'22 Missed Tackles' And Not Finishing Plays, Corey Hetherman Realigns His Troops for Notre Dame

CORAL GABLES, Fla. — All eyes are on defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman and No. 1 Miami's defense this week.

After allowing North Carolina to score on five of its seven drives, knowing the talent coming with CJ Carr and No. 4 Notre Dame, Hetherman has to find answers fast as the recent struggles of the Hurricanes' defense become concerning.

It wasn't an issue before the bye week after reviewing the Clemson film, but lingering seasonal issues took center stage against the Tar Heels.

All eyes on Corey Hetherman’s Defense against No. 4 Notre Dame

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— Eye of the Hurricanes (@CanesCentralSI) November 2, 2026

"I think the biggest thing for us, we didn't get them off track," Hetherman said reviewing the UNC Film. "You know, ike you go back and you look at like the third downs I think they had 11 third downs on the night I think six of them are third and one like one to three.

"You know, we didn't really get them off track early, and I thought we did a good job of stopping the run, but in the pass game, we didn't tackle. We went back and looked, and we had 22 missed tackles on defense for over 100 yards."

UM's defensive metrics have been positive in some aspects, but in others, they have struggled, especially in the secondary.

Miami's Current Defensive Rankings:

1st against the run, allowing 64.1 yards per game and 2.4 per carry.
25th in scoring defense (19.3 points per game).
44th in yards per play (5.2) and 34th in yards per game (342).
95th on third down, allowing 42.11 percent.
84th in yards per pass allowed (7.6).
128th in passing yards allowed (277.9 per game).
30th in sack percentage (7.89 percent).
32nd in takeaways (1.4 per game).

Hetherman has now called out his defense for not playing to the standard set this season. It is about winning the 1-on-1s, something players have struggled with. They haven't run to the ball and been as physical as possible.

"I felt really good after Wednesday's practice," Hetherman said. "I thought our two of our better practices of the year were Tuesday and Wednesday and then for whatever what it because we just we didn't we didn't run to the ball. We didn't play overly physical at the point of attack in the game, and it really caught up to us."

Those points of interest come at a time when they face a quarterback like CJ Carr, who doesn't get sacked or make mistakes.

"We're going to see the same thing from Carr this week," Hetherman said in reviewing the next quarterback. "Carr does a really good job of looking you off and coming back or replacing linebackers or replacing underneath coverage.

"We got to do a good job with that this week. You know, he's very similar to the quarterback we just played with, looking things off. It's an area we have to get better. We got to get better at collapsing the pocket up front and knocking the ball down or affecting windows. And then the back end, we got to do a better job of tackling and, you know, containing these passes."

The Hurricanes have a handful against the Fighting Irish, with a point to prove they are the elite team in college football.

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