Five Miami football players that should challenge for first team this spring

Jaelan Phillips Redshirt Junior Defensive end 

The Miami Hurricanes have three defensive ends on their roster who if they individually played somewhere else could be All-Americans. Rousseau leads all returns nationally with 15.5 sacks, Temple graduate transfer Roche was named second-team All-American by The Sporting News in 2019.

Roche finished last season with 13.5 sacks. No one has a tandem that comes close to the production of the 29 combined sacks that Roche and Rousseau had in 2019. Despite the elite pass rusher that he is, Roche could be in jeopardy of being pushed as a first-team defensive end with the Hurricanes in 2020.

In addition to the elite tandem that Roche and Rosseau are, the Hurricanes also have former UCLA five-star signee, Jaelan Phillips, on their roster. Phillips was the number one recruit in the Class of 2017. Phillips put on nearly 20 pounds of muscle working with Strength and Conditioning Coordinator David Feeley in the last year.

Defensive coordinator Blake Baker acknowledged what a freakish athlete that Phillips is and how special he could become for Miami. Rousseau is a guaranteed starter after his 2019 season. Roche, Rousseau and Phillips will all abundance of snaps. On passing downs, Rousseau could move inside with Phillips and Roche on the edge.

"“He is a special dude…The thing that is very impressive about him is how well he bends. He understands leverage and he does a great job of getting under offensive tackles pads—and that is a great thing when you consider he hasn’t played football in so long. It usually takes time with leverage and pad level, but he is doing a good job early on.”"

Baker stated that after practice on Thursday and head coach Manny Diaz backed that up by saying that “Jaelan can really, really run.”  The ceiling for the Miami pass rush in 2020 is nearly limitless. Miami finished the 2019 season with 46 sacks. That was the sixth most in program history and the most under Diaz.

The Miami season was 52 set by the 1989 National Championship team. With Roche, Rousseau and Phillips rushing opposing passers in 2020, the Hurricanes should challenge the program record for sacks this season. Ohio State led the nation with 54 sacks last season behind Chase Young, Miami finished tied for seventh.