McCloud’s move to D-end started as ‘a joke,’ but he’s key to Miami’s inexperienced group
One of the Miami Hurricanes’ biggest “surprises of spring so far” — in the words of Jess Simpson — started off as little more than a joke at the end of last season.
McCloud was still with the linebackers for most of practice leading up to the 2020 Cheez-It Bowl, and the redshirt senior sat in a meeting while Miami went over its third-down package.
“I can do that,” McCloud quipped as the Hurricanes talked through a defensive end’s responsibility. He was “just kind of like being cocky,” McCloud said. “I was making a joke.”
Coach Manny Diaz “perked up,” McCloud said. Miami’s two star defensive ends weren’t going to suit up for the Cheez-It Bowl, instead opting to prepare for the 2021 NFL Draft, and it left the Hurricanes with a massive void at a former position of strength. A new experiment began.
McCloud practiced at defensive end that day and has been there every day since. He came off the bench as a defensive end in the bowl game and spent the entire offseason planning around a full-time position change, adding about 25 pounds throughout the winter and studying NFL edge rushers “with a similar body profile” to his 6-foot-2 frame. With Jaelan Phillips and Quincy Roche gone to the NFL, Miami is holding open competition at both end spots, and Simpson said McCloud has been one of the biggest surprises.
“He’s just connecting the dots at defensive end, and I really think it suits his skill set,” the new defensive line coach said. “I’ve seen him do stuff in pass rush the last two days that have gotten me excited.”
McCloud and Miami’s end situation
McCloud and defensive lineman Deandre Johnson give the Hurricanes a pair of veterans with starting experience, albeit mostly at linebacker, in the defensive end competition. Defensive linemen Jahfari Harvey and Cameron Williams started at defensive end in the bowl — the only game Phillips and Roche didn’t start. Defensive lineman Chantz Williams, a former top-100 recruit, is also impressing Simpson after playing minimally as a freshman in 2020.
Any combination of the five could emerge as the starting tandem by the time the regular season starts in September.
“Nobody’s going to get crowned king in the spring,” Simpson said.
Harvey and Cameron Williams are both natural fits at defensive end and entering their third year in the program. Chantz Williams was ranked highest as a recruit, according to the 247Sports.com composite rankings. McCloud and Johnson have just as good a chance to start, though.
Johnson spent the past four seasons with the Tennessee Volunteers before he transferred to Miami in January. While he was technically a linebacker at Tennessee, Johnson was a defensive end at Miami Southridge and played a edge-rushing role in the Volunteers’ 3-4 defense, leading Tennessee with 4 1/2 sacks last season.
McCloud said he actually expected to be a defensive end when he got to Coral Gables in 2016. He was an edge-rushing outside linebacker at Lantana Santaluces, but he was able to get on the field as Miami’s starting strong-side linebacker as a freshman. He started there for three seasons, then redshirted in 2019, started at weak-side linebacker in 2020 and finally made another full-time position change this offseason, taking advantage the extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA because of the COVID-19 pandemic to play a sixth season.
The former linebacker said he’s up to about 250 pounds now and spends time studying players such as Von Miller, Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt, Tampa Bay Buccaneers outside linebacker Shaquil Barrett and Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Yannick Ngakoue to learn from the NFL’s best undersized edge rushers.
“I’ve been doing a lot of edge work, and it’ll come off like a surprise to see like a move work or something like that in practice, or a technique get applied in a certain way, and all it is is just me and a lot of other guys on the team — we’ve put in a lot of extra work,” McCloud said. “For a lot of people, things are coming on fast and I’m just a part of that group.”
Said Simpson: “I’m seeing Zach have a big role for us this fall if he keeps working and doing what he’s doing”
Miami’s depth at defensive tackle
While defensive end was one of the biggest question marks entering spring practices, defensive tackle is one of the Hurricanes’ deepest positions. Defensive linemen Nesta Jade Silvera, Jon Ford, Jordan Miller and Jared Harrison-Hunte all started at least one game last season, and five-star defensive tackle Leonard Taylor is the top-ranked player in the Hurricanes’ Class of 2021. The Hurricanes will need their defensive tackles to be the backbone of the defensive line and Simpson has a track record of getting most out of the position.
Simpson spent one season as the Hurricanes’ defensive line coach in 2018 before leaving for a two-year stint in the same role with the Atlanta Falcons. In Simpson’s lone season in South Florida, former defensive lineman Gerald Willis was a second-team All-American after piling up 18 tackles for loss as a defensive tackle.
Simpson didn’t explicitly compare any of his defensive tackles to Willis, but said Harrison-Hunte has “some of those traits” after he logged six tackles for loss and three sacks despite starting only once as a redshirt freshman in 2020. The assistant coach is trying to make Harrison-Hunte a more rounded defensive tackle and Harrison-Hunte said he’s learning how to play stretch, which wasn’t part of his responsibilities last year.
He wants to make me a better football player overall,” Harrison-Hunte said. “He saw that last year I have the athleticism, and have what it takes and everything to make plays on the field, but he wants me to work on my techniques.”
With no obvious stars coming into the season, it’ll take a cohesive effort for the Hurricanes’ defensive line to succeed.
“We talk about being a vertical D-line and setting a new line of scrimmage or creating chaos, or hitting the quarterback or leading the country in TFLs and to me that happens when you play with the same mentality, but it also happens when guys play really disciplined and really together,” Simpson said. “The style of play — we get it around here, but what we’ve got to take the next step in is playing connected and that is paramount for us to play great defensive line this fall here at the U.”
