Miami Hurricanes defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman spoke with the media ahead of Miami's Week 2 game against the FAMU Rattlers. He reflected on the Hurricanes win against Stanford and the upcoming game against FAMU.
Check out everything he had to say during his Monday Press Conference down below:
On OJ Frederique and the defensive back group: Yeah, obviously OJ is a very talented player. For us, I think we have a lot of really talented players, and, we'll change things up. Different things coverage-wise, different things in different areas, but, I think we're going to continue to attack offensively the way we do. So I think we have a lot of really talented players that will step up.
On what he wanted to improve on from last season: Just in general, I think we play faster. You know, that was the number one message to our team, improve the way we rush the football, the way we get out of the stack, the way we get the hats to the football. We want to continue to play more physical. I thought we did a good job stopping the run. They convert in the second drive of the game, they have a third seven, midfield. I want to get out of the... They burn that. That's a good job. One guy missed. You want to change up that call next time, but, you know, that one kind of hurt us. And the two-minute drill before half, we just weren't very disciplined with our technique, our fundamentals. Same thing, probably would have called it a little bit different having back, but not having that on tape, not seeing what they can do in that situation. The week before against Hawaii they did something similar, not the exact same. So, it's kind of something as a defense, myself, I learn from it, players will learn from it, play a little bit more sound technique, understanding what we're trying to take away in that situation. But I thought our guys played hard. I think just fundamentals, technique, little things situationally, overall, you know, we'll continue to get better.
On the defensive line: I thought those guys did a really good job. I thought the D-line in general did a really good job of making them one-dimensional, stopping the run, getting them into, off-track situations where we get after the quarterback.
On the red-zone defense: Yeah, I think that's the number one thing. They go down there twice, both times, did a really good job of keeping points off the board, forcing them to kick field goals. Second drive of the game, I thought that was a really good play. We knew the Y-high was coming, they ran it a little bit further out than we anticipated, but we did a really good job of getting out of it, missed the initially, Speed turned out of it and almost cut the ball out, made a really good play to keep it by the end zone, and, the run defense really stepped up there on first down, forced two passes where we got off, and it helped do a field goal. And the two-minute drill, they go down the field, they had a couple chunk plays, a little undisciplined with our depth in our coverage. We were trying to mix it up a little bit, but our guys really stepped it up. They tried to run it on first down. Our D-line did a really good job collapsing it second, third down. I thought the secondary really stepped up, played through their windows and lanes. I thought they were really disciplined with their eyes, so it was good to keep the touchdowns off the board.
On the underclassmen playing: Yeah, I think we played 29 guys on defense, and, I think just in general, at every level there were guys that stepped up. I thought Jarquez and Keona were guys that stepped up and played really well up front at D-line. I thought the D-ends in general, really happy. Like Scroggins is a guy that is always in the right spot, always does the right things. He did last year. It was really good to see him coming back from an injury, stepping up in those situations. The young linebackers, I was happy with some of those guys getting a chance to play some football. I thought [Kamal] Bonner played well. [Kellen] Wiley, [Cam] Pruitt, those guys stepped up in those situations. There were a bunch of different guys in different situations. There were a lot of guys that played some good disciplined football. The techniques will continue to get better and coach them up on some of the different looks. But, played 29 guys in an ACC game for the opener on the road. I thought we were really happy with that, and we continue to build on that.
On Damon Wilson: Yeah, we're really happy with that. He continued to build on. I thought, um, the coaching, the way he takes it, the way he responds to certain things, the play he makes in the red zone on that third down to collapse the pocket, match the hand. He gets a really good PBU. They had a third, it's like a third and 20, and they try to run like a split zone where, more of a pass coverage personnel, and they run split zone, and he kind of destroys the tight end, which was awesome to see, puts him right back in the life, against a tackle zero. I thought he played much more physical. I thought he used his hands really well. I thought his pass rush got better and better as the game went on. Really got a good feel for it. We had him on third and nine, I think it was, they had like an 11-play drive there in the third or fourth quarter, and he gets a face mask, but I thought it was a really good pass rush. He kind of set it up earlier, hit a really good move right there and just kind of got caught in the face mask. But, I think his game's gonna continue to get better and better every single week, but we're excited about it.
On Omar Thornton: Yeah, I think he's a physical football player. He's a smart football player. He's got good awareness. Just he's had a lot of reps. So, you can play man-to-man with him. You can blitz him. You can fit him in the box. You can play him on the edges. You can buzz him to the flat. We did a lot of different things with him in that game. You know, it's probably a little bit more similar to, like, Jakobe last year. It's a little bit like Keionte. He's a different player than both of them, but it allows us to do a lot of things. It gives us a lot of versatility. One play he's playing on the corner, he's lined up on number one, and the next time he's in the B-gap. So it just gives us so many different things to do, and the energy he brings to the defense, I just love when he practices. He flies around, you know, no matter what it is, first down, second down, third down, red zone.
Check out everything he had to say during his Monday Press Conference down below:
On OJ Frederique and the defensive back group: Yeah, obviously OJ is a very talented player. For us, I think we have a lot of really talented players, and, we'll change things up. Different things coverage-wise, different things in different areas, but, I think we're going to continue to attack offensively the way we do. So I think we have a lot of really talented players that will step up.
On what he wanted to improve on from last season: Just in general, I think we play faster. You know, that was the number one message to our team, improve the way we rush the football, the way we get out of the stack, the way we get the hats to the football. We want to continue to play more physical. I thought we did a good job stopping the run. They convert in the second drive of the game, they have a third seven, midfield. I want to get out of the... They burn that. That's a good job. One guy missed. You want to change up that call next time, but, you know, that one kind of hurt us. And the two-minute drill before half, we just weren't very disciplined with our technique, our fundamentals. Same thing, probably would have called it a little bit different having back, but not having that on tape, not seeing what they can do in that situation. The week before against Hawaii they did something similar, not the exact same. So, it's kind of something as a defense, myself, I learn from it, players will learn from it, play a little bit more sound technique, understanding what we're trying to take away in that situation. But I thought our guys played hard. I think just fundamentals, technique, little things situationally, overall, you know, we'll continue to get better.
On the defensive line: I thought those guys did a really good job. I thought the D-line in general did a really good job of making them one-dimensional, stopping the run, getting them into, off-track situations where we get after the quarterback.
On the red-zone defense: Yeah, I think that's the number one thing. They go down there twice, both times, did a really good job of keeping points off the board, forcing them to kick field goals. Second drive of the game, I thought that was a really good play. We knew the Y-high was coming, they ran it a little bit further out than we anticipated, but we did a really good job of getting out of it, missed the initially, Speed turned out of it and almost cut the ball out, made a really good play to keep it by the end zone, and, the run defense really stepped up there on first down, forced two passes where we got off, and it helped do a field goal. And the two-minute drill, they go down the field, they had a couple chunk plays, a little undisciplined with our depth in our coverage. We were trying to mix it up a little bit, but our guys really stepped it up. They tried to run it on first down. Our D-line did a really good job collapsing it second, third down. I thought the secondary really stepped up, played through their windows and lanes. I thought they were really disciplined with their eyes, so it was good to keep the touchdowns off the board.
On the underclassmen playing: Yeah, I think we played 29 guys on defense, and, I think just in general, at every level there were guys that stepped up. I thought Jarquez and Keona were guys that stepped up and played really well up front at D-line. I thought the D-ends in general, really happy. Like Scroggins is a guy that is always in the right spot, always does the right things. He did last year. It was really good to see him coming back from an injury, stepping up in those situations. The young linebackers, I was happy with some of those guys getting a chance to play some football. I thought [Kamal] Bonner played well. [Kellen] Wiley, [Cam] Pruitt, those guys stepped up in those situations. There were a bunch of different guys in different situations. There were a lot of guys that played some good disciplined football. The techniques will continue to get better and coach them up on some of the different looks. But, played 29 guys in an ACC game for the opener on the road. I thought we were really happy with that, and we continue to build on that.
On Damon Wilson: Yeah, we're really happy with that. He continued to build on. I thought, um, the coaching, the way he takes it, the way he responds to certain things, the play he makes in the red zone on that third down to collapse the pocket, match the hand. He gets a really good PBU. They had a third, it's like a third and 20, and they try to run like a split zone where, more of a pass coverage personnel, and they run split zone, and he kind of destroys the tight end, which was awesome to see, puts him right back in the life, against a tackle zero. I thought he played much more physical. I thought he used his hands really well. I thought his pass rush got better and better as the game went on. Really got a good feel for it. We had him on third and nine, I think it was, they had like an 11-play drive there in the third or fourth quarter, and he gets a face mask, but I thought it was a really good pass rush. He kind of set it up earlier, hit a really good move right there and just kind of got caught in the face mask. But, I think his game's gonna continue to get better and better every single week, but we're excited about it.
On Omar Thornton: Yeah, I think he's a physical football player. He's a smart football player. He's got good awareness. Just he's had a lot of reps. So, you can play man-to-man with him. You can blitz him. You can fit him in the box. You can play him on the edges. You can buzz him to the flat. We did a lot of different things with him in that game. You know, it's probably a little bit more similar to, like, Jakobe last year. It's a little bit like Keionte. He's a different player than both of them, but it allows us to do a lot of things. It gives us a lot of versatility. One play he's playing on the corner, he's lined up on number one, and the next time he's in the B-gap. So it just gives us so many different things to do, and the energy he brings to the defense, I just love when he practices. He flies around, you know, no matter what it is, first down, second down, third down, red zone.
