Podcast: Greg Rousseau talks Canes, his development and why he has so much faith in Miami
The Miami Hurricanes are off to their best start since 2017 and doing it all without the player most people expected to be their best this season.
Miami, which enters the weekend in third place in the Atlantic Coast Conference, is doing it all without Gregory Rousseau. The star defensive end is a potential top-10 pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, but he’s sitting out this season because of COVID-19 concerns. It doesn’t mean he’s not entirely locked in, though. Rousseau is watching every game from afar and keeping in touch with all of his friends back in Coral Gables.
This week, he decided to take some time to talk about these Hurricanes with David Wilson and Susan Miller Degnan, the Miami Herald’s Hurricanes beat writer, for a new episode of the Eye on the U podcast. He has lots of thoughts about Miami, the ACC race and the way the defense is still succeeding without him.
First, Wilson and Degnan quickly preview the No. 11 Hurricanes’ Friday game against the North Carolina State Wolfpack in Raleigh, North Carolina. The big question this week: How might the coronavirus affect Miami (5-1, 4-1) as the Hurricanes have had to place players into isolation in recent weeks?
We get this conversation out of the way pretty quickly, though, because we know you wall want to hear from Rousseau and he hits on all sorts of topics throughout a 25-minute conversation. He dishes on what makes quarterback D’Eriq King such a good leader, how star edge rusher Quincy Roche has taken his mantle as Miami’s top defensive lineman, his odd-couple relationship with defensive lineman Nesta Jade Silvera and why fellow defensive lineman Jared Harrison-Hunte reminds Rousseau so much of himself.
He also spends some time in the way-back machine, looking back at his recruitment from playing safety at Hialeah Champagnat Catholic to leading the ACC in sacks as a hulking defensive lineman just two years later, and talks about his relationship with Miami fans a few months after he opted out of the 2020 season.
