CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Marquise Lightfoot grew up with a busy, active childhood.

His mother, Carolyn, wanted to make sure he was involved with everything from gymnastics, soccer and swimming to football, baseball and basketball. His older brother, Jeremiah, played football up through high school, and that meant there was always some good-natured competition right at home.

But for all of his time around sports, Lightfoot didn’t exactly watch a ton of college or professional football. And so, when schools – including Miami – began recruiting him, Lightfoot had to learn as much about them as they were trying to learn about him.

It didn’t take long during that process for one of the Hurricanes’ defensive line coaches to make an impression.

“Once I connected with [Jason Taylor] and got around the team, I just basically fell in love with it,” Lightfoot said. “I [didn’t] really watch football, so I [didn’t] really know anything about The U, or any of these schools. … But it was the relationships. The coaches, they let me know more than the other teams that I could trust them. … It just clicked. JT came off as just a regular guy. He wasn’t flashy about having a gold jacket or being in the Hall of Fame, or anything. That’s just who he was. I trusted him, that he wanted me to be where he was, to become who he is now. He wanted to help me build and he just saw something in me that I didn’t really even see in myself at first.”

Nearly three years after Lightfoot became a Hurricane, the rest of the college football world – and ACC opponents in particular – are starting to see themselves just who Lightfoot is.

On Monday, the edge rusher for the Hurricanes was named the ACC Defensive Lineman of the Week after totaling seven tackles and two sacks in the Hurricanes’ 38-35 win over North Carolina.

On the season, Lightfoot has a team-high 7.0 sacks, 29 tackles, 7.5 tackles for loss, and two forced fumbles. He’s helped boost a unit that lost two first-round picks in Rueben Bain Jr. and Akheem Mesidor after last season’s College Football Playoff run and, according to his teammates and coaches, Lightfoot has more than come into his own.

“The biggest change in Marquise has been his levels of maturity, [his] mentality, his approach to everything he does on a daily basis,” Miami head coach Mario Cristobal said. “He’s one of the guys that truly took in what he learned from both Rueben Bain and Akheem Mesidor. … Their presence, their influence, Marquise has taken it to heart. He’s put on the right kind of weight. He plays to an extremely high standard. … His effort level, his motor’s really, really high. I would say those probably are the biggest takeaways from his predecessors.”

Said veteran offensive lineman Matt McCoy, who faces Lightfoot in practice on a daily basis, “The way he grew up and matured since he got here, it’s crazy to see and it’s a blessing to see as well. Seeing him build up and be one of the best defensive linemen in our conference is just amazing. And going against him every day just makes our o-line better and makes me better, especially at tackle. He’s come a really long way and I’m so proud of him. … He’s athletic and he can move very well, so getting hands on him is pretty hard. But working on it every day helps me, not a lot of guys are as good as him, so that makes it easier on Saturdays for me.”

But the journey to get where he is now wasn’t necessarily an easy one for Lightfoot.

When the junior from Chicago arrived in South Florida, he concedes he was a bit caught up with everything around him. He was living away from family for the first time. He discovered Miami, his new home, was “a distraction city.” He played sparingly as a freshman, spending most of his time on the field on special teams.

But bit by bit, with encouragement from his mother, his coaches, and his teammates, Lightfoot began to truly grasp the demands of playing high-level college football.

And a good chunk of his learning came from watching how Mesidor and Bain operated not just on the field, but in the weight room, the locker room and in team meetings.

“It was their mentality, learning how to be a football player – like an NFL football player – now; moving like an NFL veteran now, instead of waiting until I’m actually there,” said Lightfoot, who stepped up as a sophomore and appeared in all 16 of Miami’s games last season. “That goes down to getting extra reps after practice, making sure I hit the training room up to keep my body recovered and restored. It’s knowing the plays like the back of my hand, watching film, learning everything I can about my opponent and just making sure I get better day by day.”

That shift in mindset and approach has served Lightfoot – and the Hurricanes – well and now, Lightfoot will have an opportunity to take the field not far from his childhood home.

Notre Dame, where the top-ranked Hurricanes will play on Saturday night in a nationally televised primetime showdown, is fewer than 100 miles from Chicago and Lightfoot is excited to play in front of family and friends, including those he went to high school with at Kenwood Academy High School.

He’s also looking forward to playing in some chillier temperatures.

“It means a lot. My family’s small, so I’ve played in front of most of the people that mean everything to me. But being able to play in front of people I went to [high school] with, who were around me through my recruitment process, I feel like it’s just going to help me play better,” Lightfoot said. “I want to show them what I grew into. It’s going to feel good. And I’ve been to Notre Dame a couple of times, so I’m real familiar with it. And I’m excited to play in the cold and all.”

As much as he’s grown and improved this season, though, Lightfoot is far from content.

He and his teammates know Miami’s goal is to improve day-to-day, week-to-week and that 1-0 mentality the Hurricanes have adopted drives Lightfoot to continue growing his game not just ahead of Saturday’s matchup against Notre Dame, but beyond.

“I just want to be more dominant in my play style,” Lightfoot said. “I can get a sack, but at that point, it’s more than just getting that. I’ve got to make that play every time it comes my way. There’s mistakes you can see throughout the film. We’ve all just got to continue to grow.”