5 Keys To Cleaning Up Miami Hurricanes’ Defense

The Miami Hurricanes are unraveling defensively. There’s no other way to put it after an eight-day span where UM surrendered 1,066 yards and 83 points in back-to-back outings.

As a result, defensive coordinator Mark D’Onofrio is understandably under fire. The Hurricanes defense finished the 2012 season ranked 116th of 120 Division I squads. A year older and wiser, D’Onofrio’s bunch was expected to take a step forward. Based on the past two games, things look pretty much the same.

Miami’s defensive issues were masked early this season. Florida Atlantic, Savannah State and South Florida helped pad the September stats, while an upset of No. 12 Florida was highlighted by some opportunistic play as the Hurricanes forced six turnovers.

Lost in the shuffle—the fact that the Gators still put up 413 total yards.

Head coach Al Golden was on the Joe Rose Show early Monday morning and broke down the recent loss to Virginia Tech:

The tackling wasn’t very good. In terms of the game plan, we had to move away from our game plan. We were forced really to be more aggressive. We were forced to play a lot of calls that we didn’t want to play, in terms of having a running quarterback. More importantly, they were allowed to keep it really simple and run the ball more and go with a naked game as opposed to having to sit in the pocket and throw balls. All those elements are a factor in that.

In terms of what the game plan was going in, now all of a sudden we got a mess on our hands because of three plays. Now it doesn’t excuse the defense—we need a stop on one of those, we need a red zone stop. We need to have that mentality. We didn’t have that in the game. We gotta be better on third down.

Again, there are no excuses—and it’s not just about Mark—it starts with me. It’s Mark, it’s the defensive staff, it’s all the players on the defense making sure that we’re in the right calls. We blew a couple of coverages, our tackling wasn’t what it needed to be. Again, the whole game turned on those three plays.

While it’s easy to focus on Miami’s recent losses and to have a knee-jerk reaction regarding coaching staff changes, it’s not productive or timely as three crucial games remain. The Hurricanes are 7-2 and have a good shot at a 10-win season, something this program hasn’t accomplished since 2003.

To put Miami back on track defensively, here are five painfully obvious keys that D’Onofrio and the Hurricanes must embrace with Duke, Virginia and Pittsburgh on the docket.

Click here for the five things the Hurricanes’ defense must do to clean things up.

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