‘We just locked in’: Hurricanes defense steps up yet again in win over Stanford
Wesley Bissainthe saw the end zone. The senior linebacker had just hauled in his first interception of the season and had nothing but open grass in front of him but was wrapped up just short of the goal line.
“Man, I thought I was going to get there,” Bissainthe said with a smile. “I almost dove.”
No worries. It was still a highlight performance among a slew of highlight performances for the No. 9 Miami Hurricanes’ defense in their 42-7 rout of the Stanford Cardinal on Saturday at Hard Rock Stadium.
Miami (6-1, 2-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) held Stanford (3-5, 2-3 ACC) to a season-low 144 yards. The Hurricanes had two interceptions, one apiece by Bissainthe and Xavier Lucas. They had six tackles for loss (including two sacks), six pass breakups and five quarterback hurries.
And that came after Miami gave up a 74-yard touchdown drive to begin the game.
After that first drive, the Hurricanes held the Cardinal to just 70 yards on their final 41 plays — 1.7 yards per play — spanning 10 drives.
“We just had to go out there and execute,” Bissainthe said. “That’s all it was. Just had to calm down, everybody go out there and do their job.”
Added Lucas: “We had to have short-term memory and move on to the next play. We can’t change the past. We just locked in.”
That they did.
And what’s more: Miami did all that without one of its top players in edge rusher Akheem Mesidor, who missed the game after sustaining an injury late in UM’s loss to Louisville last week.
Mesidor was listed as questionable for the game on Friday and a game-time decision on Saturday, but the Hurricanes opted to hold him out.
“He was really close,” Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal said. “We felt all week he was going to be there. And then sometimes you present yourself with an opportunity to play a player, and then the medical staff has to calculate what type of risk is involved. Can we set it back? Is this a guy that can be a full-speed player with another couple of days? So the assessment was made as well as the decision, and it was the right thing for both Akheem and for the team.”
Sophomore Marquise Lightfoot started in Mesidor’s absence and had a solid showing. He logged four tackles and two quarterback hurries. Fellow sophomore Armondo Blount also had extended playing time and finished with two tackles and a sack.
“I feel like we have straight dogs on our d-line,” Bissainthe said. “So Akheem was out, but I feel like it’s no drop off. We have no drop off. We’ve got players that are going to go in there and get it done.”
That’s been the case more often than not this season under first-year defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman, who was brought in to overhaul the weak link of Miami’s team from last year.
After Saturday’s performance, the Hurricanes are holding opponents to an average of 270.4 yards and 14.1 points per game.
The defense’s stellar effort after that opening drive allowed the offense time to get into a groove. The Hurricanes finally executed on that side of the ball with a game-tying touchdown at the end of the first half and then outscored Stanford 35-0 in the second half to turn a close game into a blowout.
“He’s very regimented. He’s a perfectionist,” Cristobal said of Hetherman. “The standard is the standard. The first drive wasn’t good enough. And I think every defensive player will say the same. I think every player in that locker room will echo the same message as coach Hetherman would. I think from a seeing-the-game standpoint and calling it, certainly he’s made us a ton better tonight. It was critical for us to get those stops because we weren’t generating much on the other side of the ball. And those stops eventually led to great field position because of special teams, complementary play, and then, of course, turnovers forced.”
This story was originally published October 25, 2025 at 11:36 PM.
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