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CORAL GABLES — The Hurricanes’ secondary was the team’s weak point last year, so UM coach Mario Cristobal overhauled the players in the unit and the coaches tasked with developing them.
Gone are defensive coordinator Lance Guidry, who doubled as the safeties coach, and secondary coach Chevis Jackson. Former Minnesota defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman took over for Guidry, but linebackers are his focus, so he and Cristobal added two new assistant coaches to work with the defensive backs: defensive pass game coordinator and defensive backs coach Zac Etheridge and safeties coach Will Harris.
“It’s been great,” Etheridge said. “We’re excited to get this thing started. I pinch myself now just thinking of being a defensive backs coach at Miami.”
The first challenge the pair of defensive backs coaches have to deal with is getting to know the players’ abilities, strengths and weaknesses while also getting them to mesh as a unit. Etheridge and Harris have a group of newcomers to work with. Miami added five defensive backs — four cornerbacks and one safety — via the transfer portal. The Hurricanes signed four more defensive backs in their 2025 recruiting class.
“It’s not any different,” Etheridge said. “Every day out there … you start from Ground Zero. We take every guy, whether he’s a transfer or freshman, and start from the ground up and treat him as a freshman. For me, I’ve been around a couple of times and a couple transitions at different jobs. They don’t know me and I don’t know them. But it starts with a relationship and earning their trust.”
The two secondary coaches share some of the same coaching language, having worked with some of the same coaches with similar defensive schemes in the past. Part of the process in spring practice, which begins next week, will be getting…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/article/defensive-assistants-zac-etheridge-harris-194400495.html
Author : South Florida Sun Sentinel
Publish date : 2025-02-27 19:44:00
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