just a little more than they expected to have to in 2020. Can Roche make a quick adjustment to ACC play coming from the Group of 5 level? Can Phillips stay healthy over a full season and reach his potential? Is Harvey ready for a major role with so little experience? Will a freshman step up to fill out the rotation?

Although this unit does have some questions, compared to any other spot on the roster, I’m the most confident that they will be answered in a positive manner for Miami. If Miami could afford to take a hit anywhere, it was at DE; UM has recruited too well both in the transfer portal and in high school to not find at least one impact player from this group, and I’m inclined to believe they will end up with multiple this fall, especially in a scheme favorable for DE production. I’ll be paying most attention to if Harvey can take a real step forward in his second year, and/or if Chantz Williams proves he’s ready early on, because that will really lessen the burden on the projected starters. The hole that Rousseau leaves in the lineup could also cause Miami to take a committee approach with their backups early in the season until somebody really earns their spot in the rotation.
 

Comments (10)

Seems you need 4 contributors and we have 3. Someone young will be playing lots.
 
Advertisement
Thinking we’ll get our usual TFL and Sacks in 2020 as we’ve done in the past. Previous years we’d have 1-2 top flight DE’s but unlike the level of Rousseau, Phillips, and Roche. As Stefan said, we’ll have the horses to keep production up especially with more experience in our secondary for 2020. It’s going to take a committee but I’ve got a great feeling Roche, Phillips, Harvey, and one of the Williams’ are going to not miss a beat even without Gregg. It’s not going to be 28Sacks out of the starting 2 DE’s but with at least 4 getting 40+ sacks we’ll do fine this season. Can’t wait for teams to have to finally press on offense with ours putting up big numbers forcing theirs into easy mistakes allowing our DL to eat. All. Year. Long.
 
Rousseau is a friggin idiot. Our secondary, especially, will miss him. But it is what it is. .... I can't wait to see Phillips and Roche dominate, and Harvey stepping it up to be the next heir apparent.
Prime example of the new breed moron so called UM fans, last year, rousseau came in a "3star" and got bashed, from the looks of things, you were one of the ones bashing em and others, "why are we getting a 3 star" I said back than, he'll be one of our best players, a year later some of those dumb *** ****'s and hypocrites complaining about why didnt rousseau be a starter out the gate over pacthan, no matter that he was coming off foot surgery and had never played more than around 15 plays in a game, that man had to earn his spot like everybody else should have, he did that, and the rest is history.

So WTF are you to get sensitive now cause that man out himself in position to be drafted and you mad, GTFOH!
 
Thinking we’ll get our usual TFL and Sacks in 2020 as we’ve done in the past. Previous years we’d have 1-2 top flight DE’s but unlike the level of Rousseau, Phillips, and Roche. As Stefan said, we’ll have the horses to keep production up especially with more experience in our secondary for 2020. It’s going to take a committee but I’ve got a great feeling Roche, Phillips, Harvey, and one of the Williams’ are going to not miss a beat even without Gregg. It’s not going to be 28Sacks out of the starting 2 DE’s but with at least 4 getting 40+ sacks we’ll do fine this season. Can’t wait for teams to have to finally press on offense with ours putting up big numbers forcing theirs into easy mistakes allowing our DL to eat. All. Year. Long.
We'll see about this offense, we know we got cam and brevin, after that, nobody on offense has proven **** except scaife and gaynor, the rest of them all have to go out and prove themselves, whatever they did elsewhere means nothing. It's funny how all this talk about rhett runs a "high-up-tempo spread" offense, but his offenses actually ran 15 more offensive plays than coach richt's system with a bunch of young undisciplined players. The main thing I like about what coach rhett said is we are running a "power spread" system, time will tell.

But first off, we really should be giving more credit to coach stroud, no matter who is getting credit for some of the d-line commits, the bottom line is, guys have been and are flocking to be coached by him, real good move and pick-up by coach diaz for going with coach stroud. Going to be interesting to see if games are played this year how this new d-line looks, the Great news is, we've been recruiting the numbers needed at that position properly, I'm looking to see what kind of mental make-up do roched and phillips have during real games. Stats don't mean **** until you doing it when it matters most, rosseau showed up and made plays in almost all the games, but more importantly, teams had to game plan against him for sure, which put other people in position to make plays.

This is starting to feel like the old days when we knew even tho somebody strong left, the anticipation of who got next was always fun. Truth be told, I been high on harvey when he was rated "3 star" and cam williams has what it takes to surprise many, that man got slept on by many and is just the type player that coach stroud will continue to show his worth.
 
Advertisement
Roche still needs to prove himself against a power 5 schedule. Far from a given.....

This. I’ve got high hopes for him though. Not being a mope.

He is the the most proven player at DE. But curious how he holds up in P5. I’m sure he’s curious as well which led to his transfer here to prove himself against better comp and move up draft boards.....

Let’s see.

Apart from that we’ve got names and bodies. Let’s see who steps up.
 
Back
Top