Hstokes1447
Junior
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2012
- Messages
- 6,270
People want to talk about replacing Bain and Mesidor like this program is starting from scratch up front, and that narrative needs to stop right now. Moten is a top ten defensive player in the country heading into 2026 and a first round pick waiting to happen. Scott took a massive step forward last season and is right behind him on that same draft board. Wilson comes in from Missouri as the best edge rusher available in the portal, 9.5 sacks and over 50 pressures last year, and he slides right into the boundary side and takes that pass rush to another level.
Blount is the answer at field side defensive end, and if you watched him last season you already know why. He is up to 275 pounds now, he has the strength, the power, and the motor to be an absolute monster against the run, and that is exactly what Bain was for this defense. Blount does not replace Bain, he becomes his own version of that problem. Wilson off one edge and Blount holding the other down against the run is a combination that should have opposing offensive coordinators losing sleep. Scott and Moten anchoring the interior make this front four as good as any in the country.
Then you have Lightfoot, who is not just a backup but a genuine chess piece for Hetherman, a five-star with the athleticism and versatility to be deployed in situations that stress any offensive line, and Hayden Lowe coming back healthy after missing all of 2025 with that five-star frame and the upside this staff has been waiting to see. This is not a rebuild. This is a reloaded, deeper, and more versatile defensive line than the one that just took us to the national championship game, and the argument can be made that when it is all said and done, this group goes down as one of the best in Miami Hurricanes history.
2026 DEPTH:
Boundary DE
SR Damon Wilson II 6-4 250, former 5 star, PFF #9 ranked returning DE
JR Marquise Lightfoot 6-5 240, former 5 star
RSO Booker Pickett Jr. 6-4 230,
Boundary DT
JR Justin Scott 6-4 303, former 5 star, PFF #9 ranked returning DT
JR Keona Davis 6-5 280
JR Armondo Blount 6-4 275, former 5 star
Field DT
RSR Ahmad Moten Sr. 6-3 300, PFF #5 ranked returning DT
SO Jarquez Carter 6-1 288
FR Keshawn Stancil 6-4 285
Field DE
JR Armondo Blount 6-4 275, former 5
SO Herbert Scroggins 6-3 245
RFR Hayden Lowe 6-5 275 former 5 star
5 Star Players:
Five star defensive linemen are the most consistently drafted position group in all of college football, and Miami has five of them on the same roster. Between 2013 and 2023, 78 five-star defensive linemen were ranked in the 247Sports Composite top 100, and 67 of them were drafted to the NFL. That is an 85.9% draft rate, with 62.8% of them going in the first round. The round 1 and round 2 combined rate sits at 71.8%, meaning nearly 3 out of 4 of these prospects don't just get drafted, they go in the top 64 picks.
If Miami's five 5-star defensive linemen follow that same historical trend, you should expect 4 to 5 of them to reach an NFL roster, 3 to 4 of them to go in the first round, and the odds that at least 3 of the 5 get drafted sits at over 93%. That's not a coincidence, that's a pattern.
2023 class of 5 stars are now JRs
Lightfoot not looking so light
https://x.com/floridaboycorey/status/2026341432676778412/video/1
Finally the scheme itself is the reason there won't be issues with setting the edge. The questions surrounding how this staff replaces Bain and Mesidor and who is going to set the edge are answered not by looking at the players on the roster but by understanding how Corey Hetherman runs his defense. At Minnesota in 2024, working almost exclusively with 3-star recruits, Hetherman fielded the 12th ranked run defense in the country. At the University of Miami he helped build one of the more disruptive defensive fronts in the ACC, and at James Madison he ran a defense that consistently outperformed its roster talent on paper.
The reason his defenses hold up against the run is structural. In Hetherman's system the edge is not the sole responsibility of the defensive end. The APEX defender, whether that is the boundary safety or the nickel, is equally accountable for securing the edge, which means the defense is never one player away from being exposed in the run game. The edge rushers carry that responsibility too, but the scheme is designed so that no single position has to carry it alone. When you build that kind of structural soundness into a defense and then add five star defensive linemen on top of it, the results tend to take care of themselves.
I could go on and talk about how the offense scoring more points playing into the strength of the multiple pass rushers in the defensive line, but you get the point.
These boys are about to eat.
Blount is the answer at field side defensive end, and if you watched him last season you already know why. He is up to 275 pounds now, he has the strength, the power, and the motor to be an absolute monster against the run, and that is exactly what Bain was for this defense. Blount does not replace Bain, he becomes his own version of that problem. Wilson off one edge and Blount holding the other down against the run is a combination that should have opposing offensive coordinators losing sleep. Scott and Moten anchoring the interior make this front four as good as any in the country.
Then you have Lightfoot, who is not just a backup but a genuine chess piece for Hetherman, a five-star with the athleticism and versatility to be deployed in situations that stress any offensive line, and Hayden Lowe coming back healthy after missing all of 2025 with that five-star frame and the upside this staff has been waiting to see. This is not a rebuild. This is a reloaded, deeper, and more versatile defensive line than the one that just took us to the national championship game, and the argument can be made that when it is all said and done, this group goes down as one of the best in Miami Hurricanes history.
2026 DEPTH:
Boundary DE
SR Damon Wilson II 6-4 250, former 5 star, PFF #9 ranked returning DE
JR Marquise Lightfoot 6-5 240, former 5 star
RSO Booker Pickett Jr. 6-4 230,
Boundary DT
JR Justin Scott 6-4 303, former 5 star, PFF #9 ranked returning DT
JR Keona Davis 6-5 280
JR Armondo Blount 6-4 275, former 5 star
Field DT
RSR Ahmad Moten Sr. 6-3 300, PFF #5 ranked returning DT
SO Jarquez Carter 6-1 288
FR Keshawn Stancil 6-4 285
Field DE
JR Armondo Blount 6-4 275, former 5
SO Herbert Scroggins 6-3 245
RFR Hayden Lowe 6-5 275 former 5 star
5 Star Players:
Five star defensive linemen are the most consistently drafted position group in all of college football, and Miami has five of them on the same roster. Between 2013 and 2023, 78 five-star defensive linemen were ranked in the 247Sports Composite top 100, and 67 of them were drafted to the NFL. That is an 85.9% draft rate, with 62.8% of them going in the first round. The round 1 and round 2 combined rate sits at 71.8%, meaning nearly 3 out of 4 of these prospects don't just get drafted, they go in the top 64 picks.
If Miami's five 5-star defensive linemen follow that same historical trend, you should expect 4 to 5 of them to reach an NFL roster, 3 to 4 of them to go in the first round, and the odds that at least 3 of the 5 get drafted sits at over 93%. That's not a coincidence, that's a pattern.
2023 class of 5 stars are now JRs
Lightfoot not looking so light
https://x.com/floridaboycorey/status/2026341432676778412/video/1
Finally the scheme itself is the reason there won't be issues with setting the edge. The questions surrounding how this staff replaces Bain and Mesidor and who is going to set the edge are answered not by looking at the players on the roster but by understanding how Corey Hetherman runs his defense. At Minnesota in 2024, working almost exclusively with 3-star recruits, Hetherman fielded the 12th ranked run defense in the country. At the University of Miami he helped build one of the more disruptive defensive fronts in the ACC, and at James Madison he ran a defense that consistently outperformed its roster talent on paper.
The reason his defenses hold up against the run is structural. In Hetherman's system the edge is not the sole responsibility of the defensive end. The APEX defender, whether that is the boundary safety or the nickel, is equally accountable for securing the edge, which means the defense is never one player away from being exposed in the run game. The edge rushers carry that responsibility too, but the scheme is designed so that no single position has to carry it alone. When you build that kind of structural soundness into a defense and then add five star defensive linemen on top of it, the results tend to take care of themselves.
I could go on and talk about how the offense scoring more points playing into the strength of the multiple pass rushers in the defensive line, but you get the point.
These boys are about to eat.
Last edited:
if so he’s going to be bigger issue for the ol than last year esp if he kept his quickness. Picket needs to get to 240