Gregory Rousseau dominates 1st scrimmage of spring 2018

The Miami Hurricanes concluded their first scrimmage of the 2018 spring season and according to reports the defense dominated the first half of the day. The most dominant player of the scrimmage was true freshman defensive end Gregory Rousseau. Rousseau, an early enrollee from Champagnat Catholic in Hialeah, FL, logged seven tackles, four tackles for loss, and four sacks per Mark Richt.

From CanesAllAccess (above), Mark Richt said that the scrimmage was “1’s versus 1’s” which means the starters were lined up against each other. Unlike spring 2017 where the 1’s went against the 2’s, this was Miami’s best on best. That means Rousseau was primarily going against the second team offensive line, but for a true freshman to put up four sacks is quite impressive not matter the situation.

Rousseau is a freak athlete at 6’6 and 235 pounds. He came to Coral Gables as a three-star weak side defensive end per 247 Sports but many feel he was underrated. The CanesInSight podcast discussed Rousseau and his abilities to rush the passer in their spring report episode. Around the 6 minute mark, Coach Richt talks about Rousseau’s coach-ability and that if he wasn’t at a small high school he would’ve been much harder to land in recruitment- luckily Miami was able to seal the deal with him.

One of the most satisfying feelings for Jess Simpson, Miami’s new defensive line coach, has to be offensive line coach Stacy Searles having to not only rip his players but also having to stick Tyler Gauthier out at tackle just to slow Rousseau down. It will be exciting to see Rousseau in the spring game- which will hopefully be broadcast on television April 14th at 6pm.