Gophers DC Corey Hetherman wants to 'play fast every single play'

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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Per Will:

New Gophers defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman has made it clear what he wants his unit's identity to be this season: speed and physicality.

"Number one, we want to play fast," Hetherman said on BTN. "We want our guys to take shots, we want to play fast every single play, we want to swarm to the football. Number two, we want to be physical. We want to be stout at the point of attack. We want to stop the run, we're gonna try to make people one-dimensional. We're gonna try to stay ahead of the sticks every play. If we play physical and we play fast, that's what the DNA of our defense has to be."

www.si.com

Gophers DC Corey Hetherman wants to 'play fast every single play'

Hetherman wants his defense's identity to be fast and physical football.
www.si.com www.si.com

Go Gophers!!
 



BleedGopher said:
Per Will:

New Gophers defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman has made it clear what he wants his unit's identity to be this season: speed and physicality.

"Number one, we want to play fast," Hetherman said on BTN. "We want our guys to take shots, we want to play fast every single play, we want to swarm to the football. Number two, we want to be physical. We want to be stout at the point of attack. We want to stop the run, we're gonna try to make people one-dimensional. We're gonna try to stay ahead of the sticks every play. If we play physical and we play fast, that's what the DNA of our defense has to be."

www.si.com

Gophers DC Corey Hetherman wants to 'play fast every single play'

Hetherman wants his defense's identity to be fast and physical football.
www.si.com www.si.com

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...
And I can't wait for some Gopher Holers to complain that they still don't know the exact X and O strategy for every down and distance (trust me, it's coming...)
 
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Dude has some crazy eyes; just watched the interview. Will be interesting to see if he knows what he’s doing.
 


People have been too hard on the new DC because he was not expensive. I like what little I know, which is mostly PR spin but I like.
 

GopherMarroon said:
People have been too hard on the new DC because he was not expensive. I like what little I know, which is mostly PR spin but I like.
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I've said this before, but if he had done the things he did at James Madison at SDSU or NDSU people here would be really excited to have him. He was FCS assistant coach of the year in 2021.
 

We’ll see. Wasn’t it Brewster that said “we want bodies flying around”. Or something like that. If we’re an average Big10 defensive team I’ll be happy.
 

Gopherchase said:
Dude has some crazy eyes; just watched the interview. Will be interesting to see if he knows what he’s doing.
Click to expand...
My question exactly. I know that this will piss some people off but I think that Claeys was damn good and could make adjustments at half time that worked. I also liked that he rotated people in and out to keep fresh(er) bodies in there. Let's hope that the new guy has some tools to work with. I would hate to be a DC and not have any tools to put some heat on an opposing QB. I would also hate to be an OC with no one who can score an easy/long TD once or twice a game. Those 12-play drives that consist of 4 and 5 yard runs and 7-10 yard passes are a bitch to turn into TD's because one bad play or penalty and you are off schedule. Go Gophers.
 



Word said:
I've said this before, but if he had done the things he did at James Madison at SDSU or NDSU people here would be really excited to have him. He was FCS assistant coach of the year in 2021.
Click to expand...
Like Brosmer, I'm cautiously optimistic that we landed a good one with this guy. I hope Harbaugh's playcalling looks better with a competent qb so we can feel confident about both of our coordinators at the same time for the first time since 2019.
 

I just don't want to go back to the early days of Coach Fleck when all the teams had to do was run a sweep or some outside run or pass and it was an easy 20 yards. No team was beating us up the middle, but we would give them 600 yards around the edge. Very thankful they switch DC then. Fleck seems to be about 50/50 on his DC/OC hires.
 

everyone has a game plan until they get punched in the mouth.

the question for Hetherman is whether he can make adjustments to counter what the other team is doing - AND whether he can make adjustments to compensate for any physical or mental deficiencies among his players.

for all the good that Joe Rossi did, I thought that last year, Rossi was not able to make adjustments to cover up some of the issues with the personnel. Now, no coach can turn a below-average player into a star. but if you are forced to put a below-average player into the game, then you need to put that player in a scheme that at least gives him a chance to survive.

there were people playing LB and DB last year who were just not able to execute the scheme, and the coaches were unwilling or unable to adjust the scheme to compensate.
 

Gopherchase said:
Dude has some crazy eyes; just watched the interview. Will be interesting to see if he knows what he’s doing.
Click to expand...

Ha, yeah he has some intense+ alpha vibes that get your attention for sure. Makes PJ seem laid back. Bio says he was a 3 year starting QB at Fitchburg state, recently successful DC at Maine and JMU, Schiano hire. Well spoken. Seems like enough of a mark of approval to take a chance.
 



It's the time of year to be optimistic! Sure, losing Rossi sucks but very few are irreplaceable. I'll believe in him until he gives us a reason not to!
 

Losing Rossi after last year's bad defense makes it a lot easier
 

Losing 45 for pretty much the whole year was just a killer. You hate to have so much rest on one player, but Maverick and the fellas weren’t quite ready for the number of reps that they had to take. Then, when Maverick was playing really good, he got dinged up in garbage time unfortunately and then wasn’t as good the rest of the year. We just had really subpar linebacker play all year overall and it’s tough to compete with that going on. If 45 can stand the field and with another year under the rest of their belts, we should see a significant uptick. We will also need to pressure the quarterback better to take some heat off our inexperienced DB’s.
 

Complete “looks the part” type obsession:

I really like Corey.
 

Gopherchase said:
Dude has some crazy eyes; just watched the interview. Will be interesting to see if he knows what he’s doing.
Click to expand...
I have no worries about Hetherman as he comes to the Gophers with a proven track record. Before Hetherman's recent stint at Rutgers, he served as the defensive coordinator at James Madison University (2019-2021) and Maine (2015-2018) in the FCS. Here’s a glimpse of James Madison’s defensive rankings under Hetherman: (2021): 7th in scoring, 8th in yards, 1st in turnovers, 8th in sacks. (2020): 8th in scoring, 5th in yards, 21st in turnovers, 13th in sacks. (2019): 3rd in scoring, 1st in yards, 11th in turnovers, 2nd in sacks. FYI... his Maine stats are at this level as well. Add to that, in his two years as LB Coach at Rutgers he had 2 Honorable mention B1G LBs in Jennings & Toure under his tutelage. Yeah, I think he can coach, so the Gopher defense is likely in good hands. I have no concerns about a DC that is intense, especially if that mentality is picked up and transferred to his guys.
 
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