The Miami Hurricanes defense wants to ‘play violently.’ That’s on full display
Want a glimpse of what the Miami Hurricanes want their defense to perform like at its peak under first-year defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman? Look no further than the first three plays against the Florida Gators last weekend.
First-and-10. DJ Lagway hands the ball to running back Jadan Buagh for a rush up the middle. Before Baugh even gets back to the line of scrimmage, Xavier Lucas is already in the backfield on a corner blitz. He forces the running back to cut slightly left, where Rueben Bain Jr. finishes the play and lets out a roar in celebration. Keionte Scott, Wesley Bissainthe and OJ Frederique were in the area as well. Loss of 3 yards.
Second-and-13. Lagway takes the snap from the shotgun and once again hands off to Baugh, who tries to attack uphill from the middle. Florida’s offensive line double-teams Bain on the right side in an attempt to contain the star edge rusher and open a lane for its running back. Instead, defensive tackle Ahmad Moten clogs the hole. Bissainthe and Scott then finish the job for another tackle for loss. Armondo Blount, Mohamed Toure and Zechariah Poyser were all in the vicinity of the play. Loss of 1 yard.
Third-and-14. Lagway takes the snap from the shotgun with an empty backfield. Miami sends four for the pass rush, loading up against the right side of Florida’s offensive line with Bain and Akheem Mesidor, with the Gators keeping seven back in protection. The pocket collapses, flushing Lagway to his left. He scrambles and tries to get back to the line of scrimmage, but Marquise Lightfoot wraps him up for the sack, with Bissainthe, Blount, Bain and Mesidor all within strides of the ball.
Three plays. All negative yardage. Pure domination at the line of scrimmage to create chaos all over the field.
The Hurricanes played like that all night in their eventual 26-7 win to improve to 4-0 on the season and rise to No. 2 in the AP poll. The Miami defense held Florida to just 141 total yards of offense and an 0-for-13 clip on third down. It’s the first time since Dec. 4, 1999, that UF was held to that little yardage in a game and the first time since Nov. 4, 2006, that the Hurricanes held an FBS opponent to that little yardage in a game.
“When one person is on the ball, there’s probably five, six, seven orange jerseys running to the ball,” said Bain, who had 10 quarterback pressures and seven tackles in the win against the Gators. “That’s the way coach Hetherman coaches us. He wants all 11, so we’re still working on that. But when you come into the building, [be] excited every day. Every time the ball is thrown or handed off, swarm to the ball and every time the ball is snapped, play violently.”
Excitement. Swarming. Violence. Those three words are the cornerstones of what Hetherman has preached daily since taking over as defensive coordinator in January. The messaging worked at his previous stop at Minnesota, where the Golden Gophers were tied for seventh nationally in interceptions forced (17) and fifth nationally in average yards allowed per game (285.7).
Every play is a group effort. All 11 have to be attacking toward a common goal at full speed. Accomplish that, and the results are limitless.
“We want our guys to love football,” Hetherman said. “We want our guys to be excited to work together, to compete. … One of the messages always for our guys is we’re going to have mistakes. We know that. Hopefully Saturday there’s less mistakes than there are on Tuesday. But the faster we play and the more physical we play, we feel like that erases a lot them. And as we continue to play together and jell, and guys continue to get more comfortable working together every single week, we’ve got to limit some of those mistakes, communicate a little bit better and I think that’s where you’re starting to see some of the growth right now.”
The results speak for themselves.
Through four weeks — wins against Notre Dame, Bethune-Cookman, USF and Florida — Miami ranks tied for 11th in opponent third-down conversion rate (24%), 15th nationally in both yards allowed per game (244.5) and points allowed per game (11.5) and tied for 25th in turnovers forced (six). Pro Football Focus has UM’s defense graded as the second-best pass-rushing team in the country behind only Louisville and the third-best run defense team nationally behind only Texas Tech and Auburn.
But like just about everything with the Hurricanes, they’re far from a finished product. They like what they have seen overall through the first third of the season but don’t plan to rest on their laurels with a lot of season left to play and all their goals still out there for the taking.
“Just do your job,” said Toure, who transferred to Miami from Rutgers. “For us, we’re just going out there and having fun. For me, being here is honestly a blessing. I’ve never been in a position like this. To be 4-0 and a top team in the country, it’s a blessing. To be able to play with dogs and have other dogs around me, I thank God every day. But we just do our job. Play fundamental football. Play fast. Play physical.”
.JPG)