It's no secret that Miami needed a change in their coaching staff at the conclusion of a loss to Iowa State in the Pop-Tarts Bowl. They did make that change as Mario Cristobal fired Lance Guidry right before New Year's.
The Canes have a new DC:
— Five Reasons Sports 🏀🏈⚾️🏒⚽️ (@5ReasonsSports) January 11, 2025
Corey Hetherman
He helped the Gophers in YPG and PPG.
In 2024 they were:
5th in YPG
9th in PPG pic.twitter.com/6IRDNhiT2p
Now, they have filled the void with a very intriguing assistant at the FBS level. On Saturday, it was announced that Corey Hetherman will leave Minnesota after just one season to move to Coral Gables.
This has been a shock to many. Hetherman just signed a contract extension and a raise with the Golden Gophers to remain as P.J. Fleck's defensive coordinator. Hetherman's arrival to the 'Magic City' is a breath of fresh air for Hurricanes supporters. In 2024, Miami had one of the worst defenses in the nation. While the overall numbers don't say that, the unit let the dynamic offense, down.
The biggest reason as to why the Canes failed to make the College Football Playoff was that the defense just couldn't get a stop when needed. There's a reason why the team needed to come back from a 25-point deficit against Cal. Cam Ward and the offense needed to be in shootouts against teams such as Virginia Tech, Louisville, and even Duke before they ran away at the end.
Even the Pop-Tarts Bowl was a high-scoring affair, even though Cam Ward sat in the second half. Of course, the unit's biggest failure was in the game they had to win the most. In the regular-season finale against Syracuse, UM jumped out to a 21-0 lead, only for the defense to give up the game and a spot in the ACC Championship, due to getting burned by Kyle McCord all afternoon long. As a result, Miami's 2024 season is considered as a 'successful failure'.
Here is a look at Miami's 2024 defensive numbers and national rankings:
Category | Total, Per Game Average, or Percentage | National Ranking |
|---|---|---|
Takeaways | 18 | T-58th |
Sacks | 36 | T-20th |
Tackles For Loss | 84 | T-34th |
Scoring Defense | 25.3 PPG | T-68th |
Rushing Defense | 112.77 YPG | T-19th |
Passing Defense | 214.4 YPG | 57th |
Total Defense | 327.2 YPG | 27th |
Opponent First Downs | 18.4 Per Game | 38th |
Passes Defended | 4.62 Per Game | T-42nd |
Opponent 3rd Down Conversions | 36.59% | T-44th |
Opponent 4th Down Conversions | 57.14% | T-91st |
Opponent Red Zone Conversions | 82.50% | 66th |
As you can see, while some of these categories, such as the rushing defense, sacks, and TFLs, rank decently, the overall production of the unit was lackluster. Just face it. This was a mediocre group that couldn't do nothing right. Was it always the players' fault? No. Was the defense's struggles due to a lack of talent? Absolutely not. Did lots of the terrible play result from bad coaching? Correct. Now, they won't have to worry about hindering the potential of the 2025 season.
For contrast, here are Minnesota's national rankings in each of the same categories on defense:
Category | Total, Per Game Average, or Percentage | National Ranking |
|---|---|---|
Takeaways | 21 | T-36th |
Sacks | 28 | T-50th |
Tackles For Loss | 66 | T-83rd |
Scoring Defense | 16.9 PPG | 9th |
Rushing Defense | 109.62 YPG | 12th |
Passing Defense | 176.1 YPG | T-9th |
Total Defense | 285.7 YPG | 5th |
Opponent First Downs | 16 Per Game | 3rd |
Passes Defended | 5.85 Per Game | T-2nd |
Opponent 3rd Down Conversions | 38.95% | 68th |
Opponent 4th Down Conversions | 41.18% | 15th |
Opponent Red Zone Conversions | 76.47% | 23rd |
As you can see, Minnesota's defensive unit was great. Despite a mediocre 8-5 record, it was Hetherman's ability to coach the defense that led the Gophers through the season and a win in the Duke's Mayo Bowl. The most impressive number is the total defense, which ranked fifth in the nation. Only Ohio State and Indiana had higher ranked defenses from the Big Ten.
To put Hetherman's coaching ability into context, Minnesota ranked 56th in the nation the year before for total defense. That's a massive improvement. Hetherman's journey towards this position is a great and intriguing one. His career actually started on the opposite side of the ball. As a player, Hetherman played quarterback in Massachusetts for Fitchburg State at the D3 level from 2003 to 2005.
In 2006, he became the QB coach for his alma mater. In between 2006 and 2007, he sevred three different jobs. Hetherman was the offensive coordinator for two overseas teams, the Carinthian Black Lions and Wuerzburg Panthers. He was also an intern King's College in Pennsylvania. From there the Massachustetts native became a graduate assistant at Springfield College. His first D1 job came with the now defunct Northeastern football program in 2010.
It was also his first defensive position as he was a linebackers coach. The man also spent a part of that year with another D3 program, Western New England. From 2011 to 2013, he was at Old Dominion for the same position. He then moved back down to the D2 level and earned his first defensive coordinator role with Pace University for a year. In 2015, it was right back up to the FCS level with Maine.
Hetherman was there for four years and became the Black Bears' defensive coordinator in 2016. In 2019, he moved on the James Madison and was there DC for three seasons, even winning the AFCA Assistant Coach of the Year in 2021. In 2022 and 2023, he served as the linebackers coach for Rutgers before spending last year at Minnesota. Miami is getting a gem here and it's expected that their defense will be much better in 2025.