Keionte Scott has been steady to start his Hurricanes tenure. He’s striving for more
Keionte Scott knows it has only been two weeks. He knows there’s a lot of season left to play for the Miami Hurricanes and he doesn’t want to be satisfied with where things stand this early in the year.
“My kind of motto is not counting my own money,” Scott said. “I’ll wait until the end to look at what’s in the bag.”
That said, Scott so far has been a steady presence in Miami’s defense after transferring to UM from Auburn and has shored up one of the Hurricanes’ weaker spots from last season at nickel cornerback.
Pro Football Focus has given him an 81.1 grade through the first two weeks of the season, wins over Notre Dame and Bethune-Cookman. That’s the second-highest rating among Miami’s defensive backs, just behind Damari Brown (81.2).
And he’s doing a little bit of everything. He’s defending the pass by shutting down slot receivers. He’s getting involved in stopping the run. He’s blitzing.
The Hurricanes have certainly noticed what he has done.
“Keionte Scott has been a tremendous addition at nickel, as you have seen, because he’s done it in coverage, then in the run game,” Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal said Monday ahead of No. 5 Miami’s home game against the No. 18 USF Bulls on Saturday (4:30 p.m., the CW Network). “That nickel position gets challenged, right? He’s tough, he’s physical, he’s a good blitzer. He’s a great cover guy, great man-to-man. Guy understands the playbook, top to bottom. He could fill in that corner of safety, you name it.”
But his true value is at the nickel cornerback, and he’s showing that early in his Miami tenure.
The Hurricanes struggled in slot coverage last season, with opposing quarterbacks completing 52 of 87 passes (a nearly 60% completion rate) for 680 yards and three touchdowns allowed. Daryl Porter Jr. took the bulk of the reps at the position last year, allowing 28 catches on 46 targets for 376 yards (including 249 after the catch) and a touchdown.
Scott has handled all slot duties so far this season. He has been targeted eight times on 33 coverage snaps, giving up just four receptions for 29 yards. The bulk of that came on one 21-yard reception in the second quarter of the Bethune-Cookman game.
In addition to his pass coverage, which includes a pair of pass breakups, Scott also has three tackles for loss and a quarterback hurry. He has graded out solidly in run defense.
“It’s definitely fun,” Scott said of stopping the run and making plays in the backfield. “It’s something to do. Coaches put me in that position to make that play. I pride myself on being able to make those type of plays.”
Hurricanes defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman said Scott “played a little bit faster” in Week 2 against Bethune-Cookman than he did in the season opener against Notre Dame and generally has been making the right in-game decisions.
“He’s a guy that came down and fit the run very well,” Hetherman said. “I thought it looked a little bit better this week. He made the available play with his tackling on some of the screens and some of the open field stuff. I thought he played very fast this week. We put him in a lot of different situations, whether it was coverage or what we were doing in the box. He continues to work at it and get better every single week.”
Scott and the Hurricanes’ secondary faces a new test on Saturday against USF and dual-threat quarterback Byrum Brown.
“Knowing the quarterback can use his legs, it’s something you definitely worry about,” Scott said, “but you’re worrying about the whole game and just finding ways to get off the field and contain the quarterback, obviously. You’re just finding guys and making sure everybody’s doing their one-eleventh as we say in our unit meetings of everybody just doing their job. If we all do our jobs, then things will go well for us.”
This story was originally published September 10, 2025 at 3:16 PM.
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