Miami Hurricanes defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman is back at the helm as he prepares for Week 1 against Stanford. He spoke to the media today, here is everything he had to say about the upcoming matchup:
On learning more about Stanford after Week 0: Every year, first couple games, it's always who are they? What did they change, personnel, coordinator? What did they pick up this offseason? So it always helps get more tape, always helps to get ahead with, seeing them, what they did this past week. But, it's still early in the season. Things change. They set certain plays up, they set certain looks up, or, you know, as we go ahead, things may not have come out in that first game. So early on in the game, we have to figure out, different formations, different motions, different schemes up front, what they're doing, and we'll get a feel for it to them.
On what stood out about Stanford: It's a veteran group, especially up front. Offensive line, tight end, quarterback, backs are guys that have played a lot of college football. They have a feel. I think they have guys that can take the top off. They move very well, and then you can see they're very well coached. It's a disciplined team. They're very well coached. They did a really good job executing. I thought as the game went on, they put themselves in some early good spots, and at the end they went down the field and won the game.
On Micah Ford and Davis Warren: I think Ford, he's a guy we saw last year. I think he's a very talented player, leading rusher coming back. I think he does a lot of really good things out of the backfield. I think he runs with good— he's a big back who runs with high pads. He runs through the first tackler. He creates opportunities to make the first guy miss. Gets some of those hidden yards, which keeps them on track, keeps them ahead of the sticks. And anytime you have a back like that, you gotta make sure you get him on the feet, you gotta tackle him, you gotta swarm, you gotta get guys to the football to make sure we can take away those hidden yards and the extra efforts. And, you know, the quarterback's a guy that's played college football. He started nine games. He's played in some of the biggest environments. He has some really good wins, and you can tell he's got a good feel, good control of the offense right now. They've done a great job developing him in the offseason and playing together with his teammates and, connecting there. I thought right from the start it looked like he had a really good feel and control of it. He's got to run up and have to get after all day.
On carrying over Miami's defensive mentality: Yeah, I think that's always, we want to make teams one-dimensional. Stopping the run is always what we want to do on defense. We want to try to make teams one-dimensional. We want to get behind the sticks. We want to get advantages to get pass rush to them, to get them off track on third and long tracks. That's one of the things that we have to do. It's going to be our technique. It's going to be our fundamentals, how we get off the football, our pre-snap communication, how we get aligned, and then how physical we play, play attack, and how well we swarm. And that's a non-negotiable here. We got to play hard and we got to make sure we're stopping the run.
On Miami's defensive fundamentals: I think every single day our guys get better, just in all these techniques: their get-offs, their ground pads, it's their hand placements, their techniques, their gap level. It's constricting gaps. It's squeezing blocks. It's tearing off and finishing. I think our guys continue to get better and better, and I think our coaches do a really good job of teaching those fundamentals. And, when we go into film sessions, it's almost, especially for something like that, it's almost boring because we're not talking X's and O's. We're not talking, Hey, you got to be here on this play. It's, No, this is how you defeat a block. This is how we get off the ball. This is where our pad level needs to be. This is where our hand placement needs to be. And it's just the same, you know, boring fundamentals and technique details of it every single play. And I think, you know, it's showing up more and more, whether it's a walkthrough, it's a team period, it's a scout period, whatever it is. You can see our guys continuing to get better at it every single day, being more detailed and doing their job.
On JJ Dunnigan: He's had a really good camp. He had, once again, another pick again today, three picks the other day. He's a guy, you know, last year we talked about Bryce Fitzgerald early on in camp. He always found the ball. He loves football. He competes every single play. The ball just seems to find him. Today, he picked off, high-pointed a ball, picked it off, went and attacked, and he worked up the sideline. So he's a guy, he's had a really good camp. I'm excited to see him get an opportunity on the field.
On the advantage of having Stanford film: It helps having a game, helps seeing, what do they look like this year. Everything was watching players, with a different coaching staff last year, some different coaches last year, you know, how they developed this offseason, weight they put on, how much faster they've gotten, the way they've grown together, how they adapt to a new scheme or, you know, slight changes in a scheme. So that's a little bit of an advantage, but they've also gone out, played a different color jersey, and they played tackle football. We've been playing against ourselves in practice every single day, so now you have to go to a different environment and tackle a player that you don't know or we haven't seen in a year with someone. So our guys need to start fast. When we practice, we go through certain periods. It's a whistle tempo, or it's a thud tempo, or when we're locking up to go live, if we go live, we've got to make sure we're tackling because you don't get a lot of chances to do that in college football. That was one of the big emphasises. Last week, same thing in practice, we're out there, you got to make sure we're swearing up the ball carrier, fighting the ball and driving him back, coming in at an angle, working my leverage and my angle to a rapid ball. Our swarm's got to get there, but you can never anticipate in practice. Everyone's like, Oh, he made the tackle. Well, no, that's not the case. We have to have three or four with the ball up, and we have to work on our swarm to a pre-step at all times. And that's where, you know, they have that advantage of playing that first game, of going and seeing Hawaii and getting that environment. We got to come out fast and get our feet kind of settled in right away as we start. Last two for Coach.
On learning more about Stanford after Week 0: Every year, first couple games, it's always who are they? What did they change, personnel, coordinator? What did they pick up this offseason? So it always helps get more tape, always helps to get ahead with, seeing them, what they did this past week. But, it's still early in the season. Things change. They set certain plays up, they set certain looks up, or, you know, as we go ahead, things may not have come out in that first game. So early on in the game, we have to figure out, different formations, different motions, different schemes up front, what they're doing, and we'll get a feel for it to them.
On what stood out about Stanford: It's a veteran group, especially up front. Offensive line, tight end, quarterback, backs are guys that have played a lot of college football. They have a feel. I think they have guys that can take the top off. They move very well, and then you can see they're very well coached. It's a disciplined team. They're very well coached. They did a really good job executing. I thought as the game went on, they put themselves in some early good spots, and at the end they went down the field and won the game.
On Micah Ford and Davis Warren: I think Ford, he's a guy we saw last year. I think he's a very talented player, leading rusher coming back. I think he does a lot of really good things out of the backfield. I think he runs with good— he's a big back who runs with high pads. He runs through the first tackler. He creates opportunities to make the first guy miss. Gets some of those hidden yards, which keeps them on track, keeps them ahead of the sticks. And anytime you have a back like that, you gotta make sure you get him on the feet, you gotta tackle him, you gotta swarm, you gotta get guys to the football to make sure we can take away those hidden yards and the extra efforts. And, you know, the quarterback's a guy that's played college football. He started nine games. He's played in some of the biggest environments. He has some really good wins, and you can tell he's got a good feel, good control of the offense right now. They've done a great job developing him in the offseason and playing together with his teammates and, connecting there. I thought right from the start it looked like he had a really good feel and control of it. He's got to run up and have to get after all day.
On carrying over Miami's defensive mentality: Yeah, I think that's always, we want to make teams one-dimensional. Stopping the run is always what we want to do on defense. We want to try to make teams one-dimensional. We want to get behind the sticks. We want to get advantages to get pass rush to them, to get them off track on third and long tracks. That's one of the things that we have to do. It's going to be our technique. It's going to be our fundamentals, how we get off the football, our pre-snap communication, how we get aligned, and then how physical we play, play attack, and how well we swarm. And that's a non-negotiable here. We got to play hard and we got to make sure we're stopping the run.
On Miami's defensive fundamentals: I think every single day our guys get better, just in all these techniques: their get-offs, their ground pads, it's their hand placements, their techniques, their gap level. It's constricting gaps. It's squeezing blocks. It's tearing off and finishing. I think our guys continue to get better and better, and I think our coaches do a really good job of teaching those fundamentals. And, when we go into film sessions, it's almost, especially for something like that, it's almost boring because we're not talking X's and O's. We're not talking, Hey, you got to be here on this play. It's, No, this is how you defeat a block. This is how we get off the ball. This is where our pad level needs to be. This is where our hand placement needs to be. And it's just the same, you know, boring fundamentals and technique details of it every single play. And I think, you know, it's showing up more and more, whether it's a walkthrough, it's a team period, it's a scout period, whatever it is. You can see our guys continuing to get better at it every single day, being more detailed and doing their job.
On JJ Dunnigan: He's had a really good camp. He had, once again, another pick again today, three picks the other day. He's a guy, you know, last year we talked about Bryce Fitzgerald early on in camp. He always found the ball. He loves football. He competes every single play. The ball just seems to find him. Today, he picked off, high-pointed a ball, picked it off, went and attacked, and he worked up the sideline. So he's a guy, he's had a really good camp. I'm excited to see him get an opportunity on the field.
On the advantage of having Stanford film: It helps having a game, helps seeing, what do they look like this year. Everything was watching players, with a different coaching staff last year, some different coaches last year, you know, how they developed this offseason, weight they put on, how much faster they've gotten, the way they've grown together, how they adapt to a new scheme or, you know, slight changes in a scheme. So that's a little bit of an advantage, but they've also gone out, played a different color jersey, and they played tackle football. We've been playing against ourselves in practice every single day, so now you have to go to a different environment and tackle a player that you don't know or we haven't seen in a year with someone. So our guys need to start fast. When we practice, we go through certain periods. It's a whistle tempo, or it's a thud tempo, or when we're locking up to go live, if we go live, we've got to make sure we're tackling because you don't get a lot of chances to do that in college football. That was one of the big emphasises. Last week, same thing in practice, we're out there, you got to make sure we're swearing up the ball carrier, fighting the ball and driving him back, coming in at an angle, working my leverage and my angle to a rapid ball. Our swarm's got to get there, but you can never anticipate in practice. Everyone's like, Oh, he made the tackle. Well, no, that's not the case. We have to have three or four with the ball up, and we have to work on our swarm to a pre-step at all times. And that's where, you know, they have that advantage of playing that first game, of going and seeing Hawaii and getting that environment. We got to come out fast and get our feet kind of settled in right away as we start. Last two for Coach.
