WATCH: SMU DE Elijah Roberts talks spring goals
SMU defensive end Elijah Roberts spoke with the media after spring practice, sharing more of his goals and what he’s seeing from the defensive line.
The new-look SMU offensive line challenges players like Roberts to be at their best every day.
“Savion (Byrd), he’s an athletic freak. PJ (Williams), he was here last year, but he’s also an athletic freak. J.O. (Justin Osborne) at center just makes the offense a little bit more athletic and more faster,” Roberts told reporters. “So it’s just having those five athletes on the O-line. I’m pretty sure once we get Logan (Parr) back and Ben Sparks, we’ll be even more deep. Having those guys in the middle, they’re so big, fast and strong that it makes us better. It’s not like going against a slower tackle where you could, you know, kind of beat them with speed.
“Every player it’s like no, with Savion and PJ and those guys, like speed, power, like you got to make sure that you’re on beat with those guys because they have quick hands, quick feet, quick set. It’s good for us too.”
SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee echoed Roberts when it comes to wanting to see his players compete every day in spring practice.
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“At times it can get boring so we got to do a good job of making it competitive and spicing it up,” Lashlee said. “It’s a lot of great opportunities for everybody. Everyone’s got an opportunity to win a job. No one’s gonna win one in 14 days, but they got 15 days here to kind of take a step in the right direction into summer and fall. This is kind of a foundational time of year. So, that can get boring, but you gotta have a good foundation if you’re gonna have a good team, so it’s pretty important for us.”
Roberts made an immediate impact on the defensive side of the ball for the Mustangs, causing constant pressure that has resulted in a career-high 10.0 sacks this year, good for 13th in the NCAA. Roberts, a Miami transfer who helped the Mustangs produce a Top 10 defense in 2023, had 42 pressures, fourth-most nationally per PFF.
