Miami Hurricanes DT Leonard Taylor: This defense lets me play the way I want

The Miami Hurricanes are expected to have a fierce defensive line this season, and it’s a group led by two of the ACC’s top returners in DT Leonard Taylor and DL Akheem Mesidor. The team also has a second-year rising star in DE Nyjalik Kelly (plus Jahfari Harvey, who has starting experience, right now working behind Kelly). Freshman phenom Rueben Bain will also have a role at end and tackle, and Purdue transfer Branson Deen is the other defensive tackle starter with Taylor.

Hopes are high the DL will fare well in Lance Guidry’s attacking style of defense.

“This defense has been great, all the moving around (up front), gives me the ability to move how I want to, play the gaps how I really want, I’m not taking double teams like I did last year,” Taylor said after the team’s Tuesday practice. “I just have more freedom to rush the passer.”

He adds that “We’ve been doing well, coach Jason (Taylor, DL coach) has been pushing us to our limit. Really we just have to keep pushing, going hard. It’s hot out there, just fight through the sun. But it’s been good. He’s been pushing us, wants to see us succeed.”

It’s been Miami vs. Miami this fall, of course. And Taylor says having an offense with “a lot of new elite players who catch the ball and run the ball” helps the defense prepare.

And it bodes well for the overall season ahead for Miami.

“I feel they are going to go out there and play their game, it’ll be better than it was last year,” Taylor said.

As for Taylor?

Well, almost since his playing days as a high 4-star prospect at Miami Palmetto High School, he’s gotten tabbed as one of those can’t-miss type prospects. And coming off a 10.5-tackle for loss, three-sack season while only playing around half the team’s reps, many are projecting him as a first-rounder after the coming season. But Taylor knows he has to prove himself on the field to live up to expectations.

He admits that perhaps in the past he wasn’t in the best condition and wasn’t always able to go 100 percent every rep. But now he says he has a renewed purpose and is ready for a big year.

“My mindset has totally changed since I’ve been a freshman,” Taylor said. “I’m already a junior – just exciting, really.”

He says the team is mirroring his own hard work.

“Everybody is hungry out there, everybody is competing against each other,” Taylor said. “It’s a lot of new faces on the team, so everybody is just competing, just getting after it.”

An issue up front: There have been some long runs given up in Miami’s fall scrimmages. That needs to be shored up. But a strength should be the pass rush.

“We can be real good, have a lot of long, tall D ends and tall D tackles, it can be good,” Taylor said. “We have to keep rushing to the ball.”

Last season Taylor graded out at an elite 87.3 percent per Pro Football Focus (79.5 run defense, 53.5 tackle grade, 85.5 pass rush grade). Comparatively, the year prior as a true freshman, in 200 reps he graded out at 71.7 overall (74.5 run defense, 58.7 tackle, 60.4 pass rush). Taylor is the No. 6 returning player in the nation based on his overall PFF grade, No. 4 in pass rush grade and No. 2 in pass rush win rate (19 percent).

Taylor says he wants to see everyone on the team succeed to help this team win.

“I feel good, very excited to go out there and play with my team,” Taylor said. “We’ve put in a lot of hard work, grinding every day, just getting ready for it.

“I’m getting to the ball a lot this year, working on that, being more explosive, being in my gaps the right way.”

*Tayor said true freshmen 5-star OL Francis Mauigoa and Samson Okunlola are “Both great players.”

He said of Mauigoa that “He’s very athletic, I’ve never seen an O lineman move like he can.”

*Asked about freshman DT Joshua Horton, Taylor said “He’s explosive, really outstanding player. He’s good.”

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