’Canes’ Willis ready to suit up against home state Tigers
CORAL GABLES There were times last year, when he wasn’t playing the game at the level he wanted, where Gerald Willis would remind himself that the game, the one that mattered most, was coming soon enough.
Soon enough is just about here.
When Willis takes the field at AT&T Stadium on Sunday night, not only will the burly defensive tackle see his year-long absence from competitive college football come to an end, but he’ll be lining up against LSU, the flagship program from his home state of Louisiana.
Understandably, Willis is practically counting the minutes until kickoff.
“It was a lot of motivation,” Willis responded Wednesday when asked about how facing LSU in his first game back for the Hurricanes fueled him during his year on Miami’s scout team. “Just the picture of it, coming out, playing LSU, I have my whole entire family there supporting me. When I was getting recruited, LSU was one of my top picks. It’s my hometown and I’m just ready to showcase my talent.”
Coming out of Edna Karr High School in New Orleans, where he appeared in four straight state championship games, Willis was an Under Armour All-American and a USA Today All-USA selection. He had his pick of major college programs before ultimately settling on Florida.
One of the reasons Willis noted he wanted to leave his home state?
“Too much drama and stuff,” he said. “I was ready to get out of town.”
Unfortunately for Willis, drama followed him to Gainesville. And Miami.
Before he took a leave of absence and spent last season on the Hurricanes’ practice squad, Willis endured multiple suspensions at Miami. He dealt with a knee injury that required postseason surgery in 2016, a season in which he played nine games and notched 19 tackles for the Hurricanes. Before that in 2015, he was dismissed from Florida’s program after an altercation with former Gators teammate Skyler Mornhinweg.
Coaches and teammates made it clear both in the spring and during camp that they’ve seen a different Willis recently, the tackle stepping up both in practice and off the field to lead a line that has undergone massive changes after the departures of Chad Thomas, RJ McIntosh and Kendrick Norton.
“He’s been great for us. He’s been a leader. He’s doing everything we ask in practice. But it’s also not to a point where he’s trying to do too much, which would be the concern no matter who we were playing in the opener,” Hurricanes defensive coordinator Manny Diaz said. “Here’s a guy who has been itching to play for a calendar year and the tendency is, ‘I want to do more than just what I need to do.’ And [he] has been a great guy in practice of just doing his job and doing it to the best of his ability.”
Willis himself changed his jersey number, going from No. 91 to the No. 9 Thomas wore last season for the Hurricanes.
His reasoning was simple. “New year, new me,” he said. “Just like Chad. Chad was the leader on this team and he wore No. 9. I just always looked up to Chad, him being a leader. He was always in my ear a lot about being a leader.”
Now it’s time for Willis to show on a bigger stage that things have changed and as a Louisiana native, he’s worked to make sure his teammates fully understand the challenge they’ll face against the Tigers.
“I told the defense, well, they’re a run team. They play with a lot of attitude running the ball up and down the middle,” Willis said. “So like I told the d-linemen, we’ve got to come off the ball, get them guys knocked in the backfield and just be ready. Defend the run.”
Bethel to start
While Willis — a redshirt senior — is slated to start at one of Miami’s tackle positions, Pat Bethel is slated to start at the other, Diaz said on Wednesday.
Bethel, son of former Hurricanes tight end Randy Bethel, appeared in all 13 games for Miami last season, notching 18 tackles and a sack. Diaz noted the junior has proven himself and shown a solid work ethic during camp.
He also, apparently, had a surprising off-field skill set.
“[He’s] tough, dependable, steady, hard working. We took the team bowling and Pat was like one of the best bowlers on the team. It just made sense. You didn’t know why, but Pat is just a guy that should be good at bowling,” Diaz said. “He’s got the blue collar shirt on, clocks out after 5 o’clock, and goes to the bowling alley and rolls a good score. That’s kind of who Pat is.”
Silvera part of rotation
Diaz has always stressed the importance of rotating players on the defensive line and that won’t change Sunday, even with all the changes the Hurricanes have experienced on that unit.
Among the players expected to see time is former American Heritage-Plantation standout Nesta Silvera, who is listed behind Willis and Tito Odenigbo on Miami’s depth chart.
“We want to go as many as we can because of different scenarios where different guys with their different skill sets may factor in,” Diaz said. “But ultimately what we’ll look into and talk about is, where is the line on Sunday and what does the bench look like? Because obviously we expect that to change as the year goes on.”