The CaneSport On3: Predicting Miami’s biggest surprise player on defense
Yesterday CaneSport explained the rationale behind naming WR transfer arrival Tyler Harrell its surprise offensive player for the coming season. Today it’s time to turn to the Miami defense.
Who might emerge from that unit and become a bigtime playmaker, staking his claim as one of the ACC’s or nation’s best?
Off a D that struggled last year (No. 64 in the nation in total defense, No. 101 in team passing efficiency defense, No. 97 in third down percentage defense), there are some top returning starters including DT Leonard Taylor, DL Akheem Mesidor and safeties Kam Kinchens and James Williams.
Which brings us back to our breakout defensive player prediction.
With all due consideration to guys who have not yet emerged like LB Wesley Bissainthe and true freshman DE Rueben Bain, who could both be future stars, the nomination here goes to DE Nyjalik Kelly.
Is that going out on a limb a bit? Sure, considering that Jahfari Harvey is a returning starter coming off injury that cost him the spring. Kelly and Harvey will battle in fall drills to start opposite Mesidor, and may the best man win.
With that said, Harvey’s already had his opportunities and just hasn’t broken through as a bigtime playmaker. He’s good, not great, as evidenced by his last three seasons that saw him start 13 games. He’s never had more than 31 tackles, and last season he got plenty of reps and had 7.5 TFL and 5.5 sacks. His 412 reps last year were seventh-most on the team, by the way, and even more than Mesidor, who had better production with 10.5 TFL and seven sacks.
We think Miami can do better than Harvey. And that Kelly can be the guy that really makes this one of the ACC’s best D lines. Behind the scenes Kelly is getting rave reviews off his summer workouts, and with a year under his belt he can really blossom in Year 2.
With Jason Taylor tutoring him, in a Lance Guidry aggressive system that suits his skillset, with another 10 pounds of muscle put on since last season (passing 250 pounds), Kelly’s ready to make a jump.
As a refresher, last year per Pro Football Focus Kelly graded out at 63.5 on the year (70 is considered a good grade) with a stellar 82.7 tackle grade, a 63.1 run defense grade and 65.4 pass rush grade. As a backup he played 183 reps and had 4.5 TFL and four sacks.
In the same amount of reps as Harvey based off last season’s production per rep, Kelly would have finished with 10 QB hurries and nine sacks.
And he should be even better this year and beyond.
So the sky is the limit … and Miami needs Kelly to start fulfilling his potential now to really make the new Guidry defense hum.
MIAMI DE NYJALIK KELLY BIO
2022 (True Freshman): Delivered impressive first collegiate season, seeing action in all 12 games…Finished with 11 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss and four sacks…Tied for third on Hurricanes in sacks…Made career debut in season opener against Bethune-Cookman (Sept. 3), finishing with one solo tackle…Had two tackles, including first career sack, in win over Southern Miss (Sept. 10)…Posted one half-sack for five yards against North Carolina (Oct. 8)…Added one tackle – half-sack for loss of two yards – in win at Virginia Tech (Oct. 15)…Posted one solo sack for loss of two yards in win at Virginia (Oct. 29)…Compiled three tackles, including two solo, 1.5 tackles for loss and one sack (five yards) against Florida State (Nov. 5)…Logged one solo tackle at Clemson (Nov. 19)…Posted solo tackle against Pittsburgh (Nov. 26).
High School: Consensus four-star prospect by every major scouting service… Ranked the nation’s No. 101 overall player regardless of position by On3 and the No. 14 edge rusher and No. 15 overall player in Florida. … Had On3 composite No. 93 national ranking and No. 9 edge rusher ranking…checked in as No. 119 overall player in nation in ESPN300…Ranked No. 12 defensive end and No. 12 player in state of Florida by ESPN…Finished with 12 sacks in final season at Dillard…Tallied 13 sacks en route to All-Broward first-team recognition from Miami Herald in 2020…Picked up All-Broward honorable mention honors from Sun Sentinel in 2019, leading Dillard to 12-1 record and district title…Picked Miami over offers from Auburn, Clemson, Georgia, LSU, Michigan, Oregon and Texas, among others.
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