The Hurricanes’ defense is vastly improved from last year, but it struggled in a major way in the team’s loss to Louisville last week.

Miami missed 24 tackles in the loss, according to Pro Football Focus — the most it has missed in a game since it missed the same number of tackles in a loss to North Carolina in 2021. Now the No. 9 Hurricanes are working to make sure that does not happen again.

“I thought going up to this point, I thought we had done a better job of taking some angles, working tackling and finishing some of those reps,” UM defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman said. “That’s something that we talked about watching the video as we put that game away. And you know, as we go into this week, it’s just, you know, working tackling circuit again, working (on) bite the ball (technique), working half-man tackle, working press the hip, working wrap and roll and working the different fundamentals and technique to get that cleaned up.”

The Hurricanes had been decent at making tackles through their first five games, but there was room for improvement. In its five wins, Miami averaged 10.2 missed tackles per game — missing double-digit tackles in wins against USF, Florida and Florida State, according to PFF.

But it was the Hurricanes’ struggles to bring the Cardinals’ skill-position players to the ground that helped doom Miami’s efforts last week.

Wide receiver Chris Bell, who scored two touchdowns, forced three missed tackles and racked up 92 of his 136 receiving yards after the catch. Wide receivers Caullin Lacy and Dacari Collins each forced two missed tackles.

But it was running back Isaac Brown who was the slipperiest Louisville playmaker. Brown, a Homestead native, forced an astounding 16 missed tackles, which is tied for the most in a single game this season by a Power 4 running back, according to PFF.

“We missed more tackles than usual,” coach Mario Cristobal said. “I think we’re playing against some really good players. I think we can’t lose sight of that. But I do think that our positioning and the details that go into our drops sometimes were off. And like we spoke about (Monday) as a team, we’ve got to coach it better, we’ve got to teach it better, then we’ve got to execute it better. We weren’t as precise in some of our positionings in our zones and whatnot.”

Miami defensive back Keionte Scott, who tied for the team lead with five missed tackles against Louisville, said correcting those misses is one of the Hurricanes’ priorities as they prepare for Stanford on Saturday.

“We didn’t play to our standard,” Scott said. “We didn’t fly around and we didn’t help each other out in certain situations. We pride ourselves on just taking our shots and everybody flying around to the football. And I feel like that was something that we lacked last Saturday and something we’re definitely focusing on improving as the season goes on.”

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/10/23/hurricanes-tackling-misses/