canes preview: defensive line....

thanks mac fu and sorry to be so slow in getting these up



DL: I'm excited about this group. First of all, Tommy Carroll, another Jersey kid, was almost unblockable this Spring and should be in line for a big season.

Bryan Pata has the hunger back and looks to have a strong year. If he can maintain his level of play we saw vs. Florida, he'll be gone by next January. He also needs to stay healthy—the knee he tweaked hurt him worse than people knew.

Orien Harris, the big kid from Delaware, is capable of being as good as anyone in the country at his position. He has GOT to stop taking plays off though. He played himself out of the first round last year.

Baraka Atkins, in his second year on the inside at tackle, will be an animal. He collapses the pocket as well as anyone in America, opening up a ton of opportunities for the ends.

I like what we have coming back, and mixing in guys at end like Rhyan Anderson, Calais Campbell, and Eric Moncur should really help because it'll prevent the older kids from getting lazy, like we saw a lot of in 02. The tackles will be deeper and strongber as well, with Dwayne Hendricks and Kareem Brown spelling the big kids inside, although losing Teraz McCray to the knee injury will hurt bad.

All in all, this unit will be better this year—it remains to be seen if they will move into that pantheon of truly great UM lines, squads like 86, 91, 94, and 01.