Hurricanes defense’s task with FSU’s Castellanos: ‘Keep him inside that pocket’
Akheem Mesidor understands the task at hand.
When the third-ranked Miami Hurricanes (4-0, 0-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) face the No. 18 FSU Seminoles (3-1, 0-1 ACC) on Saturday at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee, UM’s defense will face arguably its biggest challenge of the season thus far in quarterback Tommy Castellanos.
The dual-threat quarterback has led a resurgent FSU team after transferring from Boston College and has the Seminoles as one of the country’s most dynamic offenses through the first third of the regular season.
Castellanos has completed 45 of 70 pass attempts for 848 yards and four touchdowns against three interceptions. He also has 217 rushing yards and four more touchdowns on the ground with 41 carries.
He is one of just eight quarterbacks entering this week to have at least 800 passing yards, 400 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns.
“He’s really powerful,” defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman said. “At any point you watch him, he’s had games where he throws the ball really well. He’s always a threat in the running game. It’s always a plus-one count. ... He gives you a lot of challenges on defense.”
Containing him has to be the top priority.
“The goal is to keep him inside that pocket, squeeze the pocket, keep him in there, and to limit his rush lanes or just his capability of getting outside the pocket,” Mesidor said. “It’s going to be difficult, but it’s something we must do.”
And they Canes shown they can do it.
The Hurricanes have already faced a pair of high-end dual-threat quarterbacks this season in USF’s Byrum Brown and Florida’s DJ Lagway. They did a pretty good job limiting both.
Brown held his own in the passing game, completing 20 of 36 passes for 276 yards and a touchdown with an interception. On the ground, though, he managed just 2 rushing yards on 13 attempts and was sacked twice as Miami rolled to a 49-12 win.
Lagway, meanwhile, was contained entirely. He completed just 12 of 23 passes for 61 yards and had minus-8 rushing yards on eight carries, which includes being sacked four times for a loss of 21 yards in the Hurricanes’ 26-7 win.
“It shows the outside world that we can contain the quarterback,” Mesidor said. “But we got there in practice. We got receivers playing quarterback and running around. So we’re prepared for it.”
Having arguably the nation’s best one-two punch of edge rushers helps, too.
Mesidor and Rueben Bain Jr. have been dominant at the line of scrimmage this season, combining for 39 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks through four games. Pro Football Focus has the Hurricanes graded as the second-best pass rushing team in the country, with their 91.1 grade behind only the Louisville Cardinals (92).
“We do feel like we are blessed with the best duo in the country,” Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal said. “Bain is at 275 [pounds] and he has the power of a three technique with the explosiveness of an edge guy. He has a large menu of pass rush moves while playing with the basic fundamentals that make you very strong and hold the point of attack and be stout. With Mesidor, sometimes I feel like that guy deserves a lot more credit, but he doesn’t care about that. Mesidor is a guy that can do it all with his athleticism and his toughness. Both guys have done everything we have asked them to do with playing inside or outside. They are just team players.”
Their latest challenge comes Saturday. Castellanos already has eight completions of at least 40 yards, which ranks third nationally behind USC’s Jayden Maiava and Mississippi State’s Blake Shapen, who each has nine. He also has 10 rushes of at least 10 yards, the second-most in the ACC behind Georgia Tech’s Haynes King and tied for the 14th-most among all quarterbacks.
“We’ve gotta do a great job at the point of attack at the line of scrimmage,” Hetherman said. “We’ve gotta make sure we tackle when we have our opportunities. We’ve gotta close gaps. We’ve gotta win our one on ones. We’ve gotta make sure we tackle when we get down.”
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