Hetherman, Beck Help Canes Shift Focus to 2025 Season

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – They won’t play their first game for another eight months, but already, the work of preparing for next season has begun.

On Monday, the same day a new semester started at Miami, the Hurricanes were back on Greentree and in the weight room, logging the first minutes of their offseason conditioning program. Over the weekend, the newest additions to the roster arrived on campus and a new defensive coordinator took the reins of a unit looking to improve in 2025.

The last few days have been, head coach Mario Cristobal said, “an exciting time,” the latest key stretch in the ongoing mission of continuing to move Miami’s program forward after three seasons of progress since Cristobal returned to lead his alma mater.

The Hurricanes have seen their win total increase in each of those seasons. They’ve had players rewrite the record book. And they’re coming off a 10-win campaign that saw their offense emerge as one of the nation’s best and one of their leaders – quarterback Cam Ward – establish himself as one of the likely top picks in this year’s NFL Draft.

Still, there is plenty more Cristobal and the Hurricanes want to accomplish and so, the work to help Miami get better continues.

“A lot of moves made in January at all levels, both in the areas of addition and subtraction, right? At the personnel level, at the coaching level, opportunities to do nothing but get better,” Cristobal said. “And so, we’ve been at it, relentlessly, and we intend to continue to do so and continue [the] progress of the program.”

To that end, Cristobal added former Minnesota defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman to Miami’s staff in the same capacity.

The Hurricanes gave up 42 points in both of their last two games of 2024 and in three of their last four – all losses – Miami allowed an average of 421.3 yards per game.

Last season under Hetherman’s guidance, the Golden Gophers were ninth nationally in points allowed (16.9 per game), fifth in total defense (285.7 yards allowed per game), 12th in rushing defense (109.6 yards per game) and were tied for ninth in passing defense (176.1 yards per game).

Minnesota totaled 22 interceptions, which tied for seventh nationally, and had a plus-9 turnover margin, which was tied for 17th in the country.

All of that – combined with Hetherman’s resume during his time as the linebackers coach at Rutgers and as the defensive coordinator at James Madison, Maine and Pace College – proved intriguing as Cristobal sought out a new leader for the Miami defense.

“For us, we’re built to be a four-down front and turn our edge players loose and be disruptive. That’s what [Hetherman] has done at really all levels and most recently, at the Power Four level in the Big Ten [Conference],” Cristobal said. “Really sound in communication. They play really, really physical. They tackle really, really well. They certainly force a significant amount of turnovers and they put pressure on the quarterback. They make you play uncomfortable.

“What sticks out, probably most and what we needed mostly for us, is adaptability. This past year, obviously, we had some injuries and in the secondary, we weren’t deep to begin with. And that’s my fault. … But we didn’t do very well defensively, and it was a steady decline and at some point in time, regardless of your personnel that you have, or you don’t have, you’ve got to be adaptable. You’ve got to make the adjustments necessary to not be perfect, but to play as good as you can, get stops and give yourself a chance to win.”

As to what he envisions for the Miami defense moving forward, Hetherman – who was named the AFCA FCS Assistant Coach of the Year in 2021 while at James Madison – said Monday he wants the Hurricanes to be aggressive, physical and fast.

And, after watching some of the film on his new players, he believes all of that is possible.

“We’re going to be aggressive. We want to be an attacking style defense. We’re going to be very multiple,” Hetherman said. “Everywhere I’ve been, it’s kind of, go evaluate who’s in the room, who can we attract to where we are and then figure out how to plug it in from there. I think there’s a lot of really good athletes. I think there’s a lot of talent. There’s a lot of speed on the defensive side of the football and I’m excited about trying to figure out exactly where everyone goes and where everyone will work. But we’re going to be an attacking, aggressive style defense and we’re going to try and dictate the tempo.”

A former quarterback at Fitchburg State in Massachusetts, Hetherman initially started his coaching career on the side of the ball he knew best – offense.

But early in his coaching journey, he shifted to the defensive side in order to learn how to coach better offensively.

He never transitioned back to offense and instead, became a defensive expert who looks to challenge himself often.

“That was one of those things,” Hetherman chuckled. “I had an opportunity, coaching early, and it was going to take going to the defense to kind of learn a little bit more to go back to offense and I never got back to offense. I’ve been stuck on defense since that day, but it’s been awesome. One thing I feel I’ve learned on defense is, maybe on offense, I played the position, [so] it was a little bit more comfortable. Maybe I didn’t have to do as much work or be as detailed because of the things I did as a player. Now, it’s been you have to study, you have to research, you have to learn, and you have to test things and find out how it works, every little detail in it. I think that’s been something that’s really been a blessing for me on the defensive side of the football, working there.”

Hetherman is far from the only new face to join the Hurricanes in recent days.

Cristobal noted on Monday the Hurricanes welcomed 33 student-athletes to campus, including one that’s already made his share of national headlines: quarterback Carson Beck.

Beck, a redshirt senior from Jacksonville, announced this weekend he was joining the Hurricanes after a five-year career at Georgia. He started 27 games for the Bulldogs over the course of the last two seasons and posted a 24-3 record during that span.

The Manning Award finalist completed 65 percent of his passes and threw for 3,485 yards and 28 touchdowns last year before injuring his right elbow in the SEC Championship Game.

On Monday, Cristobal indicated Beck’s recovery from that injury and its subsequent surgery is “ahead of schedule,” but said it remains unclear when the quarterback will be able to throw again.

The hope is that could happen at some point in the spring, but in the meantime, Beck is on campus, already getting to know his new teammates and learn offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson’s system.

“He wants to be present and do everything he possibly can, whatever that may be. It’s critically important to be around,” Cristobal said of Beck. “If you can’t throw, there’s still a lot of things you can do that lead up to the game or lead up to playing and practicing the game. Our return-to-play specialists, in conjunction with the guys that did his work, they’re already off to a great relationship and they’re going to ensure he comes back better and stronger than he’s ever been.

“But you’re looking at a driven, committed young man that recognizes opportunity, is grateful to be around a group of guys that are driven like he is driven and is starting to see a lot of the pieces that are necessary for his success, they’re starting to fall into place as well. A guy like that, I always put a little pressure on them to go get some more pieces, right? Make sure that you do everything you can in terms of talent, personnel acquisition, and surround yourself with great people, great competitors, great human beings.”