Always a race: How Rueben Bain Jr., Akheem Mesidor have driven Miami and each other

Akheem Mesidor and Rueben Bain Jr. can usually be found in the same place. They first met on a Miami visit in 2022 when Mesidor was in the transfer portal and Bain was a high school sophomore. Now teammates, they’re inseparable, even while they’re in opposing backfields ambushing quarterbacks.

But between the two of them, the biggest debate is which one of them is going to get to the QB first.

“It’s always a race to the quarterback with me and Rueben,” Mesidor said.

Inside Miami’s program, teammates and coaches say that is the fiercest of the constant competitions between the best pair of edge rushers in college football, ranked the No. 2 (Bain) and No. 3 (Mesidor) defensive ends in Mel Kiper Jr.’s 2026 NFL draft rankings.

At Miami’s Greentree practice facility, in team hotels, in the weight room, anything and everything is a contest with barely any separation between them, even their jersey numbers. For Mesidor, who wears No. 3, and Bain, No. 4, it’s still all about the two. Who gets to practice first? Who stays out on the field the latest? Who watches the most film? Who works harder? Who clocked a higher GPS speed in practice? Who did more reps in the weight room? Who was first in the stretch line?

“They’re definitely annoying,” said defensive back Keionte Scott, whose interception and 72-yard touchdown return against Ohio State ignited the Hurricanes to a 24-14 win in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals at the Cotton Bowl. “You see the production on Saturday, but you don’t see them going at it, slapping each other in the face and the helmet. But to see them clash on a daily basis, how they push each other and the rest of the team, it’s very exciting.”

The ultracompetitive pair has fueled a Miami defensive line that has short-circuited opposing offenses in the playoffs. They combined for 10 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks (three by Bain) against Texas A&M. Mesidor added 11 hurries, the second-most ever in a CFP game, and Bain blocked a field goal.

“We just couldn’t keep them off of us,” Texas A&M coach Mike Elko said.

They followed that clinic with a combined eight tackles — 3.5 tackles for loss — and 3 sacks against Ohio State.

Miami coach Mario Cristobal envisioned a team built exactly like this. The former Hurricanes offensive lineman came up in the profession as an O-line coach. His blueprint for rebuilding the Hurricanes started from the inside out, emphasizing dominance at the line of scrimmage on both sides. He told his former boss, Nick Saban, during an ESPN interview that he’d taken lessons from the dynastic coach. “You used to tell us all the time: ‘Mass kicks ass,'” Cristobal said.

Francis Mauigoa, Miami’s 6-foot-6, 335-pound All-America offensive tackle, who battles both players in practice, describes them as similarly powerful but with slight differences. “Bain, he’s skilled,” Mauigoa said. “Mesidor, he’s fast and twitchy.”

But they run their mouths in the same way. Mesidor and Bain go so hard to one-up each other, he said, that Mauigoa and the entire line benefit. The offensive line’s stiffest competition is in practice. The Hurricanes are ninth in the FBS in sacks allowed, giving up just 1.07 per game.

“It’s the best D-line we’re going to go against all year, especially from a pass-rush standpoint,” Miami offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson said. “We’re elite at pass blocking. We sharpen our tools against people that are really, really talented at rushing.”

Bain arrived at Miami as the No. 69 prospect in the 2023 ESPN 300, the No. 7 defensive end nationally and was the Hurricanes’ highest-rated defensive recruit in the class. He was already a legend in the 305 after leading Miami Central to four state championships with 77 career sacks. He announced his arrival by becoming the 2023 ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year with 44 tackles, 12.5 for a loss and 7.5 sacks and emerged as a vocal leader.

Mesidor, meanwhile, comes from much more humble beginnings. As a high school player in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, he played linebacker, and went to a camp in Michigan to try to prove himself. During one-on-one drills, he lost three reps in a row, and his coach pulled him aside and told him if he lost one more, he was done at linebacker.

“The following rep, I lost it,” Mesidor said. “He sent me over with the D-line and put my hand in the dirt. I never took it out.”

Mesidor transferred to Clearwater Academy International in Florida for his senior year, markedly raising his profile with 92 tackles and 10 sacks and working himself into a four-star prospect by ESPN before signing with West Virginia. He was second-team All-Big 12 in his freshman year, but didn’t make the all-conference team as a sophomore. He transferred to Miami, then was told that the Hurricanes were hiring former Miami Dolphins defensive end Jason Taylor to coach him. Mesidor, who didn’t watch much football in Canada, wasn’t moved.

“I said, ‘Who?’” he said, laughing. Then he looked him up on YouTube and realized he was a Hall of Famer. “Damn, he was a baller,” he said.

Taylor has coached Mesidor, a sixth-year senior, for four years now, and Bain for three. He said they are both extremely smart, but he can coach them hard because they are relentlessly determined to outshine each other.

“They room together on the road. They work out together at home,” Taylor said. “They obviously work together on the grass. They eat together. Everything they do is with one another. It’s always something. But they get intense with it too, and they’ll get to yelling once in a while. I think it’s the classic tale of iron sharpening iron.”

This year, the 6-foot-3, 270-pound Bain was a consensus All-American, the ACC Defensive Player of the Year and finished the regular season with 37 tackles, 4.5 sacks, a forced fumble and an interception despite drawing extra attention from offensive lines, even earning Heisman buzz during the season. Mesidor, 6-3 and 265 pounds, was first-team All-ACC with 46 tackles, 12 sacks and 4 forced fumbles despite playing one fewer game.

Together, they were second nationally among defensive end pairs in sacks (19) and pressures (119) behind Texas Tech’s David Bailey and Romello Height.

Every spot in the weight room is a source of contention between Mesidor and Bain. Except the squat rack, where Mesidor concedes to Bain, who he said can put up 640 pounds. “I’ll never put that on my back,” he said.

But according to ESPN Research’s advanced metrics, Mesidor has the edge over Bain in several categories:

• Pressure percent: Mesidor 14.3%, Bain 14.0%

• Time to first pressure: Mesidor 2.66 seconds to Bain’s 2.71

• High-speed yards, or the total amount of yards a player traveled above 16 miles per hour: Mesidor 118, Bain 83

• Max speed in mph: Mesidor 18.0, Bain 16.3

Bain retorts: “Our sports science, they track explosive outbreaks and our player loads each game,” he said. “Every game I tell them I got the higher one.”

The two are both considered first-round picks, with only Auburn’s Keldric Fault projected ahead of them at defensive end. They’re so close in so many ways, Bain said, that the competition has become a compulsion. This is a sibling rivalry. They never get comfortable. Never relax.

Scott said the pair’s intensity is infectious, fueling a culture of competitiveness for the whole team. Mauigoa said they’ve even sprung some new pass-rush moves on him recently, surprising him. Cristobal said a big part of their legacy is the standard they’ve set for younger players with their relentless habits in practice — or anywhere.

“If we could compete somehow in the hotel, we would,” Bain said. “If you’re having fun, you’ll forget that you’re competing. We don’t realize we’re getting better.”

Against Ole Miss in the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl (7:30 p.m. ET Thursday, ESPN), quarterback Trinidad Chambliss poses a true dual threat, a moving target for Bain and Mesidor to track.

Chambliss, who has rushed for 580 yards and 8 TDs this year, did not surrender a sack to Georgia, and eluded the Bulldogs’ pass rush on several big plays in a 39-34 win, throwing for a career-high 362 yards and two touchdowns.

The Hurricanes know they’ll be in for a fight. But then again, that’s an every-day thing at Miami. Mauigoa said he knows from experience that Mesidor and Bain will be racing to Chambliss all night.

“You better be ready,” he said. “We got two dogs coming after them ready to hunt the quarterback.”

Bain worked for this moment, a kid from Miami who grew up dreaming of restoring the Hurricanes to football royalty. On Aug. 31, he and Mesidor joined each other on the podium after they crushed No. 6 Notre Dame’s hopes with back-to-back sacks, one by each of them, on the Irish’s final drive to preserve a win that likely was the résumé-booster that got Miami into the CFP.

The pair foreshadowed this playoff run as they took on questions from reporters side-by-side. They spoke of staying late at practice every day and working with Taylor, going all-out in two-minute drills every day in practice in the summer heat, staying up late at night and talking game strategy in group chats.

“When the lights are up, it’s cool outside, and the moment is right, we’re gonna get after it,” Mesidor said. “3 and 4 all day.”

“All day,” Bain replied.

Andrea Adelson and Jake Trotter contributed reporting.