Mario Cristobal offers assessment of Miami defense in 2025

The Miami Hurricanes were let down at times last season by their defense. Now, Mario Cristobal is looking to take major steps forward with new defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman.

While making an appearance on Always College Football, Cristobal noted that the defense wasn’t recognizable to him at times last season. Now, he wants to get guys in better positions to fit their skills and communicate better with that side of the ball.

Host Greg McElroy asked if that means Miami is going to have a less-is-more approach to defense, just letting athletes make plays. At that point, Cristobal clarified that it won’t look simpler to opponents, but it is going to feel that way for the Hurricanes.

“From the inside out,” Cristobal said. “But not from the outside as it relates to opponents seeing what we do. The terminology and communication that go with it allow us to play really, really fast. So, in essence, it’s digested in a more simple manner. In terms of the look itself, you’ll see some base stuff, but you’ll see some exotic stuff as well without confusing our players as much.”

Hetherman is the third defensive coordinator that Cristobal has had during his time at Miami. Most recently, the defense was led by Lance Guidry. They parted ways following the end of last season. Now, the Hurricanes are focusing on installing the new defensive system.

“Obviously, we’re one spring into it. We reinstalled the week after spring ball. We’ve got the summer coming up. By the end of Fall camp, we should have had five installs from beginning to end,” Cristobal said. “And we feel really good about where they are — where our team is right now with that. Feel really good about where it’s gonna go.”

Mario Cristobal details what led Miami to taking Carson Beck

On the offensive side of the ball, Cristobal was also looking at a change at quarterback. There, he made the decision to bring in quarterback Carson Beck as a veteran transfer from Georgia. It’s a move that he thinks is going to fit in well with the team.

“He is a highly skilled guy and we feel we’re getting the best version of him. We feel we can protect him really well, and we feel what we do offensively – so much of our stuff is NFL-oriented as it relates to protections, our play-action game, our quick game and intermediate stuff. He fits it perfectly. He’ll be surrounded by some really talented skill guys as well. We run the ball really well. We were, I believe, third in the country last year in yards per carry. And that opens up things differently,” Cristobal said.

“It’s just, systematically, similar to Cam (Ward), you know Cam did some great things at his prior stops, but he just really fit what we do really well. And that marriage, I think, is going to be really awesome for Carson, it’s going to be awesome for Miami. He’s healthy, he looks great. He’s got a strong arm now, he’s got a really, really strong arm. And he’s really smart. He’s very tied in (with) our offensive line coach, and those guys have a complete understanding of what we’re trying to do from a protection and run game standpoint, and that’s going to lead to a tremendous amount of success for our offense.”