Alex Donno and Brian Smith discuss Miami's defensive line depth and how dangerous their "NASCAR package" can be on passing downs. The Hurricanes added top edge rushers Tyler Baron and Elijah Alston along with top defensive tackle Simeon Barrow in the 2024 Transfer Portal.
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00:00 After adding the likes of Tyler Barron, who had success in the SEC the past four years,
00:06 and adding Simian Barrow, who had great success at Michigan State for the last couple of years.
00:11 How do you look at Miami's front seven, Brian? Should they be maybe the best in the ACC,
00:17 one of the best in the country? Kind of hard to see how it wouldn't be. If you're going to have
00:22 Reuben Bain back, that's obviously a great start. But I mean, they got Elijah Alston,
00:27 it's coming in from Marshall. I really like him. You're adding Barron, and you've got some other
00:32 young guys coming up. They've got depth and they've got players that are proven as well.
00:36 So they got length, they've got size. I think it's a top 10 group overall in just the D-line
00:42 nationally. And if you just talk about edge, because I know Reuben's going to move around,
00:47 but I'm going to consider him an edge more than an inside guy. I'd say it's probably top five.
00:52 So now they can kind of dictate to teams without blitzing. They really came after teams. So I
00:57 think last year, I think Miami will be able to rush forward, drop seven a little more this season
01:01 and still have at least similar results and probably get more picks too.
01:05 Yeah. What about if you get that NASCAR package on the field in passing downs,
01:10 right? Where you could have a four-man defensive front on third and long, where you've got Elijah
01:17 Alston and Tyler Barron on the edges, Reuben Bain and Akeem Mezidor inside. That unit's not going to
01:25 go up against on those downs. Yeah. I don't think anybody would be looking forward to that as an
01:31 offensive tackle, especially a quarterback, because Reuben is the guy you don't know where he's going
01:35 to line up and all these other guys have already proven it. So Miami can stunt, they can move guys
01:40 from play to play. They can play three-man line, they can play four-man line. I would say that
01:44 they're going to have problems just with the edges. And it's not like CJ Clark or Marley Cook
01:49 or somebody like that can't make plays too. But when they come off the field, you're just adding
01:52 another pass rusher. You know what I mean? Like that's just, it's not even funny. And then you're
01:57 still going to have guys like Besant Blitzing, Maui Noah Blitzing. Yeah. That's going to be rough.