Key Hurricanes addition bringing ‘Bully Ball’ mentality to Miami defensive line

Simeon Barrow Jr. looks the part of a defensive lineman.

He’s 6-3. He’s 290 pounds.

“And strong,” Barrow is quick to add. “Everybody’s strong on the d-line.”

Barrow, a fifth-year senior who transferred to the Miami Hurricanes from Michigan State, also has some strong feelings about how the Hurricanes need to play in the trenches if they want to be successful.

He can sum up that approach in two words: Bully Ball.

“Moving the man against his will,” Barrow said. “That’s what we want to do. We want to reset the line of scrimmage every play, no matter if it’s pass or run. We want to show who the kids are and who the men are.”

The Hurricanes held their own on that front last season. They ranked 12th nationally in rushing defense, allowing an average of just 105.62 yards per game n the ground. They also ranked in the top-20 in yards per rush allowed (3.33, 16th) and total tackles for loss (88, tied for 18th). Their 35 sacks were tied for 22nd in the country.

But Miami’s interior defensive line is going through a massive turnover. Leonard Taylor, Branson Deen and Jared Harrison-Hunte are out. In there place are a trio of transfers in Barrow, C.J. Clark (NC State) and Marley Cook (Middle Tennessee State), who have a combined 243 tackles, 45 tackles for loss and 25 sacks over 125 games of experience.

That group, along with the likes of freshmen Justin Scott and Artavius Jones along with redshirt sophomore Ahmed Moten, will work in tandem with a deep defensive end group led by Rueben Bain Jr., Akheem Mesidor and another pair of transfers in Tyler Baron and Elijah Alston.

“We want to play on the other side of the line of scrimmage,” Hurricanes defensive coordinator Lance Guidry said on the eve of fall camp, “and I think we’ll be able to do it with our front four. Last year at the same meeting, people were concerned about would we be able to stop the run because we didn’t have a lot of depth at d-line, but we did a pretty good job last year. I think this year, we have bigger guys. We have guys that are athletic and have experience. We’ve got some guys that hadn’t been with us, but where they have come in from, they have a lot of games under their belt and that always makes a defensive coordinator feel good.”

Barrow, who logged 110 tackles, 18.5 tackles for loss, 10.5 sacks and a pair of blocked field goals in 34 games at Michigan State, relishes the opportunity to play on a defensive line with this many players who can contribute.

“When I sit out, I know the second man up is going to do his thing,” Barrow said. “There’s not going to be a drop off There’s gonna be constant pressure on the offense.

“It’s not just about me,” Barrow added. “I’m not trying to make it about me. I want the whole d-line to succeed. My main thing coming out of this camp is going to be building chemistry with the guys and learning to play off each other, learning how to communicate on the field and learning to have the mindset that there ain’t no o-line that’s gonna mess with us.”

Through just two practices of fall camp, the Hurricanes’ offensive line is already seeing the challenge its defensive line can present with its ability to rotate guys in and out of the lineup.

“We’ll be in there, do one play, go in the huddle, turn around ... and then there’s a whole nother set of d-lineman out there,” junior offensive lineman Anez Cooper said. “And then we do it again and then there’s another set. It can be hard for us [on the offensive line] because we don’t rotate. It can be exhausting just blocking all of them.”

The first signs of bully ball are already on display.

“We just want to play that relentless style of defense that comes at you every quarter, every play, every down,” Bain said. “We don’t want to hold anything back.”

Added Barrow: “We expect to be the best defense in ACC. We’ve got the tools. We’ve got the coaching staff. Just got to execute.”