Through two FBS games, Miami ranks 9th in scoring defense and 6th in yards per play against. Lance Guidry met with the media to discuss his unit’s progress:
On USF QB Byrum Brown: Anytime a guy can run the football, it's a little scary. When a quarterback is just a passer and he doesn't run, you've got more hats (players) than they got. But when a quarterback can run, you have to get that last hat involved in the run game. and then you're stretched a little bit thin in the passing game. So running quarterbacks always give problems.
He breaks a lot of tackles. You can see it in the Alabama game. Alabama’s got big people, and he runs through some of their tackles. It's going to be a tall task, but it all starts with stopping the run. You’ve got to stop the run first, try to make them one-dimensional, try to make them throw the ball, and then go from there.
On how it’s helped dealing with Cam Ward’s mobility in camp: Cam's different. Cam's a throw-the-ball type guy first. He extends plays to throw the football, not necessarily run. It's Cam's last thing is to run the football and pull it down. This guy, if he goes through his progression and it's not there, he's going to take off and run because he feels good about his running ability. He's more like a running back. So they are different, but Cam being mobile in the pocket has helped us throughout camp.
On the spread-out nature of USF’s offense: They're real wide, like Coach Briles used to be at Baylor. They use every blade of grass. They're split really, really wide. They try to stretch you out as much as they can so they can run the football and then throw the vertical passing game. They'll go extremely fast, so you can't have calls that have a lot of words to them. You've got to cut down on your words and maybe one word says everything on defense. So we're working on that this week.
It's hard to simulate. It's kind of like option football. You can have a plan and you try to make your scout team do it, but you can't get in rhythm and get the flow of it until you actually get in the game.
On whether it’s different playing a more dangerous opponent: Every week is a challenge. We play against ourselves. It shouldn't matter who you're playing against, what the level they are, if they're FCS, if they're Group of Five, if they're Power Five, if they're SEC.
You are trying to perfect what you're doing on defense. You don't want to miss tackles. You don't want to give up big plays. The opponent doesn't matter. We've never looked at it like that. Each week presents a different problem. I've been that small dog before. It's not about that. It's about perfecting and getting better each week, and that's what we're aiming to do.
On getting pressure with the front four: It’s always easier when you can rush four and not have to bring the fifth and sixth guy. You're able to play a little bit more zone that way, which we did a lot last week. But sometimes in stopping the run game, four guys isn't enough and you get to where you’ve got to bring five with an extra hat.
Our defensive line is doing a great job right now. If you could only rush four and stop the run and control the pass, I'd just rush four. It's not designed that way, especially with a running quarterback. You’ve gotta get a lot of hats involved getting to the football. But our D-line has done a great job and they've really helped the back end. We don't have a lot of snap counts on that back end, but we're getting more and more experience. The D-line is really helping the back end get that experience.
On what’s impressed him with the defense so far: Our communication is really good. We haven't busted a lot of things, and we've faced three different types of offenses. The most impressive thing is when you bring in your younger guys at the end, and there's not that much of a drop-off. You see a lot of guys being hungry and trying to get to the football.
I think that's the biggest difference between this year's defense and last. At the end of the games, who you're putting in, does the level drop off? Because last year, we had a couple times we could have had a shutout. We put in some younger guys at the end, and we gave up some points. This year, we didn't. Last week, we gave up some field goals. But I'm really impressed with this group. We just need to continue to get better each week.
On the secondary: The most impressive thing is we're without [Damari] Brown, and we've had a freshman step up to be solid at the corner. We're playing different guys. Throughout the season, we'll play against some really good wide receivers and some good quarterbacks. So we need to continue to grow and continue to get better. We're not there yet by any means.
Each year is a different year. Sometimes you go into a season, you think that you've got problems in a certain area, and they might end up being a bright spot. We’ll coach them each week, try to put them in the best spot they can be in, and keep trying to get better.
On OJ Frederique: We saw on film that he was a good player. We didn't know how big he was. I hadn't seen him in person with my eye. He came to a camp over the summer before his senior year, and he locked up everybody. We kept bringing guys over. He was going up against different wideouts, and we'd say, “Hey, go against that one, go against that one.” And he wouldn't bat an eye. It didn't matter if it was a deep ball post, go route. I was impressed with the way he looked back for the ball, how he didn't panic.
Of course, we got him to commit, and he didn’t even come through spring football with us. He gets here this summer, and you really can't do anything too much with him in the summer. He's just going over scheme. Then you go into fall camp, and he's going against our wide receivers. And it's like he's been here for a couple years. That was really, really impressive. I told Coach Jackson, “That's going to be the one right there. He’s got a chance.” And sure enough, he worked his way into a starting role. So you never know. Sometimes you project the guy out of high school to be great, and when he gets here he ain't what you thought. Sometimes it's a guy like OJ, because you can't measure what's underneath inside that chest. And he's got that, he's got this [points to brain]. Really good football player.
On open-field tackling: We've tackled well in space. Florida was a good test. Each week's a good test, but we've had to tackle in space. You really don't know coming out of fall camp how you're going to tackle. I thought the first scrimmage we tackled very poor, probably the worst since I've been here. And then the second scrimmage we actually tackled well.
So going into Florida, I was a little worried because we'd only tackled twice. We tackled well. Each week seems like we're getting better and better. But we'll be challenged this week. We'll have to make some good tackles. Their wide receivers are strong with the football. They'll break tackles. They're good after the catch. We'll have a tall task. But we've got to just run to the football and get a lot of hats.
On Malik Bryant and Popo Aguirre: Malik's been getting better and better since I've been here. I think he's found his home at the Jack, and he's played really fast. He still has some down days and up days, but I think he's trending in the right direction.
Popo, I've been seeing it through this camp. Of the young guys, he’s probably the one that's gotten the most out of the camp. He's gotten better, and he's made a bunch of strides. Popo is going to be a really good football player. Those two guys are trending in the right direction. They'll play meaningful snaps this year.
On Dylan Day: It's always good when you can play young guys on special teams. You can only get them so many reps in a game because you’ve got some of the older guys playing. They don't get as many snaps at practice. So special teams is the way you evaluate young guys. If you have a bunch of young DBs or young linebackers that aren't starting on special teams, you probably missed on the evaluation. When those guys are making plays on special teams, that means that guy's going to be a player. That's how I always looked at it.
Day is trending in the right direction. He made a big hit. He can run. Zaquan [Patterson] is on special teams. Those guys are doing really well. A bunch of our young guys are doing well. [Adarius] Hayes had a big hit the week before. I like when the young guys are on special teams. That means you've got the right guys in the program.
Day is a free safety. I think that's what he is. He's kind of a cover free safety guy that's got range and can tackle. He works on the scout team and he works with us on the defensive side behind Markeith. So you’ve got Meesh, Markeith and him, and then at the boundary safety, you've got Harris and Zaquan. He's kind of the fifth guy that we rotate and doesn't get a ton of snaps, but he's getting a lot of mental snaps.
On Akheem Mesidor: He's playing a lot inside, a little bit outside. He'll probably play a little bit more outside this week. He's been close to a lot of sacks. Even on that interception, he was trying to get back, but it fell to Elijah. He's been close on a lot of plays. I still don't think he's in game shape yet. Through fall camp, he didn't take a lot of snaps each day. But now we're getting through a couple games, he's starting to get in game shape. I think his best football will probably be midway. He's getting really, really close to where he was.
On Elijah Alston: When I was [at Marshall], he was a redshirt freshman. He had beaten out an older guy that year, who we thought was a really good football player, and he beat him out. Elijah got hurt in the bowl game against UL Lafayette. He had a high ankle sprain. The next year he came back, he was a little heavy and still kind of hurt from that ankle. So his sophomore year, my last year there, he didn't play as well.
And then my first year here at Miami, his last year at Marshall, he played really, really good. He went back to how he was and even better. I always knew he could run. Has a great gift of bending off the edge. He can do so many things. He can drop in coverage like a linebacker. He's a true Jack. He can be an outside linebacker or rush the passer. He's spying quarterbacks, going to get them, and he's picking off balls. A very talented kid. He’s what I thought he was going to be.
When you’ve got Bain, Mesidor and Tyler in there, they're more like true ends. You don't drop them as much in coverage. But, Elijah, you can do a lot of things with.
On USF QB Byrum Brown: Anytime a guy can run the football, it's a little scary. When a quarterback is just a passer and he doesn't run, you've got more hats (players) than they got. But when a quarterback can run, you have to get that last hat involved in the run game. and then you're stretched a little bit thin in the passing game. So running quarterbacks always give problems.
He breaks a lot of tackles. You can see it in the Alabama game. Alabama’s got big people, and he runs through some of their tackles. It's going to be a tall task, but it all starts with stopping the run. You’ve got to stop the run first, try to make them one-dimensional, try to make them throw the ball, and then go from there.
On how it’s helped dealing with Cam Ward’s mobility in camp: Cam's different. Cam's a throw-the-ball type guy first. He extends plays to throw the football, not necessarily run. It's Cam's last thing is to run the football and pull it down. This guy, if he goes through his progression and it's not there, he's going to take off and run because he feels good about his running ability. He's more like a running back. So they are different, but Cam being mobile in the pocket has helped us throughout camp.
On the spread-out nature of USF’s offense: They're real wide, like Coach Briles used to be at Baylor. They use every blade of grass. They're split really, really wide. They try to stretch you out as much as they can so they can run the football and then throw the vertical passing game. They'll go extremely fast, so you can't have calls that have a lot of words to them. You've got to cut down on your words and maybe one word says everything on defense. So we're working on that this week.
It's hard to simulate. It's kind of like option football. You can have a plan and you try to make your scout team do it, but you can't get in rhythm and get the flow of it until you actually get in the game.
On whether it’s different playing a more dangerous opponent: Every week is a challenge. We play against ourselves. It shouldn't matter who you're playing against, what the level they are, if they're FCS, if they're Group of Five, if they're Power Five, if they're SEC.
You are trying to perfect what you're doing on defense. You don't want to miss tackles. You don't want to give up big plays. The opponent doesn't matter. We've never looked at it like that. Each week presents a different problem. I've been that small dog before. It's not about that. It's about perfecting and getting better each week, and that's what we're aiming to do.
On getting pressure with the front four: It’s always easier when you can rush four and not have to bring the fifth and sixth guy. You're able to play a little bit more zone that way, which we did a lot last week. But sometimes in stopping the run game, four guys isn't enough and you get to where you’ve got to bring five with an extra hat.
Our defensive line is doing a great job right now. If you could only rush four and stop the run and control the pass, I'd just rush four. It's not designed that way, especially with a running quarterback. You’ve gotta get a lot of hats involved getting to the football. But our D-line has done a great job and they've really helped the back end. We don't have a lot of snap counts on that back end, but we're getting more and more experience. The D-line is really helping the back end get that experience.
On what’s impressed him with the defense so far: Our communication is really good. We haven't busted a lot of things, and we've faced three different types of offenses. The most impressive thing is when you bring in your younger guys at the end, and there's not that much of a drop-off. You see a lot of guys being hungry and trying to get to the football.
I think that's the biggest difference between this year's defense and last. At the end of the games, who you're putting in, does the level drop off? Because last year, we had a couple times we could have had a shutout. We put in some younger guys at the end, and we gave up some points. This year, we didn't. Last week, we gave up some field goals. But I'm really impressed with this group. We just need to continue to get better each week.
On the secondary: The most impressive thing is we're without [Damari] Brown, and we've had a freshman step up to be solid at the corner. We're playing different guys. Throughout the season, we'll play against some really good wide receivers and some good quarterbacks. So we need to continue to grow and continue to get better. We're not there yet by any means.
Each year is a different year. Sometimes you go into a season, you think that you've got problems in a certain area, and they might end up being a bright spot. We’ll coach them each week, try to put them in the best spot they can be in, and keep trying to get better.
On OJ Frederique: We saw on film that he was a good player. We didn't know how big he was. I hadn't seen him in person with my eye. He came to a camp over the summer before his senior year, and he locked up everybody. We kept bringing guys over. He was going up against different wideouts, and we'd say, “Hey, go against that one, go against that one.” And he wouldn't bat an eye. It didn't matter if it was a deep ball post, go route. I was impressed with the way he looked back for the ball, how he didn't panic.
Of course, we got him to commit, and he didn’t even come through spring football with us. He gets here this summer, and you really can't do anything too much with him in the summer. He's just going over scheme. Then you go into fall camp, and he's going against our wide receivers. And it's like he's been here for a couple years. That was really, really impressive. I told Coach Jackson, “That's going to be the one right there. He’s got a chance.” And sure enough, he worked his way into a starting role. So you never know. Sometimes you project the guy out of high school to be great, and when he gets here he ain't what you thought. Sometimes it's a guy like OJ, because you can't measure what's underneath inside that chest. And he's got that, he's got this [points to brain]. Really good football player.
On open-field tackling: We've tackled well in space. Florida was a good test. Each week's a good test, but we've had to tackle in space. You really don't know coming out of fall camp how you're going to tackle. I thought the first scrimmage we tackled very poor, probably the worst since I've been here. And then the second scrimmage we actually tackled well.
So going into Florida, I was a little worried because we'd only tackled twice. We tackled well. Each week seems like we're getting better and better. But we'll be challenged this week. We'll have to make some good tackles. Their wide receivers are strong with the football. They'll break tackles. They're good after the catch. We'll have a tall task. But we've got to just run to the football and get a lot of hats.
On Malik Bryant and Popo Aguirre: Malik's been getting better and better since I've been here. I think he's found his home at the Jack, and he's played really fast. He still has some down days and up days, but I think he's trending in the right direction.
Popo, I've been seeing it through this camp. Of the young guys, he’s probably the one that's gotten the most out of the camp. He's gotten better, and he's made a bunch of strides. Popo is going to be a really good football player. Those two guys are trending in the right direction. They'll play meaningful snaps this year.
On Dylan Day: It's always good when you can play young guys on special teams. You can only get them so many reps in a game because you’ve got some of the older guys playing. They don't get as many snaps at practice. So special teams is the way you evaluate young guys. If you have a bunch of young DBs or young linebackers that aren't starting on special teams, you probably missed on the evaluation. When those guys are making plays on special teams, that means that guy's going to be a player. That's how I always looked at it.
Day is trending in the right direction. He made a big hit. He can run. Zaquan [Patterson] is on special teams. Those guys are doing really well. A bunch of our young guys are doing well. [Adarius] Hayes had a big hit the week before. I like when the young guys are on special teams. That means you've got the right guys in the program.
Day is a free safety. I think that's what he is. He's kind of a cover free safety guy that's got range and can tackle. He works on the scout team and he works with us on the defensive side behind Markeith. So you’ve got Meesh, Markeith and him, and then at the boundary safety, you've got Harris and Zaquan. He's kind of the fifth guy that we rotate and doesn't get a ton of snaps, but he's getting a lot of mental snaps.
On Akheem Mesidor: He's playing a lot inside, a little bit outside. He'll probably play a little bit more outside this week. He's been close to a lot of sacks. Even on that interception, he was trying to get back, but it fell to Elijah. He's been close on a lot of plays. I still don't think he's in game shape yet. Through fall camp, he didn't take a lot of snaps each day. But now we're getting through a couple games, he's starting to get in game shape. I think his best football will probably be midway. He's getting really, really close to where he was.
On Elijah Alston: When I was [at Marshall], he was a redshirt freshman. He had beaten out an older guy that year, who we thought was a really good football player, and he beat him out. Elijah got hurt in the bowl game against UL Lafayette. He had a high ankle sprain. The next year he came back, he was a little heavy and still kind of hurt from that ankle. So his sophomore year, my last year there, he didn't play as well.
And then my first year here at Miami, his last year at Marshall, he played really, really good. He went back to how he was and even better. I always knew he could run. Has a great gift of bending off the edge. He can do so many things. He can drop in coverage like a linebacker. He's a true Jack. He can be an outside linebacker or rush the passer. He's spying quarterbacks, going to get them, and he's picking off balls. A very talented kid. He’s what I thought he was going to be.
When you’ve got Bain, Mesidor and Tyler in there, they're more like true ends. You don't drop them as much in coverage. But, Elijah, you can do a lot of things with.
