On Monday afternoon, Miami Hurricanes defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman spoke with the media, recapping the long bye week the Hurricanes had and the upcoming game against Florida State. Check out everything he had to say down below:
On getting the defense back to full strength: Yeah, I think a lot of guys have stepped up. A lot of guys doing a really good job. I think, it's helped create more roles in our defense, a lot more guys that we can see in different situations and playing in different parts of the game, situational things, packages. Excited to get guys back. You always want more depth. You always want to have those guys back, so excited to have them back. But, I think overall just the way guys have stepped up and the way the guys have performed to this point, we've been happy with.
On Miami’s versatility in the secondary: Yeah, it lets us be a little bit more comfortable. We can do different things with certain calls. But the other thing is, like, we've had those guys play all the different roles, whether it's zone, man, whatever coverage we were playing, whatever blitz we were doing. It allows us to do a lot more. It allows us to do put guys in situations where they're comfortable, teaching the techniques, teaching the fundamentals, and let them go fast. And we see what guys do a really good job with and what they play well with. And, gives us a little bit more position versatility. Kick guys outside, inside. I think we're excited about letting seeing different guys keep playing in those spots and get different opportunities.
On Omar Thornton continuing to improve: Yeah, I think everyone in general, it allows our guys to play where they're more comfortable. It allows our guys to do things that they're, what their strengths are suited for in different things. But, I think he's done a really good job. Like I think, the way, how fast he plays, how physically he plays, how fast he's picked up this defense. I think some of the areas where you've seen maybe a missed tackle or I think on the side, he's cleaned that up and continued to play with more detail. Like he had a really good week of practice last week, and I'm excited to see him go out and attack and keep getting better every single week.
On Damon Wilson improve from the first couple of weeks: Yeah, every week different people are going to step up. Every week different people are going to have different stat lines, or, they might slide to one guy, they might slide to someone else, they might chip someone. And I think early on in the year, I think he maybe seen a little bit more of that. Last week maybe he didn't see as much, and all of a sudden Lightfoot goes out and has a really good game, and Armondo goes out and has a really good game, and then one of the inside guys goes out and does a couple things. And, last year I think we saw that with Bain. Early in the year they slid to him, they chipped him, and Mesidor stepped up, and all of a sudden things started to the other guys. And I think that's part of, like, the product of our defense. Our guys are put in situations where they can play fast. Like, there's no guarantee you're going to make the stat, you're going to get the play. But as long as everyone does their job, everyone fills in with their role. Might be the linebacker getting a tackle, the next week it might be the three technique or the nose guard. It might be one of the ends making the play. It might be the nickel or the boundary safety, or you never really know who it is, or the strong safety. And it's always different guys that step up. It's different guys every week that get put in a situation where they're going to make the play or their number is going to get called a little bit more. I thought last week or two weeks ago, I thought it was a situation where he had some one-on-ones versus guards. He had some one-on-ones versus tackles, did some things off the edge really well. We stopped the run, and I thought it made it where early everything was a screen or quick game, and as the game went on and our offense scored some points, I thought, it forced them to throw the ball a little bit more vertical down the field, which allowed our guys to win some more one-on-ones in that game. And, you know, I thought he stepped up and did a really good job. We’ll see. I don't know what it'll be this Saturday, but I know there'll be someone that will have a one-on-one, someone that won't be able to get chipped or have a slide to him, and we'll see who steps up in that situation.
On what makes Bryce Fitzgerald so special: I just think, his awareness of what's going on on the field, how smart he is, how he can take it from the meeting room to the field. He can see something that happens on the field and then adjust to it the next series or two series later, a play or a formation or motion that may have come up earlier. And then, the awareness is really him, ZP, like all those guys, like how smart they can take it from the sidelines to the field and, hey, this is what's going to happen. And then also be smart that they're going to have a play off of this also that we got to be ready for, that, now you can't jump a flag. You got to play the vertical. You got to play the angle, or there'll be something a little bit wired up different off of it. It just allows us to do so much because he can play corner, he can play nickel, he can play safety, he can blitz, he can play man, he can play deep in the post. And I think, that position versatility is what we look for. We look for in recruiting. We want guys that can play on offense, that do have the ball in their hands, guys that can go attack the football, guys that have good position versatility. They can tackle, they can play in space, they can play in the box, they can do a lot of different things. And I think that's where his game's continuing to get better. Those little things that last year we were like, listen, this is where your game is really good right now. This is what you need to get better at. And, you know, we made a major emphasis all offseason about that. And I think his game's taken those next steps, and, it's hard. You're a young player. You're really comfortable at one spot, and all of a sudden now you get moved to a different position. And I think he's handled it really well. And I think just that position versatility makes this defense so much better all the way through.
On Miami’s defensive physicality: Yeah, I think that's what the standard is. We want to push it all the way through. I mean, you watch college football every week, guys tightrope the sideline, guys pull off, and all of a sudden it's a 60-yard touchdown, or guys pull off plays, and all of a sudden they break the tackle. We want to play all the way through the whistle. That's what we do in practice. We want to play all the way through the whistle. We're going to be smart. We got to be detailed on how we take on blocks, how we leverage the football, what angles we take, how we block destruction into the tackling system that we use. But, we want our guys to play unbelievably hard. The biggest thing is just the swarm. Like, we want to continue to get better in that area. I still think we got to run to the football better every single play. And there's, like, two weeks ago you watch Moten, Damon comes free, misses a sack, quarterback scrambles, and Justin Scott and Moten come out of the stacks and punches the ball out. We get a huge takeaway. And, more of that stuff is what we want to keep seeing. And I think it's been good. We want to keep that being even better as we go. But, yeah, we're going to play all the way through the whistle every single play, but we got to be smart. I mean, you got to be detailed. You got to understand what the situations are, where the ball is, what your leverage is, where your angle is, where your support is, and continue to play fast.
On the challenge of defending mobile quarterbacks: Yeah, like you said, we've kind of seen it this year. Central Michigan was a running football team. Clemson, I thought he had really good ability to extend the play, scramble. We did a really good job keeping him contained in the pocket, not giving up scramble yards. Wake Forest was the biggest one with Geo. His ability to extend plays, the run-pass option stuff. Like, I didn't know whether it was a naked or an RPO. I mean, guys are running routes down the field, the O-line's running stretch. You know, they have different elements of where the play can go. He always had the option to pull it. I just think football's gone so much more in that direction now, and it's hard because you got to, everyone's accounted for. You need all 11 on defense having an assignment. You got to be really good with your assigned football. That's, even like last week until the practice we had, it was drills, I wish we didn't have a football. You got the inside threat, you got the outside threat, you got the dive player, you got the Q player, you got the bubble, whatever it is that they're doing. But they're calling everyone out on defense, and you got to defend all 53 and a third, all 120. I mean, you got to defend the entire field. It makes it hard on defenses. You watch that this weekend, you get a chance to watch a little bit of football and you try to see what other defenses are doing, how teams are attacking people, and you see that all over TV. And, that makes it hard, but, that's where our guys got to be really disciplined. Our guys got to do their job. They can't try to do too much and, make the play. It's really about doing your job every single play.
On the fourth and one stop against Clemson: Yeah, we have when you look to the sideline, when you don't look to the sideline, how we coach it up, different things based on, the mechanics of the offense or looks they're giving to us or alignments. And I thought it was a really good play by, you know, I thought Moten did a really good job getting vertical. I thought both Moten and Chase did a really good job, you could see them on the film pointing, where the back's alignment was. We kind of thought they were doing that fake. One of those guys caught it right away, really good play by those guys. And yeah, you see the back side that we dropped to a knee, we can't do that. We got to be ready. We got to play all the way through the whistle every single time. Even the front side, that we should have had an extra blitzer off the front. I think ZP kind of folded a little bit. We really wish he set the edge. It was a short-yardage play we kind of expected to see from them. I didn't know the quarterback was going to walk off the spot. Thought they may flip positions on it. But really good detail by those guys, really good awareness by those guys to play all the way through the whistle and not fall into, them trying to, walk off and get our eyes in the wrong spot or look to the sideline.
On Third Scroggins: He plays fast. He plays physical. He plays 100 miles an hour. And, I've said it for two years now. He's one of those guys, like, anytime you need a rep in practice, like a swarm rep, a violent rep, just playing physical, just doing your job, being assignment sound, he's always in the right spot. Plays 100 miles an hour. And I go all the way back to A&M last year, and that two-minute drill at the end of the game, he makes one of the biggest plays of the season. And most people, everyone knows about the hit on the goal line, the pick in the back of the end zone, and the tackle on the five-yard line. But he makes one of the biggest plays of the season where they're probably close. And he just, he's always doing the right thing. And it's how he goes about the process. It happens on Tuesday. It happens on Wednesday. It happens on Thursday. He's in watching film. He's going through his technique, going through his fundamentals, watching the film. And I think just the way he goes about the process, the way he prepares every single week is through the roof, and I think that's why he plays so well.
On Florida State running attack: Yeah, I think offensively they are very talented. I think the running back, the backfield in general, I think is a very good backfield. Kromah in general, I think he's like fourth in the country in creating missed tackles. He's tough to tackle. He plays extremely hard. He does a really good job running behind his pads. He uses the stiff arm really well. He'll make you miss. He sets up his cuts very well. There's a couple times you see him run stretch. He pushes the linebackers, gets them flow over the top, puts his foot in the ground, falls back behind him. He's good out of the backfield. Like last year he got us on third and one. I think the first series of the game on wheel. He's done some really good things out of the backfield this year. I think he's a complete back, and I think he's a very big challenge for us this week. And, we got to treat it all week. We got to tackle in practice. We got to get after it.
On what he learned about the rivalry last year: Yeah, I think, it's one of the greatest rivalries in sport, I think anytime in these games, it's throw the records out, throw everything out. You never know what's going to happen. You watch it this past weekend, Texas-Oklahoma. These games, you got to throw everything out, we got to show up. And that's been the message. Last year coming off a bye week, we had to start faster. This year, we got to start fast coming off a bye week. We got to go out, we got to practice. We got to get after it. Our guys got to be really detailed of how they prepare all the way through the week, and then we got to make sure at kickoff we're playing 100 miles an hour. But this is one of those games where everyone knows each other. It's, huge battle, and I think it's one of the biggest ones in the country.
On Texas-Oklahoma serving as a reminder heading into the game: Our biggest thing is block out the noise, throw everything out, don't look at it, just be us. We go out there, we play one play at a time, and we make it all about us: our details, our communication, our alignment, doing our job, playing with technique, swarming to the football, playing physical at the point of attack, playing together, all 11 guys. That's always the number one message. We got to play together, we got to do it as a unit for 60 minutes, one play at a time, over and over and over again. It's one of those games, there’s an opportunity they can make a play. It’s how do we respond to that play? How do we go about it? And, last year this was one of those ones I thought we played really well for three quarters, and the fourth quarter, we have to play better to close that game out. And, that's the biggest thing I remember from that game last year was getting back to the locker room, you know, that feeling that we had of not closing out the game. We got to do a really good job playing 60 minutes because I think this is a very good football team. I think the quarterback’s dangerous. I think they have a really good backfield. I think the wide receivers do a really good job. The boundary wide receiver is a big-time player. I met the coach against him two years ago, I think at USC last year. He makes a huge fourth down play, keeps a drive alive. He made a couple really good plays in that game. The slot is dangerous. I just think they have a lot of different guys that can do can take the top off, can catch, can test the one-on-one throws, can break tackles at the line of scrimmage, quarterback can extend plays. And I think, we got to show up and we got to play start to finish really well.
On getting the defense back to full strength: Yeah, I think a lot of guys have stepped up. A lot of guys doing a really good job. I think, it's helped create more roles in our defense, a lot more guys that we can see in different situations and playing in different parts of the game, situational things, packages. Excited to get guys back. You always want more depth. You always want to have those guys back, so excited to have them back. But, I think overall just the way guys have stepped up and the way the guys have performed to this point, we've been happy with.
On Miami’s versatility in the secondary: Yeah, it lets us be a little bit more comfortable. We can do different things with certain calls. But the other thing is, like, we've had those guys play all the different roles, whether it's zone, man, whatever coverage we were playing, whatever blitz we were doing. It allows us to do a lot more. It allows us to do put guys in situations where they're comfortable, teaching the techniques, teaching the fundamentals, and let them go fast. And we see what guys do a really good job with and what they play well with. And, gives us a little bit more position versatility. Kick guys outside, inside. I think we're excited about letting seeing different guys keep playing in those spots and get different opportunities.
On Omar Thornton continuing to improve: Yeah, I think everyone in general, it allows our guys to play where they're more comfortable. It allows our guys to do things that they're, what their strengths are suited for in different things. But, I think he's done a really good job. Like I think, the way, how fast he plays, how physically he plays, how fast he's picked up this defense. I think some of the areas where you've seen maybe a missed tackle or I think on the side, he's cleaned that up and continued to play with more detail. Like he had a really good week of practice last week, and I'm excited to see him go out and attack and keep getting better every single week.
On Damon Wilson improve from the first couple of weeks: Yeah, every week different people are going to step up. Every week different people are going to have different stat lines, or, they might slide to one guy, they might slide to someone else, they might chip someone. And I think early on in the year, I think he maybe seen a little bit more of that. Last week maybe he didn't see as much, and all of a sudden Lightfoot goes out and has a really good game, and Armondo goes out and has a really good game, and then one of the inside guys goes out and does a couple things. And, last year I think we saw that with Bain. Early in the year they slid to him, they chipped him, and Mesidor stepped up, and all of a sudden things started to the other guys. And I think that's part of, like, the product of our defense. Our guys are put in situations where they can play fast. Like, there's no guarantee you're going to make the stat, you're going to get the play. But as long as everyone does their job, everyone fills in with their role. Might be the linebacker getting a tackle, the next week it might be the three technique or the nose guard. It might be one of the ends making the play. It might be the nickel or the boundary safety, or you never really know who it is, or the strong safety. And it's always different guys that step up. It's different guys every week that get put in a situation where they're going to make the play or their number is going to get called a little bit more. I thought last week or two weeks ago, I thought it was a situation where he had some one-on-ones versus guards. He had some one-on-ones versus tackles, did some things off the edge really well. We stopped the run, and I thought it made it where early everything was a screen or quick game, and as the game went on and our offense scored some points, I thought, it forced them to throw the ball a little bit more vertical down the field, which allowed our guys to win some more one-on-ones in that game. And, you know, I thought he stepped up and did a really good job. We’ll see. I don't know what it'll be this Saturday, but I know there'll be someone that will have a one-on-one, someone that won't be able to get chipped or have a slide to him, and we'll see who steps up in that situation.
On what makes Bryce Fitzgerald so special: I just think, his awareness of what's going on on the field, how smart he is, how he can take it from the meeting room to the field. He can see something that happens on the field and then adjust to it the next series or two series later, a play or a formation or motion that may have come up earlier. And then, the awareness is really him, ZP, like all those guys, like how smart they can take it from the sidelines to the field and, hey, this is what's going to happen. And then also be smart that they're going to have a play off of this also that we got to be ready for, that, now you can't jump a flag. You got to play the vertical. You got to play the angle, or there'll be something a little bit wired up different off of it. It just allows us to do so much because he can play corner, he can play nickel, he can play safety, he can blitz, he can play man, he can play deep in the post. And I think, that position versatility is what we look for. We look for in recruiting. We want guys that can play on offense, that do have the ball in their hands, guys that can go attack the football, guys that have good position versatility. They can tackle, they can play in space, they can play in the box, they can do a lot of different things. And I think that's where his game's continuing to get better. Those little things that last year we were like, listen, this is where your game is really good right now. This is what you need to get better at. And, you know, we made a major emphasis all offseason about that. And I think his game's taken those next steps, and, it's hard. You're a young player. You're really comfortable at one spot, and all of a sudden now you get moved to a different position. And I think he's handled it really well. And I think just that position versatility makes this defense so much better all the way through.
On Miami’s defensive physicality: Yeah, I think that's what the standard is. We want to push it all the way through. I mean, you watch college football every week, guys tightrope the sideline, guys pull off, and all of a sudden it's a 60-yard touchdown, or guys pull off plays, and all of a sudden they break the tackle. We want to play all the way through the whistle. That's what we do in practice. We want to play all the way through the whistle. We're going to be smart. We got to be detailed on how we take on blocks, how we leverage the football, what angles we take, how we block destruction into the tackling system that we use. But, we want our guys to play unbelievably hard. The biggest thing is just the swarm. Like, we want to continue to get better in that area. I still think we got to run to the football better every single play. And there's, like, two weeks ago you watch Moten, Damon comes free, misses a sack, quarterback scrambles, and Justin Scott and Moten come out of the stacks and punches the ball out. We get a huge takeaway. And, more of that stuff is what we want to keep seeing. And I think it's been good. We want to keep that being even better as we go. But, yeah, we're going to play all the way through the whistle every single play, but we got to be smart. I mean, you got to be detailed. You got to understand what the situations are, where the ball is, what your leverage is, where your angle is, where your support is, and continue to play fast.
On the challenge of defending mobile quarterbacks: Yeah, like you said, we've kind of seen it this year. Central Michigan was a running football team. Clemson, I thought he had really good ability to extend the play, scramble. We did a really good job keeping him contained in the pocket, not giving up scramble yards. Wake Forest was the biggest one with Geo. His ability to extend plays, the run-pass option stuff. Like, I didn't know whether it was a naked or an RPO. I mean, guys are running routes down the field, the O-line's running stretch. You know, they have different elements of where the play can go. He always had the option to pull it. I just think football's gone so much more in that direction now, and it's hard because you got to, everyone's accounted for. You need all 11 on defense having an assignment. You got to be really good with your assigned football. That's, even like last week until the practice we had, it was drills, I wish we didn't have a football. You got the inside threat, you got the outside threat, you got the dive player, you got the Q player, you got the bubble, whatever it is that they're doing. But they're calling everyone out on defense, and you got to defend all 53 and a third, all 120. I mean, you got to defend the entire field. It makes it hard on defenses. You watch that this weekend, you get a chance to watch a little bit of football and you try to see what other defenses are doing, how teams are attacking people, and you see that all over TV. And, that makes it hard, but, that's where our guys got to be really disciplined. Our guys got to do their job. They can't try to do too much and, make the play. It's really about doing your job every single play.
On the fourth and one stop against Clemson: Yeah, we have when you look to the sideline, when you don't look to the sideline, how we coach it up, different things based on, the mechanics of the offense or looks they're giving to us or alignments. And I thought it was a really good play by, you know, I thought Moten did a really good job getting vertical. I thought both Moten and Chase did a really good job, you could see them on the film pointing, where the back's alignment was. We kind of thought they were doing that fake. One of those guys caught it right away, really good play by those guys. And yeah, you see the back side that we dropped to a knee, we can't do that. We got to be ready. We got to play all the way through the whistle every single time. Even the front side, that we should have had an extra blitzer off the front. I think ZP kind of folded a little bit. We really wish he set the edge. It was a short-yardage play we kind of expected to see from them. I didn't know the quarterback was going to walk off the spot. Thought they may flip positions on it. But really good detail by those guys, really good awareness by those guys to play all the way through the whistle and not fall into, them trying to, walk off and get our eyes in the wrong spot or look to the sideline.
On Third Scroggins: He plays fast. He plays physical. He plays 100 miles an hour. And, I've said it for two years now. He's one of those guys, like, anytime you need a rep in practice, like a swarm rep, a violent rep, just playing physical, just doing your job, being assignment sound, he's always in the right spot. Plays 100 miles an hour. And I go all the way back to A&M last year, and that two-minute drill at the end of the game, he makes one of the biggest plays of the season. And most people, everyone knows about the hit on the goal line, the pick in the back of the end zone, and the tackle on the five-yard line. But he makes one of the biggest plays of the season where they're probably close. And he just, he's always doing the right thing. And it's how he goes about the process. It happens on Tuesday. It happens on Wednesday. It happens on Thursday. He's in watching film. He's going through his technique, going through his fundamentals, watching the film. And I think just the way he goes about the process, the way he prepares every single week is through the roof, and I think that's why he plays so well.
On Florida State running attack: Yeah, I think offensively they are very talented. I think the running back, the backfield in general, I think is a very good backfield. Kromah in general, I think he's like fourth in the country in creating missed tackles. He's tough to tackle. He plays extremely hard. He does a really good job running behind his pads. He uses the stiff arm really well. He'll make you miss. He sets up his cuts very well. There's a couple times you see him run stretch. He pushes the linebackers, gets them flow over the top, puts his foot in the ground, falls back behind him. He's good out of the backfield. Like last year he got us on third and one. I think the first series of the game on wheel. He's done some really good things out of the backfield this year. I think he's a complete back, and I think he's a very big challenge for us this week. And, we got to treat it all week. We got to tackle in practice. We got to get after it.
On what he learned about the rivalry last year: Yeah, I think, it's one of the greatest rivalries in sport, I think anytime in these games, it's throw the records out, throw everything out. You never know what's going to happen. You watch it this past weekend, Texas-Oklahoma. These games, you got to throw everything out, we got to show up. And that's been the message. Last year coming off a bye week, we had to start faster. This year, we got to start fast coming off a bye week. We got to go out, we got to practice. We got to get after it. Our guys got to be really detailed of how they prepare all the way through the week, and then we got to make sure at kickoff we're playing 100 miles an hour. But this is one of those games where everyone knows each other. It's, huge battle, and I think it's one of the biggest ones in the country.
On Texas-Oklahoma serving as a reminder heading into the game: Our biggest thing is block out the noise, throw everything out, don't look at it, just be us. We go out there, we play one play at a time, and we make it all about us: our details, our communication, our alignment, doing our job, playing with technique, swarming to the football, playing physical at the point of attack, playing together, all 11 guys. That's always the number one message. We got to play together, we got to do it as a unit for 60 minutes, one play at a time, over and over and over again. It's one of those games, there’s an opportunity they can make a play. It’s how do we respond to that play? How do we go about it? And, last year this was one of those ones I thought we played really well for three quarters, and the fourth quarter, we have to play better to close that game out. And, that's the biggest thing I remember from that game last year was getting back to the locker room, you know, that feeling that we had of not closing out the game. We got to do a really good job playing 60 minutes because I think this is a very good football team. I think the quarterback’s dangerous. I think they have a really good backfield. I think the wide receivers do a really good job. The boundary wide receiver is a big-time player. I met the coach against him two years ago, I think at USC last year. He makes a huge fourth down play, keeps a drive alive. He made a couple really good plays in that game. The slot is dangerous. I just think they have a lot of different guys that can do can take the top off, can catch, can test the one-on-one throws, can break tackles at the line of scrimmage, quarterback can extend plays. And I think, we got to show up and we got to play start to finish really well.
