What Mel Kiper Jr. wants to see from UM’s Rousseau. And Miami Hurricanes continue QB search
A six-pack of Miami Hurricanes notes on a Monday:
▪ ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. has one Hurricane in his early list of the top 2021 draft-eligible prospects: defensive end and redshirt-sophomore-to-be Greg Rousseau at No. 24.
But even though Rousseau has 15.5 sacks in 14 college games, Kiper wants to see more.
“This isn’t a great class for edge rushers, though it’s still early,” Kiper said. “Elite pass-rushers could still emerge. Rousseau had 15.5 sacks last season, but I didn’t see a top-10 edge rusher on tape.
“In going back through Miami games, his tape didn’t match the production. Some of those sacks were coverage sacks, and others came from when he was beaten but dove to get the quarterback’s ankles. He plays too high at times. Still, you can’t deny his length and traits, but I want to see him do it again this season.”
In his top-five prospect rating at every position, Kiper lists Rousseau first among defensive ends, senior Quincy Roche (a defensive end for Miami) third among outside linebackers and junior-to-be Brevin Jordan third among tight ends.
UM senior D’Eriq King isn’t ranked among Kiper’s top five quarterbacks. His top five are Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence, Ohio State’s Justin Fields, North Dakota State’s Trey Lance, Georgia’s Jamie Newman and Minnesota’s Tanner Morgan.
▪ Texas-based quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, one of UM’s top QB targets for 2021, committed to LSU last week.
But UM remains in play for Georgia-based four-star pro-style QB Aaron McLaughlin and Houston-based four-star dual-threat prospect Damatrius Davis, among others.
Auburn (the perceived front-runner) and UM are the top contenders for Davis, who hasn’t completely ruled out Virginia Tech after decommiting from the Hokies last week.
Per Canesport, UM offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee has advised Davis to watch UM quarterback D’Eriq King this season, hoping that will entice him to pick Miami.
UM also continues pursuing Texas commit Jalen Milroe, a four-star dual-threat quarterback prospect.
▪ UM offered a 2022 scholarship to a familiar name: quarterback Kaden Martin, son of former Tennessee quarterback Tee Martin, who is now the school’s pass game coordinator and wide receiver coach.
Though Tennessee has made an offer to Martin, he only moved there (from California) last year and is open to other options.
Martin, a four-star, 6-foot dual-threat quarterback, told Canesport that “Miami was one of my dream schools since I was a little kid; they’ve always been a favorite school of mine. Being in L.A. by the beach (as a youngster), Miami was always cool. So when they offered I was very excited.”
Martin was a pitcher and center fielder on the U-15 USA national team and would like to play baseball as well as football in college. He attended a UM baseball camp in January.
Miami also made an offer to Austin-based 2022 quarterback Cade Klubnik, whose other offers include LSU, Auburn and TCU.
Incidentally, Alabama coach Nick Saban said, via AL.com, that he steered Jalen Hurts to Oklahoma — instead of UM and Maryland, which were also under consideration — before last season. Hurts was interested in UM and Maryland because he had worked with two former Alabama assistant coaches there - Dan Enos (UM’s offensive coordinator last season) and Maryland coach Mike Locksley.
I said ‘Jalen, where do they have the best players?’ because he felt more comfortable going where he knew these guys,” Saban said in a reference to Enos and Locksley.
“And he said ‘Well, I think they have the best players at Oklahoma.’ I said we just played them, and they have some pretty good players on offense too. …
“I said I’ve always told you quarterback is a hard position to play if you don’t have good players around you,” Saban said. “So, if I was you, in order to create the most value because you have one year to do it, if you know you can be the starter there, go where they have the best players.
“That’s no disrespect to anybody else, the guys that worked here and did a great job here, it’s what’s best for you. That’s how you have to make this decision right now. He did it and I think did a great job for Oklahoma.”
Philadelphia selected Hurts in the second round of last month’s NFL Draft.
▪ Amid the coronovirus pandemic, UM athletic director Blake James told “The Paul Finebaum Show” that he has submitted five different budgets to cover all the possibilities for the upcoming academic year and that UM has “worked on four different models from what does it look like if we play without fans in the stands to if we didn’t have a season to what I’ll call a social distancing type model where we reduced our revenue 75 percent to a model that if everything goes great from May 1 forward...
“The Miami market we’ve been shut down a good month and a half. People aren’t going to be comfortable just going back into a stadium. Just looking at all those different variables. We’re not sure which it’s going to be. “
▪ UM coaches have been having guest speakers address their players on Zoom sessions, and Cane alumnus and longtime former NFL lineman Eric Winston — who served as president of the players association — spoke to the offensive linemen.
“We are very thankful that [Winston] was able to join us to talk about how to prioritize our time to be successful,” offensive line coach Garin Justice said.
▪ UM’s men’s basketball team is still crafting its schedule, but we hear the Canes booked a home game against UCF and agreed to play FAU on the road. North Carolina is expected to be among UM’s marquee ACC home opponents this season.
The Canes are scheduled to play in the Cayman Islands Classic, which is set for November 23-25, in a field also featuring Kansas State, LaSalle, Nevada, Northern Iowa, Ole Miss, Oregon State and Western Kentucky. It’s undetermined if coronavirus will result in the cancelation or postponement of that tournament.
This story was originally published May 11, 2020 at 2:47 PM.
