Defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman and the Miami Hurricanes are now preparing for the Pittsburgh Panthers after the team was victorious this past weekend over the Florida State Seminoles 43-35 in double-overtime at Hard Rock Stadium.
Before we turn our attention to the Panthers, Hetherman spoke to the media ahead of Saturday's game to recap the win over the Seminoles. Check out everything he had to say down below:
On Xavier Lucas coming back: I think he played really well. Early in the game, I thought, did a really good job, detailed, won at the line of scrimmage, won his one-on-ones early, and then I think end of the game, obviously, just got to finish stronger there. I think that's one of the things we got to rotate guys, got to play guys a little bit more in those situations. But I think for a guy coming off an injury and not having practiced really four or five weeks there and coming back and getting thrown in that environment, I thought, we were really happy with how he played early.
On rotating DB's after losing Zechariah Poyser early in the game due to targeting: We go through practice and we have a plan and, play two or three. Fitz goes down for a little while, so really limited what he did, play rep-wise, play count-wise. Poyser gets the targeting penalty, Dunnigan goes down at one point in the game. We're moving a lot of different pieces around, a lot of different guys are playing, and I think it changes a little bit how you call it, changes a little bit how you attack teams. And the biggest thing, we kind of noticed the other night was just, like, how comfortable some of the guys were communicating and working together when maybe they hadn't worked together for two weeks or three weeks, or some of the guys that were brand new working together out there. And that's one of the things we try to focus on. We try to get as many reps with it as we possibly can. We've had a lot of moving parts and, had a lot of moving parts again the other night. It caught up to us a little bit.
On fourth down defense: Yeah, and I think our guys respond really well. And, the thing we got to clean up is third down defense. It was one of those things where early in the game we got stops, but we lost field position. And that's one of those things, third and eight, we hit a flyby against a quarterback that we know is a very good scrambler. You know, we're playing a cover two look, and he gets out of the pocket and he scrambles for a first down. Then we bring another similar look where, we're not very detailed in the pocket and we lose ZP, because of a targeting call. There was a third down, we come clean on the game and we have 30 guys and we're looking in the backfield and we lose our one-on-one. There's a third and 18, we're off the field and we get a face mask. It was just different things came up. It was a third and eight and we get beat on a vertical. Bad call by me. I watch them spot the ball. I saw the package. They move the ball back two yards and all of a sudden it's a different call. I want to be in. They're up ready to snap the ball and that's on me. It was a bad call in that situation. And, I thought the ball was spotted a different spot. And, just it happened a little bit the other night where, we got to execute a little bit better and we make those stops, then all of a sudden we're not making fourth down stops in the red zone. And then we put our offense in a really bad spot. I think our starting field position early in the game was at the minus eight-yard line. We put those guys in a tough spot on that side. You know, it's good we kept points off the board. It's really good that we got the stops. But, it came back to hurt us because then the next drive we get the face mask, the next play they hit a screen for a touchdown. The next drive we have back-to-back penalties on special teams, they get the ball on the 15-yard line. So it came back and hurt us where they got points there. And that's a situation, we got a lot of excitement, we make some good plays, but we got to continue to build on that. We got to continue to be a little bit smarter situationally, where we can help get teams behind the sticks and then we got to finish once we get them behind the sticks. Especially the other night, second downs also. We had a lot of second-eight-pluses in that game. We got to execute a little bit better in that situation to help keep them off the field.
On what Ashton Daniels did different from the other dual-threat quarterback the team has played: Yeah, I think he moves really well. We got to be detailed. I think third had one, I think Lightfoot had one, I think a couple guys had opportunities where we go sweep the ankle. We're aiming for the front cleat. We're a little bit more detailed. We elongate it out. We land on our back or probably clip in the ankle, we probably make the play. We're lunging, we're diving a little bit too much. I think our angles, we got to do a better job of that. But he threw the ball really well on the run. He made some plays. He kept his eyes down the field. There were times we did a really good job of pushing the coverage, and that was a major emphasis from the week before, where multiple times we came out of coverage in zone on scrambles and they kind of picked us apart in that. So we got that cleaned up from the week ago, but this week, I thought he made some throws, he made some good plays, and, you know, something that we had to continue to fix. And that's where, there were times we brought four-man rush, where we thought when we had the extra guy, we kind of pulled him up a little bit just in that game plan. And that'll be different week to week, you know, how we attack it. But he's a good football player. I mean, there's a reason why he's been a college football starter for a while. I think he did a really good job the other night. He handled pressure, we hit him early, and, he continued to step up and make plays, and he did it all the way through the game. And, we got to continue to affect the quarterback. We got to be a little bit more detailed in our rush.
On the linebacker room: I thought they played really well the other night.I thought Chase played really well two games ago against Clemson. I thought that was his best game of the year. Mo played extremely physical the other night. You know, we got to be a little bit more detailed up front inside. The other night they did a really good job of working some double teams on some counter and some power schemes where they got up and they had a hat for a hat for the linebackers. There's two that I'm still trying to figure out how the ball didn't split us, and Mo goes right through the puller, knocks him back, makes the tackle. They were very, very good football plays. The first screen they do, Mo goes and absolutely blows the guy up. I think it's the center, and, throws him right back into the play and we make the play. You know, we need to do that a little bit more throughout the night. And then I think Chase is executing at a high level. There was a, the other night a couple times he had 30 guys in coverage. We got to clean up his eyes, get him back on the quarterback. But overall they're fitting the run really well. I think they're playing very confident right now, and I think as the season keeps going along, they're going to continue to play better and better. And I think when they rotate in with different guys, I think they help pick everyone up and play pretty good in there.
On Bryce Fitzgerald stepping up as a leader: Obviously you play him at corner, you play him at nickel, you play him at safety, you play him in packages. He's very smart. He's a very good football player. There's a reason why, he's got really good skill set. He was a good high school player on offense, played multiple sports, good basketball player. Like he's got a really good feel for things. He's got a really good understanding of what teams are doing, how they're trying to attack you. He's alert, he's alert for like different motions and shifts and what they're trying to get into, and he's got good pre-snap awareness. You can see his communication's getting better and better. Yeah, he's a guy that, I think I'm excited for where he keeps going. Going through right now, we're watching Pitt. And, you know, last year's a game where we played him a little bit at nickel, we played him a little bit at safety, we did some package stuff with him. We moved him around a little bit more than we had to that point in the season. You can see how much more his game has grown since then. He has a sack in that game, he has a couple big plays, he has a pick. We just watched the pick at the end of the game, but, he's a better and better player. We got to keep getting him healthy. We got to keep getting him, you know, every single week, a little bit more detailed with some of the things we do, especially with tackling and the block destruction as we fit things up and the swarm. The one screen I was a little upset. I want him to put his foot in the ground and get over the top. I think he makes a touchdown-saving tackle if he gets over the top. Those are the things where, like, we've been very good in the red zone. We have a shot if we make those plays, we're going to get more. We're going to hold to sevens to threes and we're going to get a takeaway. The other night we took 14 points off the board down there, and those are the little things, like, we're continuing to push him with his game.
On JJ Dunnigan smart move on the fumble recovery: Yeah, it's an unbelievably smart play. Just awareness, situation, what's going on, to do that in that moment, that's a big-time play. And that changes the entire game. Because, I mean, at that point, we came out, they ripped, I think it was like an 12-yard pass, then they ripped a run for 24 yards, and, it's a great job by Ethan being obsessed with the football, going stealth punch, getting that thing out, and then the awareness by J.J. to get it away, and then the guys run to the ball swarm, just out-efforting them on that play to go get the football and get the ball back to our offense to go down and take the lead was huge.
On Pittsburgh film: Yeah, I think, they got really good skill. I think the back is very dynamic. I think their offensive line does a good job of winning at the line of scrimmage, creating some seams and opening some gaps. They're very well coached. You can see the detail in their scheme, how they try to attack you. They do some really difficult things on film. It's where we're coming from right now, going to be a longer night than usual, trying to figure out how to take some of this stuff away and how to scheme some of the different things that they're doing to put our guys in the best spot to be successful. And they got some young kids. They got some young guys. The back runs really hard. They play two or three guys there that do a really good job. The quarterback's, you know, obviously been a couple different guys the last couple weeks. We'll find out who we see. I know they started a true freshman last week. You can see he's still trying to get used to the system. They probably had to maybe do a little bit less pre-snap than they had done with him in there. But, the offensive line does a really good job. I think they ran for 199 last week. A couple weeks ago they really ran the ball well. I think that we got to make sure we try to make them one-dimensional. We got to stop the run. We got to try to slow down the backs. And then, the wide receivers can take the top off at any point. Last week they run the quarters beat on play one, they take the top off. Local guy from Miami Central, so I'm sure he'll be excited to come back home and play down here. They got a lot of guys from down Florida. They'll be excited to come back home and play. And, you know, we got to do a great job of eliminating big plays. And that was the biggest thing that caught up to us this week. Going into the game this weekend, we gave up two plays over 25 yards. We gave up four. And that's something that, that's why we kept points off the board, and that's why this weekend we didn't keep points off the board. And it was tackling, it was details, it was discipline with our eyes, it was containing the quarterback, just little situations like that. And this is a team that, they're explosive. They have a lot of big plays. They have a lot of plays down the field. We got to be very disciplined. We got to be detailed with our eyes. We got to do a great job both against the run and in the vertical passing game.
Before we turn our attention to the Panthers, Hetherman spoke to the media ahead of Saturday's game to recap the win over the Seminoles. Check out everything he had to say down below:
On Xavier Lucas coming back: I think he played really well. Early in the game, I thought, did a really good job, detailed, won at the line of scrimmage, won his one-on-ones early, and then I think end of the game, obviously, just got to finish stronger there. I think that's one of the things we got to rotate guys, got to play guys a little bit more in those situations. But I think for a guy coming off an injury and not having practiced really four or five weeks there and coming back and getting thrown in that environment, I thought, we were really happy with how he played early.
On rotating DB's after losing Zechariah Poyser early in the game due to targeting: We go through practice and we have a plan and, play two or three. Fitz goes down for a little while, so really limited what he did, play rep-wise, play count-wise. Poyser gets the targeting penalty, Dunnigan goes down at one point in the game. We're moving a lot of different pieces around, a lot of different guys are playing, and I think it changes a little bit how you call it, changes a little bit how you attack teams. And the biggest thing, we kind of noticed the other night was just, like, how comfortable some of the guys were communicating and working together when maybe they hadn't worked together for two weeks or three weeks, or some of the guys that were brand new working together out there. And that's one of the things we try to focus on. We try to get as many reps with it as we possibly can. We've had a lot of moving parts and, had a lot of moving parts again the other night. It caught up to us a little bit.
On fourth down defense: Yeah, and I think our guys respond really well. And, the thing we got to clean up is third down defense. It was one of those things where early in the game we got stops, but we lost field position. And that's one of those things, third and eight, we hit a flyby against a quarterback that we know is a very good scrambler. You know, we're playing a cover two look, and he gets out of the pocket and he scrambles for a first down. Then we bring another similar look where, we're not very detailed in the pocket and we lose ZP, because of a targeting call. There was a third down, we come clean on the game and we have 30 guys and we're looking in the backfield and we lose our one-on-one. There's a third and 18, we're off the field and we get a face mask. It was just different things came up. It was a third and eight and we get beat on a vertical. Bad call by me. I watch them spot the ball. I saw the package. They move the ball back two yards and all of a sudden it's a different call. I want to be in. They're up ready to snap the ball and that's on me. It was a bad call in that situation. And, I thought the ball was spotted a different spot. And, just it happened a little bit the other night where, we got to execute a little bit better and we make those stops, then all of a sudden we're not making fourth down stops in the red zone. And then we put our offense in a really bad spot. I think our starting field position early in the game was at the minus eight-yard line. We put those guys in a tough spot on that side. You know, it's good we kept points off the board. It's really good that we got the stops. But, it came back to hurt us because then the next drive we get the face mask, the next play they hit a screen for a touchdown. The next drive we have back-to-back penalties on special teams, they get the ball on the 15-yard line. So it came back and hurt us where they got points there. And that's a situation, we got a lot of excitement, we make some good plays, but we got to continue to build on that. We got to continue to be a little bit smarter situationally, where we can help get teams behind the sticks and then we got to finish once we get them behind the sticks. Especially the other night, second downs also. We had a lot of second-eight-pluses in that game. We got to execute a little bit better in that situation to help keep them off the field.
On what Ashton Daniels did different from the other dual-threat quarterback the team has played: Yeah, I think he moves really well. We got to be detailed. I think third had one, I think Lightfoot had one, I think a couple guys had opportunities where we go sweep the ankle. We're aiming for the front cleat. We're a little bit more detailed. We elongate it out. We land on our back or probably clip in the ankle, we probably make the play. We're lunging, we're diving a little bit too much. I think our angles, we got to do a better job of that. But he threw the ball really well on the run. He made some plays. He kept his eyes down the field. There were times we did a really good job of pushing the coverage, and that was a major emphasis from the week before, where multiple times we came out of coverage in zone on scrambles and they kind of picked us apart in that. So we got that cleaned up from the week ago, but this week, I thought he made some throws, he made some good plays, and, you know, something that we had to continue to fix. And that's where, there were times we brought four-man rush, where we thought when we had the extra guy, we kind of pulled him up a little bit just in that game plan. And that'll be different week to week, you know, how we attack it. But he's a good football player. I mean, there's a reason why he's been a college football starter for a while. I think he did a really good job the other night. He handled pressure, we hit him early, and, he continued to step up and make plays, and he did it all the way through the game. And, we got to continue to affect the quarterback. We got to be a little bit more detailed in our rush.
On the linebacker room: I thought they played really well the other night.I thought Chase played really well two games ago against Clemson. I thought that was his best game of the year. Mo played extremely physical the other night. You know, we got to be a little bit more detailed up front inside. The other night they did a really good job of working some double teams on some counter and some power schemes where they got up and they had a hat for a hat for the linebackers. There's two that I'm still trying to figure out how the ball didn't split us, and Mo goes right through the puller, knocks him back, makes the tackle. They were very, very good football plays. The first screen they do, Mo goes and absolutely blows the guy up. I think it's the center, and, throws him right back into the play and we make the play. You know, we need to do that a little bit more throughout the night. And then I think Chase is executing at a high level. There was a, the other night a couple times he had 30 guys in coverage. We got to clean up his eyes, get him back on the quarterback. But overall they're fitting the run really well. I think they're playing very confident right now, and I think as the season keeps going along, they're going to continue to play better and better. And I think when they rotate in with different guys, I think they help pick everyone up and play pretty good in there.
On Bryce Fitzgerald stepping up as a leader: Obviously you play him at corner, you play him at nickel, you play him at safety, you play him in packages. He's very smart. He's a very good football player. There's a reason why, he's got really good skill set. He was a good high school player on offense, played multiple sports, good basketball player. Like he's got a really good feel for things. He's got a really good understanding of what teams are doing, how they're trying to attack you. He's alert, he's alert for like different motions and shifts and what they're trying to get into, and he's got good pre-snap awareness. You can see his communication's getting better and better. Yeah, he's a guy that, I think I'm excited for where he keeps going. Going through right now, we're watching Pitt. And, you know, last year's a game where we played him a little bit at nickel, we played him a little bit at safety, we did some package stuff with him. We moved him around a little bit more than we had to that point in the season. You can see how much more his game has grown since then. He has a sack in that game, he has a couple big plays, he has a pick. We just watched the pick at the end of the game, but, he's a better and better player. We got to keep getting him healthy. We got to keep getting him, you know, every single week, a little bit more detailed with some of the things we do, especially with tackling and the block destruction as we fit things up and the swarm. The one screen I was a little upset. I want him to put his foot in the ground and get over the top. I think he makes a touchdown-saving tackle if he gets over the top. Those are the things where, like, we've been very good in the red zone. We have a shot if we make those plays, we're going to get more. We're going to hold to sevens to threes and we're going to get a takeaway. The other night we took 14 points off the board down there, and those are the little things, like, we're continuing to push him with his game.
On JJ Dunnigan smart move on the fumble recovery: Yeah, it's an unbelievably smart play. Just awareness, situation, what's going on, to do that in that moment, that's a big-time play. And that changes the entire game. Because, I mean, at that point, we came out, they ripped, I think it was like an 12-yard pass, then they ripped a run for 24 yards, and, it's a great job by Ethan being obsessed with the football, going stealth punch, getting that thing out, and then the awareness by J.J. to get it away, and then the guys run to the ball swarm, just out-efforting them on that play to go get the football and get the ball back to our offense to go down and take the lead was huge.
On Pittsburgh film: Yeah, I think, they got really good skill. I think the back is very dynamic. I think their offensive line does a good job of winning at the line of scrimmage, creating some seams and opening some gaps. They're very well coached. You can see the detail in their scheme, how they try to attack you. They do some really difficult things on film. It's where we're coming from right now, going to be a longer night than usual, trying to figure out how to take some of this stuff away and how to scheme some of the different things that they're doing to put our guys in the best spot to be successful. And they got some young kids. They got some young guys. The back runs really hard. They play two or three guys there that do a really good job. The quarterback's, you know, obviously been a couple different guys the last couple weeks. We'll find out who we see. I know they started a true freshman last week. You can see he's still trying to get used to the system. They probably had to maybe do a little bit less pre-snap than they had done with him in there. But, the offensive line does a really good job. I think they ran for 199 last week. A couple weeks ago they really ran the ball well. I think that we got to make sure we try to make them one-dimensional. We got to stop the run. We got to try to slow down the backs. And then, the wide receivers can take the top off at any point. Last week they run the quarters beat on play one, they take the top off. Local guy from Miami Central, so I'm sure he'll be excited to come back home and play down here. They got a lot of guys from down Florida. They'll be excited to come back home and play. And, you know, we got to do a great job of eliminating big plays. And that was the biggest thing that caught up to us this week. Going into the game this weekend, we gave up two plays over 25 yards. We gave up four. And that's something that, that's why we kept points off the board, and that's why this weekend we didn't keep points off the board. And it was tackling, it was details, it was discipline with our eyes, it was containing the quarterback, just little situations like that. And this is a team that, they're explosive. They have a lot of big plays. They have a lot of plays down the field. We got to be very disciplined. We got to be detailed with our eyes. We got to do a great job both against the run and in the vertical passing game.
