Inexperience concerns UM heading into opener
Depth on defensive line also a worry as LSU clash looms in Texas.
Like defensive coordi
MIAMI — nator Manny Diaz, former UM standout offensive lineman Joel Rodriguez is an exceptional communicator, and that extends to analyzing UM’s personnel.
Rodriguez, who focused on offense last season, will be the Hurricanes’ director of player development/defense, this season. And Rodriguez offered a cogent assessment of UM’s defensive players in a June conversation, a couple of months before UM’s Sept. 2 opener against LSU in Arlington, Texas.
We’ll offer up his assessment in a four-part series this week, beginning with defensive tackle.
“You don’t have as much of the top-heavy depth as you had last year when you had R.J. McIntosh and Kendrick Norton and Anthony Moten,” he said. “This point two years ago, we had Gerald Willis. At
this time last year, we had more quality proven depth at the top end of the rotation.
“This year, you have guys you’re not completely sure about. Jon Ford hasn’t played a ton of snaps. (Freshmen) Nesta Silvera and Jordan Miller played zero. (Illinois transfer) Tito Odenigbo played meaningful snaps in the Big 10. We love the potential. We love the way they’re working. They had a really good spring.”
Here’s how Rodriguez assesses the veteran tackles:
On Willis: “H’s been awesome; Gerald’s issues were never on the field. He was always a really good player who practiced as hard or harder as anyone on the team. His issues were general maturity, making good decisions at the right time.
“We are fortunate where we have a locker room that’s really strong, with phenomenal leadership guys like Shaq Quarterman and Jaquan Johnson — guys we think are high quality leaders for us. That’s really helped Gerald mature.
“He lives with Demetrius Jackson now and D-Jax is going to be Time magazine Man of the Year one day. Having that positive influence on a daily basis has (helped). When you live right, things go right for you. He’s living proof of that. Hopefully, that will lead to a long NFL career.”
On Ford: “He’s about where we thought he would be at this time. He’s a big, strong, very athletic kid who can hold the point of attack. Hard to move. Still learning how to play defensive line. We knew Jon would be a work in progress. He lost the summer and pretty much lost all training camp because he wasn’t academically eligible until the end (of camp in August). So that’s a couple hundred reps he missed out on.
“We didn’t think we would lose both Kendrick and R.J., so the thought was bring him along slowly and get him quality reps – and 2018 be ready to play a more prominent rotational role and by the time he’s a junior (in 2019) he can be a positive force to be reckoned with. Unfortunately, when you lose Norton and RJ the same year, it means a guy like Ford having a bigger role on the defense than he’s probably ready for. LSU doesn’t care about that.”
On Odenigbo: “It’s hard to say what we’re getting because you have such limited contact with them. We’ve seen him do agility drills. He’s a squatty body, thick kid we think will provide us some good quality depth and experience.”
On Bethel: “I can see Pat Bethel’s career at Miami mirroring that of (former UM defensive end) Trent Harris. They have very similar personalities. He won’t be a double digit sack guy, because with nose guards, that’s hard to do, but he will be in the right gap, hold the point and by doing that, the ball will find him sometimes and he will make the play.
To refresh, here’s what Diaz said earlier this year about the two freshmen additions at defensive tackles:
Diaz on Nesta Silvera: “By all accounts, what he did in the All-Star games and everything like that, he is the disruptive tackle in the 4-3 defense, which is what the entire defense is predicated on. Nesta is a pure Cane. We felt that all the way. The way he plays the game, his disruptive manner, the violence he plays with, he plays like how a Miami Hurricane defender should play like.
“And Jordan Miller, it’s just hard not to watch his film and not see Kendrick Norton. We were all watching him in the staff room together because he was kind of under the radar as sort of the hidden guy. None of us wanted to say it. And finally someone said, ‘He looks like (Norton).’ If he had number seven on, it would be just like Kendrick.”