Five scores on seven drives. Former Hurricanes wide receiver Ahmmon Richards spent two days deciding how to talk about that.
He settled on treating Corey Hetherman exactly the way our fan base treated Shannon Dawson when the offense struggled: blame it on the play caller and ask him to adjust.
His core point is simple. Teams know what we're doing.
It's the same pressures from the same downs and distances. It reminded him of the first eight minutes against Louisville last year, when they seemed to know every call.
The proof that it's fixable came in this game.
On the strip sack, Omar Thornton lined up in the nickel exactly where he usually blitzes from, on an early down where he usually blitzes. Then he didn't. He stepped forward, dropped, and sat right in the quarterback's first throwing window. Billy Edwards Jr. went to throw, saw it was a bluff and froze. Now he had to work through his progressions, he held the ball an extra beat, and Marquise Lightfoot took it from him.
The sack on second-and-17 before the screen was the same trick with Bryce Fitzgerald.
"You got to make these college quarterbacks think," Ahmmon said. Most of them are one-read quarterbacks who know where the ball is going pre-snap. When you take that away, they struggle.
The issue is how rarely we do it. We're blitzing off Cover 3, usually with the nickel or the backside safety, and teams have a good indicator for when it's coming.
Ahmmon's tell: when an offense is running angle routes to a 220-pound running back, they know the scheme.
"Right now, it's like you got a toolbox and you reach in and you only got a wrench," he said.
He pointed to two red-zone plays.
On third-and-goal we rushed three and had eight in coverage against four routes, which is essentially double coverage everywhere, and gave up a touchdown up the seam.
On the other, UNC put Jelani Thurman and Jordan Shipp on the same side. Ahmmon had said in his preview that a middle-field safety should cheat toward that side. Zechariah Poyser got moved by the quarterback's eyes instead. People blamed JJ Dunnigan, but Ahmmon says it was an inverted Cover 2 with Poyser in the middle. One step toward the two best players and he thinks it's a breakup or a pick.
Then there's the free releases, the same thing ESPN's Louis Riddick was hammering on social media. Ahmmon has a blunt explanation for why a team wouldn't jam: you only avoid press if you think your DBs can't play it.
He thinks ours can. Xavier Lucas has the size and length. Ethan O'Connor jammed his man on the strip sack, which meant Dunnigan didn't have two guys running at him in his half of the field. "When you don't touch him at all, it's like no one's there," Ahmmon said.
He added two more things. The communication isn't there, with no pointing and no passing receivers off in Cover 2, and he sees more guys looking to the sideline for the call than talking to each other. The linebackers get blamed too, but when you blitz a zone defender, you're asking two guys who aren't natural cover players to handle more space.
Ahmmon said Lightfoot is playing at a level where he won't be here next year. He's adding moves and playing relentlessly.
Thornton played controlled after losing snaps, and he was where he needed to be in his zone drops. Dunnigan got beat on a double move but ran the play down. Damari Brown read a play correctly and aborted a boundary blitz that would have left the running back wide open.
Ahmmon's proposed secondary going forward:
He doesn't see the swarm and guys are jogging to screens instead of sprinting the way Rueben Bain did last year, then lunging and diving because they arrived late. It's the D-line, the linebackers and the secondary.
There's an energy piece too. Losing Keionte Scott, an NFL starter at nickel, along with Jakobe Thomas, Bain and Akheem Mesidor took a lot of edge out of this defense. And in Hetherman's first year, opponents didn't have a book on him. In year two, they do.
"It's a two-way street," Ahmmon said. The coordinator has to adjust, and the players have to execute.
His advice is to flush it. He's watched it three or four times and feels better each time because the problems are fixable. And the timing couldn't be better. Nobody needs extra motivation for Notre Dame. This is the week to rewrite it.
Ahmmon's full defensive breakdown is on the CanesInsight YouTube channel, and he's back Wednesday with the Notre Dame film.
He settled on treating Corey Hetherman exactly the way our fan base treated Shannon Dawson when the offense struggled: blame it on the play caller and ask him to adjust.
His core point is simple. Teams know what we're doing.
The tendencies are on tape
Ahmmon's read is that the scheme and the current personnel aren't matching up, and that after 15-plus games across two seasons, opponents have a clean picture of when and how we blitz.It's the same pressures from the same downs and distances. It reminded him of the first eight minutes against Louisville last year, when they seemed to know every call.
The proof that it's fixable came in this game.
On the strip sack, Omar Thornton lined up in the nickel exactly where he usually blitzes from, on an early down where he usually blitzes. Then he didn't. He stepped forward, dropped, and sat right in the quarterback's first throwing window. Billy Edwards Jr. went to throw, saw it was a bluff and froze. Now he had to work through his progressions, he held the ball an extra beat, and Marquise Lightfoot took it from him.
The sack on second-and-17 before the screen was the same trick with Bryce Fitzgerald.
"You got to make these college quarterbacks think," Ahmmon said. Most of them are one-read quarterbacks who know where the ball is going pre-snap. When you take that away, they struggle.
The issue is how rarely we do it. We're blitzing off Cover 3, usually with the nickel or the backside safety, and teams have a good indicator for when it's coming.
Ahmmon's tell: when an offense is running angle routes to a 220-pound running back, they know the scheme.
"Right now, it's like you got a toolbox and you reach in and you only got a wrench," he said.
Coverage: reacting instead of anticipating
The secondary is playing reactionary football, according to Ahmmon. They let the play happen, then go tackle the guy who caught it.He pointed to two red-zone plays.
On third-and-goal we rushed three and had eight in coverage against four routes, which is essentially double coverage everywhere, and gave up a touchdown up the seam.
On the other, UNC put Jelani Thurman and Jordan Shipp on the same side. Ahmmon had said in his preview that a middle-field safety should cheat toward that side. Zechariah Poyser got moved by the quarterback's eyes instead. People blamed JJ Dunnigan, but Ahmmon says it was an inverted Cover 2 with Poyser in the middle. One step toward the two best players and he thinks it's a breakup or a pick.
Then there's the free releases, the same thing ESPN's Louis Riddick was hammering on social media. Ahmmon has a blunt explanation for why a team wouldn't jam: you only avoid press if you think your DBs can't play it.
He thinks ours can. Xavier Lucas has the size and length. Ethan O'Connor jammed his man on the strip sack, which meant Dunnigan didn't have two guys running at him in his half of the field. "When you don't touch him at all, it's like no one's there," Ahmmon said.
He added two more things. The communication isn't there, with no pointing and no passing receivers off in Cover 2, and he sees more guys looking to the sideline for the call than talking to each other. The linebackers get blamed too, but when you blitz a zone defender, you're asking two guys who aren't natural cover players to handle more space.
Who stood out, and the lineup he'd play
It wasn't all bad.Ahmmon said Lightfoot is playing at a level where he won't be here next year. He's adding moves and playing relentlessly.
Thornton played controlled after losing snaps, and he was where he needed to be in his zone drops. Dunnigan got beat on a double move but ran the play down. Damari Brown read a play correctly and aborted a boundary blitz that would have left the running back wide open.
Ahmmon's proposed secondary going forward:
- Free safety: Bryce Fitzgerald, for his ball skills in the middle of the field, which is where teams are attacking us.
- Strong safety: JJ Dunnigan and Zechariah Poyser. Ahmmon considers Poyser a natural strong safety, which is what he played at Jacksonville State.
- Nickel: Omar Thornton or Poyser.
- Corners: Xavier Lucas and Ethan O'Connor.
Effort and tackling
This is where Ahmmon said he could "crash out."He doesn't see the swarm and guys are jogging to screens instead of sprinting the way Rueben Bain did last year, then lunging and diving because they arrived late. It's the D-line, the linebackers and the secondary.
There's an energy piece too. Losing Keionte Scott, an NFL starter at nickel, along with Jakobe Thomas, Bain and Akheem Mesidor took a lot of edge out of this defense. And in Hetherman's first year, opponents didn't have a book on him. In year two, they do.
"It's a two-way street," Ahmmon said. The coordinator has to adjust, and the players have to execute.
His advice is to flush it. He's watched it three or four times and feels better each time because the problems are fixable. And the timing couldn't be better. Nobody needs extra motivation for Notre Dame. This is the week to rewrite it.
Ahmmon's full defensive breakdown is on the CanesInsight YouTube channel, and he's back Wednesday with the Notre Dame film.
