Everything Miami Defensive Coordinator Corey Hetherman Said Ahead of the Fiesta Bowl

The Miami Hurriacnes defense has been the story for the success of the prgram this season and throughout the College Football Playoff.

In one year, defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman has turned a dormaint group last season into the best defense remaining in the College Football Playoff.

However, Hetherman and his men prepare for the most explosive offense remaining in the College Football Playoff, the Ole Miss Rebels. He spoke with the media ahead of the Fiesta Bowl as he prepares for the future as well as the team's defensive game plan against the SEC foe.

Q. This Ole Miss offense is incredibly explosive and might be the biggest challenge you've faced this year. Your thoughts after looking at them the last couple of days?

COACH HETHERMAN: I think you look at the quarterback does an unbelievable job spreading the football around, extending plays, and just keeps them on track very well. I think the running back is very talented. I think he gets downhill. He makes the first guy miss. Runs between the line of scrimmage really well, but also can get the ball out on the perimeter. I think he's a big play at any point. I think the skill on the perimeter is very talented. There's a lot of different guys that take the top off, can make some plays in space. They can get the quick game out there. I think they do a really good job, and then they go fast. I think they're top 15 in the country, the speed that they play at. That's something that we've seen a little bit earlier in the season from South Florida and SMU and some different teams, but we've got to make sure we're ready for that.

Q. We know how good the pass rush has been all season, but what impressed you most against the Ohio State team? They gave like 11 sacks going into that game against you guys.

COACH HETHERMAN: Our guys did a really good job in the backend pre-snap, doing some different looks and really covering. I think up front, our guys covered fast. I thought early in the game, early in the first half, we did a really good job of stopping the run and making it so we could get after the quarterback. That third play of the game, I thought our guys did a really good job. I thought we put them in some situations where they had to throw the football early. That's really – in the second half, we had to continue to do that. But no, I thought our guys, really as a unit all together, played really well affecting the quarterback.

Q. We've talked about the bend, don't break this season. When Jeremiah Smith had the big catch, and Rueben [Bain Jr.] gets the sack and Keionte [Scott] gets the Pick 6, what was that like from your perspective, watching the response on those two plays?

COACH HETHERMAN: I think that changes the entire game. It's 7-0 at that point. They hit the explosive plays. 59-yard pass, I think. It was one of those things where we've got to be a little bit more detailed, got to do our job on that first down, on the P and 10. I think they took a shot on second down, on that first play or the second play of the drive. And Rueben gets a sack, and Kei jumps that screen. I think that changes the entire outcome of the game.

Q. I'm sure you've seen what they're (Ole Miss) going through with their coaching staff, especially on the offensive side of the ball. Does that impact you at all as you plan for this game and approach it from the schematic standpoint?

COACH HETHERMAN: We're 100% focused on us. The biggest thing was let's clean up Ohio State. Let's correct the communication and assignments and the technique stuff. And we've moved on. Now it will be how we think they'll game plan us. How we think they'll attack us. Some of the things, they do a really good job on the run game and pass game. But we're not looking into that at all.

Q. Ethan O'Connor, what stood out about what he's done for you this season?

COACH HETHERMAN: He's consistently gotten better every single week. I think his detail, it shows in practice. I think he's becoming a better player in practice every day, the way he goes about routine, the way he starts to attack it. Earlier in the year, I think there might have been some plays in practice -- you know, he gets beat on a one-on-one or doesn't finish the play. I think when you go through the season and how he's progressed, now he's competing. Now he's making those plays, and it's showing up more and more on film. He made a couple plays, especially in the two-minute drill right before the half. There was one time he breaks, runs right through the receiver, makes a really good play on the flat. There were a couple other times he takes the top off and discourages them from taking a shot and sets the edge. I think his game is just getting better and better every single week, and I think it's the way he's been preparing and practicing.

Q. Considering their pace of play, how important is being mindful to the rotation on defense, the defensive line, corners, et cetera?

COACH HETHERMAN: I think we play a lot of guys and I think that helps us in games like this, where we're not just 11 players on and off the field. We have rotations in the back end, at corner, at safety. We have rotations at linebacker and on the defensive line. I think that will help to keep us a little bit more fresh in a game like this, where they're going to go very fast. One of the games that stood out to us watching this morning was the Washington State game. It's like play six in the drive, and I look at the scoreboard to go back and see the situation. It's like, I don't know, a minute into the game already. That's it. But they're going really fast. We have to make sure we keep our guys fresh, we keep our guys on and off the field, and we've got to do a good job of eliminating explosives, but trying to keep them behind the sticks, so our guys can get a chance to be on and off the field, and we've got to handle our rotations.

I think our guys this year, between guys being banged up or different guys practicing or playing in different rotations, I think a lot of them have played together with different people, and I think that's where you have seen a little bit more of a comfort level with no matter who it is in their at three technique or nose guard. No matter who it is in there. It's Wes (Wesley Bissainthe), Chace [Smith], PoPo (Raul Aguirre Jr.), really a handful of guys that are playing in there at linebacker at Mike [Smith]. Or at will with Mo (Mohamed Toure), and in the backend at corner and safety. I think Fitz (Bryce Fitzgerald), the way he stepped up. Virginia Tech week and some of those weeks with Dylan [Day] and different guys stepping up and [Cam] Pruitt, doing some different things for us and playing fast and playing physical, and being able to handle situations, I think that has helped us as we've gone on to the postseason here.

Q. That fourth quarter, they were just throwing long drives, but efficient drives. How did you learn about how you guys have to handle that as you prepare for this one?

COACH HETHERMAN: That was the game we played really well for about the first 70 plays. After that, I think we probably leaned on our guys a little bit too much early, and I think that's where we've played a lot more players since that point, especially up front with our defensive line. There were situations in that game where early on, we made the plays, and it stopped the drive, or it ended the drive, or got them behind. Later in the game, there were situations where they went for it a little bit more on fourth down. Just our detail and our technique in some of those situations, we probably could have been off the field. We allowed them to get the first down and extend the drive, and I think that wore our guys down a little bit, and I think now we've learned from that, and that's where you see some of the rotations since that point. We've been playing a lot more guys as we continue to go.

Q. What's the biggest growth area you've seen that fans maybe hadn't noticed on Saturday?

COACH HETHERMAN: I think it's their communication and it's their belief in playing with each other. I think our guys trust each other right now. I think our guys go out there and you can see them communicating just in practice; the way they talk, the way they communicate, the awareness to know this is the guy that's in the fit with me, or this is the guy that's helping me in coverage. I have someone protecting me right now, if I hit an inside move or a different thing in a line game. I think just that level of trust and confidence in knowing, hey, I can do this in this call and I can't do this in this call, and trusting the guy playing next to you, that has gotten better every single week.

Q. With OJ [Frederique] going down in the middle of the game last game, Ja'Boree [Antoine] got a handful of reps. What type of growth have you seen from him throughout this season?

COACH HETHERMAN: He's a guy -- and it hasn't been a lot of game reps, but the way that we practice and the way that we compete on the practice field, I kind of always look at it as that is your game plan. I think I said in camp. The ball always finds Fitz (Bryce Fitzgerald). It's no surprise that Fitz has all these picks. There's other guys -- Justin Scott continued to get better with his detail, continued to get better as he practiced every day. Early in the season, he might not have played a lot of snaps, and now all of a sudden he's a guy that plays with very good technique, plays with very good pad level, is explosive off the football. It's the same thing there. Last week was his best week of practice. He made a play on a fade. In practice, that was a really good play. I think it was on a double move. Just his technique, how he competes, how he wins the one-on-ones, his awareness of what's going on, different formations, and different field zones. Every single week. That's where OJ -- all of a sudden, I look down, I see him maybe not going back in to that snap. We don't even blink. It's next man up and we know he's prepared, we know he's ready. Coach Zac [Etheridge] and Coach Will [Harris] have done a really good job of preparing those guys, and really everyone on the defensive staff have done a really good job of preparing those guys as the season's gone on to make sure there's no drop-off.

Q. From a 30,000-foot view, casual people watching your defense will just go: [Akheem] Mesidor and [Rueben] Bain, that's where it all starts. But for you, where do things start for that defense? What has made it so successful?

COACH HETHERMAN: I think it's just the guys, how physical they play and how they swarm to the ball, and then how they communicate. I think the group has continued to grow from April through the summer, into August, into preseason camp, and they continue to trust each other, they continue to play fast, and they've grown together as a unit. Mesidor was a guy in the summer that was a big leader that pulled guys together. It's been Kei (Keionte Scott), when he transferred in, some of his practice habits and how he's pulled guys together in the locker room, in the meeting room, off the field, just growing closer as a defense. Then some of the different practice habits. Mo (Mohamed Toure) was a guy that had played in this style of defense, and he was a guy that took those habits into preseason camp, and a lot of the guys have bought into that. The way our guys practice right now, like PoPo (Raul Aguirre) made a play the other day, and he made the same exact play in Tuesday's practice. It's no surprise that now shows up in a game. And I don't know what day of the week it is anymore. Every game is on a Saturday, the way we practice. But I think that's where the guys have continued to get better. And you watch Bain and how Bain practices every day, how he goes about the process, how he watches film, how he competes, how he does the extra work, and more and more guys have followed into that. [Herbert] Scroggins makes a play against Texas A&M down the stretch, and he's in there every night with Bain. There's no surprise he makes that play in the game. I think that's pulled the entire defense up, just the belief in one another, their confidence, and I think every week their confidence has grown.

Q. Being down there for about ten months now, and seeing just all the famous alumni being on the sidelines, and obviously the winning you guys have come along with here, how impressed have you been just by the support and just how much that city turns on fire when things are going so well?

COACH HETHERMAN: I think it's kind of neat. A lot of the places you go, you see the pictures on the wall, you see the alums, you see the articles, you see the old clips. Here, they're always there. You look down the sideline, [Michael] Irvin is at every game, or Ray Lewis is at the game. My first time this year, I'm looking down at Notre Dame, I look down the sideline, and I think we gave up a touchdown and I think Ray Lewis is yelling at me on the sideline. Usually you don't see that at games. But the support from the alums, and just – like, Jonathan Vilma's preseason. He's in the weight room, I think, every morning. The guys are always around. There's always guys training here, there's always guys in the building, there's always guys helping out, there's always guys giving really good messages to the players, and just the support from the community, from Miami, from the alums. And I think having Coach Cristobal, who played here and has a connection, is connected to everyone that has played through this program, goes a long way. There's a lot of places I've been, you don't have that. You don't have that support.

Q. Curious as to who was playing scout team quarterback this week, trying to simulate Trinidad [Chambliss]. How do you prepare for a quarterback like that? You've obviously faced some guys that are mobile. Obviously, Byrum Brown is a good example, and the guys you faced at Texas A&M, Marcel Reed. But seems like Trinidad has another gear in terms of speed and that point guard ability.

COACH HETHERMAN: That's something that, as we've seen mobile quarterbacks this year, we've used different guys. Judd's [Anderson] kind of been the scout team quarterback for most of the season. We used [Kolby] Luna. Has been a guy that's done a really good job for us, giving us some quarterback run elements, some scrambling elements. We'll mix it around a little bit.

But that's one of the things, we will mix around the quarterback in different periods to try to get some pass action, to try to get some run action, and then try to keep our guys on their toes so they don't know when the scramble is going to happen, when the extended play is going to happen, or when it's going to be true quarterback run emphasis. We're going to try to mix that around. We'll have different periods as we go, and some of it will be true seven-on-seven. Some of it will be true team periods, but we will mix that into practice this week.

Q. Going off of that, what are your initial impressions of [Trinidad] Chambliss? Seems like he's one of the hottest quarterbacks right now in the country.

COACH HETHERMAN: I think the first thing that comes off is he's a winner. I mean, he won at the Division II level. He's been in the postseason. He's been in the national playoffs. He's won at that. I think for him to come in this season and not be the starter, and then win the locker room, win the job. The way that they didn't really skip any steps. Right away, the offense has just kind of taken off, and I think you can see it. The trust from the receivers, the trust from the tight end room, the trust from the backs, and the way he makes things happen, the way he extends plays. There were multiple plays last week in that game where it looks like it's going to be second down and off track, a third down, or they're going to be off the field. All of a sudden, he makes the first guy miss, he puts his foot in the ground, and he still has vision down the field. Or now he can escape and run. Keeps popping up in the cutups. The game film, as we watch it, he just constantly makes that extra play, and that's something that we have to make sure everything we do in practice this week, we're extending the play. Everything's got to be the second level, the third level. We've got to push our coverages and we've got to do a great job of containing, collapse in the pocket. In the run game, it's triple option football again. We've got to make sure we have someone assigned to every assignment, and guys have to be really detailed in what their assignment football is this week. But I think he's a tremendous player, and he'll be one of the toughest players we've played this season.

Q. One thing that I noticed about the game against Ohio State, you guys had absolutely no penalties. May have been one of your most disciplined games of the season. How do you carry that over into the national semifinal against Ole Miss?

COACH HETHERMAN: I think that's kind of the culture that Coach (Mario Cristobal) has created here. It's been the way we practice every day. We want to be penalty-free from start to finish, pre-snap, post-snap penalties. Then we're going to be aggressive the way we play on defense. We're going to swarm to the football. We're going to be physical, but we're going to do it within the whistles. We're constantly pushing our guys, getting aligned, being disciplined, being detailed, post-snaps, swarming to the football, finishing through the ball, and right back getting back to lined up. But especially because of the offenses we're seeing this week, they're back on the ball right now trying to see if you're ready or not. That's been the emphasis all year, and I think our guys have continued to grow in that area and continued to get better. And I thought that was something that helped us to stay on track on defense last week as we didn't really hurt ourselves at all on this side of the football.

Everything Miami Defensive Coordinator Corey Hetherman Said Ahead of the Fiesta Bowl

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