CORAL GABLES — The Miami Hurricanes will be facing a different Georgia Tech team this Saturday than the one that lost to Bowling Green last weekend.
After their upset loss, the Yellow Jackets demoted defensive coordinator Andrew Thacker to a safeties coach and promoted Kevin Sherrer from co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach to the sole defensive coordinator.
“It just leaves an unknown factor,” Miami coach Mario Cristobal said. “You’ve got to dig deep into that person’s history, what they’ve done, where they’ve been, how they may tweak or edit the system.”
The Yellow Jackets defense ranks 105th in scoring defense and 116th in yards allowed per game. They have the third-worst rushing defense in the nation, allowing 224 yards per game.
Last week, Georgia Tech gave up 438 total yards to Bowling Green in its 38-27 loss.
“I know they had a tough game this past weekend,” Cristobal said. “But it’s not a reflection of what they are as a team and how we feel about them. That’s certainly a team that deserves the respect because of the team that they have beaten head-to-head. Last year they beat Duke and North Carolina and Pittsburgh, and this year against an excellent Wake Forest team.”
Sherrer has an extensive coaching resume, spending three years as Alabama’s director of player development before becoming South Alabama’s defensive coordinator in 2013. He was Georgia’s outside linebackers coach from 2014-17 before spending the 2018 season as Tennessee’s defensive coordinator and 2019 as the Volunteers’ inside linebackers coach. Sherrer then coached linebackers with the New York Giants for two years before arriving at Georgia Tech.
In Sherrer’s one year as the Volunteers’ defensive coordinator, Tennessee had the No. 77 defense in the nation.
“Even though it’s five, six, seven days, there’s still plenty of time where they can change things,” Cristobal said.
“At the same time, they’ve had a lot of success in their current system, so I’m sure it’ll be a blend of some sort. With that being said, we’re systematic on offense, meaning that yeah, we like certain things against certain things, but should we be in a situation where we do get some type of surprise look, schematically, rules take over. We’re built on rules, so if something shows up that’s something we haven’t seen, trust your rules and go execute.
“The uncertainty is something you just have to deal with and go play your best football.”
Injured players closer to returning
Three UM players, Elijah Arroyo, TreVonte’ Citizen and Zion Nelson, have not seen the field this season due to injury, but Cristobal said they are getting closer to returning.
“We’re real close,” Cristobal said. “You’re always hopeful at the beginning of the season. We were maybe wishing a little bit too early back then. But now it’s a reality. Now we’re there.”
Cristobal said Arroyo, who suffered an ACL tear last year, could play against Georgia Tech. Running back TreVonte’ Citizen, who suffered a torn ACL before getting a chance to make his debut as a freshman, is not far behind, Cristobal said. Offensive lineman Zion Nelson, who played two games last year but missed the rest of the season due to complications following knee surgery, has also not played this season.
As for key players who have missed the past two games, defensive linemen Branson Deen and Akheem Mesidor, Cristobal was non-committal.
“We’ll see,” Cristobal said. “Hopefully.”
Hurricanes could play in prime time again
After playing Georgia Tech at 8 p.m. this Saturday, Miami could get a prime time slot for its showdown with North Carolina on Oct. 14.
ESPN elected to use a six-day selection option for the game, so Miami and UNC will play at either noon or 7:30 p.m. on ABC.
The Hurricanes and Tar Heels are both 4-0. Both teams are ranked in the top 20 of the AP poll; Miami is ranked 17th and UNC is 14th.
Lance Guidry, cinephile
Although the Hurricanes’ coaching staff did have a busy schedule during UM’s bye week, the time off from football gave defensive coordinator Lance Guidry a chance to decompress. He said he likes to watch movies when he is not working.
“I know a lot of times coaches ask me, ‘Man, did you see the game? The NFL?’ I don’t watch football,” Guidry said. “When I get out of the office, I watch movies. It’s like if you’re a mechanic, and all day, all you do is do mechanic work. Are you going to go home and watch a show on mechanics? You’ve got to clear your mind or you will get burnout. This weekend, I did just kind of flip through a couple games that were out-of-conference that I was interested in. But I watched very little of it.”
There is another, coaching-related reason for the football embargo, Guidry said. He prefers to watch future opponents on film instead of watching from television networks’ broadcasting angles. The defensive coordinator also said he does not want to get ahead of the schedule and focus on opponents that are weeks away.
“I want to watch it on film because even on TV, you can’t see, really, what you need to see,” Guidry said. “You’re seeing it from the fan or the TV point of view, and you just get ahead of yourself.
Guidry said he saw the sci-fi movie The Creator over the weekend, but the movies he likes are, “whichever kind my wife tells me to go to.”
