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Miami defensive lineman Ahmad Moten announces return for 2026

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jdmorgan76 said:
Moten and Scott are going to be a major problem for every team.that faces Miami next year...

No one is blocking this dline yall..
Click to expand...
I've been saying all off-season that those 2 are gonna have a Bain & Mesi type of impact on the interior next season. I don't think it's really setting in with our fan base how dominant of a DT duo we're trotting out there.

EASILY the BEST pair of D-Tackles we've had in the last quarter century. As much as we love Willis & RJ, let's be real, family, there's levels to this ****. Dem boys can't hold 99 & 5's shoulder pads.

Barring any and all bull****(in Jesus name), Moten is going to be drafted very high next year. So will Justin when he declares...
 
RattlerCane305 said:
jdmorgan76 said:
Moten and Scott are going to be a major problem for every team.that faces Miami next year...

No one is blocking this dline yall..
Click to expand...
I've been saying all off-season that those 2 are gonna have a Bain & Mesi type of impact on the interior next season. I don't think it's really setting in with our fan base how dominant of a DT duo we're trotting out there.

EASILY the BEST pair of D-Tackles we've had in the last quarter century. As much as we love Willis & RJ, let's be real, family, there's levels to this ****. Dem boys can't hold 99 & 5's shoulder pads.

Barring any and all bull****(in Jesus name), Moten is going to be drafted very high next year. So will Justin when he declares...
Click to expand...
Yep. Willis was good but it was literally shoot the gap and hope for the best. No where near the complete players we have right now.
 
RattlerCane305 said:
I've been saying all off-season that those 2 are gonna have a Bain & Mesi type of impact on the interior next season. I don't think it's really setting in with our fan base how dominant of a DT duo we're trotting out there.

EASILY the BEST pair of D-Tackles we've had in the last quarter century. As much as we love Willis & RJ, let's be real, family, there's levels to this ****. Dem boys can't hold 99 & 5's shoulder pads.

Barring any and all bull****(in Jesus name), Moten is going to be drafted very high next year. So will Justin when he declares...
Click to expand...
Exactly! There are many in this fan base who are so consumed with the fact we are losing Bain and Mesidor(which are obviously significant losses), that they cannot see the pair of total BAD AZZES that we return at DT. Pair that with the return of Lightfoot and Blount plus the addition of AA candidate Wilson plus the Scroggins arrival party and the possibility of Lowe and you have what is potentially the most dominant DL in the ACC and the nation.
 
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JG14 said:
Potential to be. Scott and Thomas are going to be difficult to replace. Scott was elite at nickel. If his replacement comes close to what he did last year this defense can be special
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Agree with this. Scott and Thomas are significant losses. Scott was elite at Nickel, Thomas was great at Safety and both were leaders who will not be easily replaced. However I also try to look at the secondary as a whole, who we bring back and if I expect any of the returning players to improve. In this case, our top 5 CBs come back and I expect every single one of them to improve. There will also be improved depth at CB with many 2nd year players coming off of a redshirt or an injury plus an excellent true freshman class.

At Safety, we return Poyser and Fitzgerald and I expect both to improve as Poyser was in his first year at the P4 level last year and Fitzgerald had a role in obvious passing situations and showed elite ball hawking ability with 6INTs. Fitzgerald will now step into a starting role at either Nickel or Free Safety. We add Omar Thornton who is versatile enough to play either a box safety or a Nickel role. Thornton is a true Junior so I expect him to improve from the player he was at BC mostly because of the intense competition. Dylan Day is a depth piece who will also be improved from last year. I'm going to call my shot right now and say that the long term solution to Nickel will be freakish true freshman JJ Dunnigan. The kid is a turbo charged defensive chess piece who I think eventually wins the starting Nickel position outright after a few games of using a committee approach.

Bottom line for me is that yes Scott and Thomas are big losses but we are at a point in the transformation of this program where those losses are overcome by the fact that Mario and staff have been and continue to evaluate and recruit at an elite level at both high school and the portal. We are stacking talent upon talent upon talent and these young men are immersed into a culture of intense competition where the atmosphere is all about working and getting better everyday. Then these young men are exposed to elite level coaching. Mario has created an infrastructure/culture where striving for excellence is both the goal and the standard and it has reached critical mass. In other words the mentality that Mario preaches has metastasized throughout the entire program so thoroughly that the coaches don't even have to preach it because it has become part of each players core identity and therefore it has become self policing/self perpetuating. One last anecdote about this.....During a recent practice, one of the drills or portions had come to an end and one of the players was obviously tired and was slowly jogging off the field maybe he was walking I'm not sure. Anyway, Akheem Mesidor was there at that practice and was on the sideline. When Mesidor saw the player casually trotting off the field, what I heard was that Mesidor absolutely lost it on this player and ripped into him telling him to go back out on the field then sprint off because that is the way that things are done here! No exceptions! Mesidor has already exhausted his eligibility and will be drafted later this month very likely in the 1st round of the NFL Draft. However this is his program and he doesn't stop being a leader just because he is moving on. That should tell anyone all they need to know about the state of the program.
 
FrancisSawyer said:
Exactly! There are many in this fan base who are so consumed with the fact we are losing Bain and Mesidor(which are obviously significant losses), that they cannot see the pair of total BAD AZZES that we return at DT. Pair that with the return of Lightfoot and Blount plus the addition of AA candidate Wilson plus the Scroggins arrival party and the possibility of Lowe and you have what is potentially the most dominant DL in the ACC and the nation.
Click to expand...
Dominate DT play puts more pressure on a defense than dominate DE pressure. You can scheme your way around dominate DE play as we saw several times last season. But dominate pressure up ty middle of an offense is impossible to stop, it completely disrupts everything before it can get started.
 
FrancisSawyer said:
Exactly! There are many in this fan base who are so consumed with the fact we are losing Bain and Mesidor(which are obviously significant losses), that they cannot see the pair of total BAD AZZES that we return at DT. Pair that with the return of Lightfoot and Blount plus the addition of AA candidate Wilson plus the Scroggins arrival party and the possibility of Lowe and you have what is potentially the most dominant DL in the ACC and the nation.
Click to expand...
 
FrancisSawyer said:
Agree with this. Scott and Thomas are significant losses. Scott was elite at Nickel, Thomas was great at Safety and both were leaders who will not be easily replaced. However I also try to look at the secondary as a whole, who we bring back and if I expect any of the returning players to improve. In this case, our top 5 CBs come back and I expect every single one of them to improve. There will also be improved depth at CB with many 2nd year players coming off of a redshirt or an injury plus an excellent true freshman class.

At Safety, we return Poyser and Fitzgerald and I expect both to improve as Poyser was in his first year at the P4 level last year and Fitzgerald had a role in obvious passing situations and showed elite ball hawking ability with 6INTs. Fitzgerald will now step into a starting role at either Nickel or Free Safety. We add Omar Thornton who is versatile enough to play either a box safety or a Nickel role. Thornton is a true Junior so I expect him to improve from the player he was at BC mostly because of the intense competition. Dylan Day is a depth piece who will also be improved from last year. I'm going to call my shot right now and say that the long term solution to Nickel will be freakish true freshman JJ Dunnigan. The kid is a turbo charged defensive chess piece who I think eventually wins the starting Nickel position outright after a few games of using a committee approach.

Bottom line for me is that yes Scott and Thomas are big losses but we are at a point in the transformation of this program where those losses are overcome by the fact that Mario and staff have been and continue to evaluate and recruit at an elite level at both high school and the portal. We are stacking talent upon talent upon talent and these young men are immersed into a culture of intense competition where the atmosphere is all about working and getting better everyday. Then these young men are exposed to elite level coaching. Mario has created an infrastructure/culture where striving for excellence is both the goal and the standard and it has reached critical mass. In other words the mentality that Mario preaches has metastasized throughout the entire program so thoroughly that the coaches don't even have to preach it because it has become part of each players core identity and therefore it has become self policing/self perpetuating. One last anecdote about this.....During a recent practice, one of the drills or portions had come to an end and one of the players was obviously tired and was slowly jogging off the field maybe he was walking I'm not sure. Anyway, Akheem Mesidor was there at that practice and was on the sideline. When Mesidor saw the player casually trotting off the field, what I heard was that Mesidor absolutely lost it on this player and ripped into him telling him to go back out on the field then sprint off because that is the way that things are done here! No exceptions! Mesidor has already exhausted his eligibility and will be drafted later this month very likely in the 1st round of the NFL Draft. However this is his program and he doesn't stop being a leader just because he is moving on. That should tell anyone all they need to know about the state of the program.
Click to expand...

All great points. And one of them made me realize my own attitude regarding this program. The standard is now so much higher, and we have recruited at such a high level that we shouldn't see drastic drop offs no matter what. I've been conditioned over the years to just expect a drop off when we lost the few studs we did have. Kam Kitchens leaves, safety play will no doubt drop off, and it did. I don't think we are quite where we were at this time, but I remember having 3 DBs go in the first rd in 2001, and waiting in the wings was Sean Taylor and Antrelle Rolle. What a great time for us fans
 
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