Getting to know Miami: Breaking down the Hurricanes defense

Indiana football is set to take on Miami in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game on Monday, January 19 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.

We’re previewing the Hurricanes as a team ahead of the game with some in-depth looks at the offense, defense and more. Find all the breakdowns below, with more to come!

Getting to know Miami ahead of the National Championship Game

• Breaking down the Hurricanes’ offense
• Q&A with State of The U

The Hurricanes’ defense

Miami isn’t in the national championship without its defense, far and away one of the best units in the country. It’s a defense-first team in the sense that the offense plays a rigid, controlling style of football that helps the defense get rest and reduce total possessions.

It’s a talented, well-coached unit led by a man Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti knows well: Corey Hetherman, his former defensive coordinator at James Madison. Hetherman’s taken a talented group and coached it up well, Miami hasn’t surrendered over 30 points in a game all season.

Here’s where the Hurricanes’ defense ranks in key stats:

• Total defense: 292 yards per game, 11th nationally
• Rushing defense: 86.5 yards per game, 6th nationally
• Passing yards allowed: 206.1 yards per game, 45th nationally
• Scoring defense: 14 points per game, 5th nationally
• First downs defense: 254 allowed (88 rush, 138 pass, 28 penalty), 80th nationally
• Third down conversion %: 30.8%, 11th nationally
• Fourth down conversion %: 48.1%, 47th nationally
• Red zone defense: 78.1% on scores, 28th nationally (additional context, this counts TDs and FGs)
• Tackles for loss: 6.4 TFL per game, 23rd nationally
• Team sacks: 3.13 per game, 4th nationally
• Team passing efficiency (defense): 114.70, 17th nationally

A varied statistical profile, obviously. You can draw a handful of conclusions from these stats, for sure. There’s gonna be variables, like the fact that offenses are passing in late game situations to try and catch up. As a whole, this is a very, very good defense on a down-to-down basis.

One thing stats aren’t going to account for is pure, game-breaking plays. You can look at takeaways and whatnot for sure, but this is a defense that’s very capable of breaking the game wide open if it gets a chance, just look at the defensive line.

The Hurricanes excel at getting to the quarterback, 3.13 sacks per game is great. The pressure generated in between those sacks? Even better. Rueben Bain Jr. is excellent, but so are the guys he’s playing alongside. Akheem Mesidor leads Miami in sacks with 10.5 on the season. These are players whose individual excellence feeds into the greater whole, making everyone around them that much better.

Indiana has to play clean ball in the sense that it can’t let one of Bain or Mesidor get in a shot at Fernando Mendoza’s arm during his throwing motion. Or any of the tackles generate enough push to force a throw off his back foot that could sail into the hands of an eager secondary.

There’s a few ways to keep that from happening, like relying on Riley Nowakowski and one of the running backs for some extra pass protection and/or dialing up some quicker reads to get the ball out of Mendoza’s hands faster than usual. Indiana’s shown it can do this and adjust for game conditions if what’s being called isn’t working.