New Hurricanes defensive coordinator Guidry explains his scheme and why he came to Miami

New Miami Hurricanes defensive coordinator Lance Guidry is operating at a disadvantage while implementing his scheme this spring: He’s without three, potentially five, defensive starters.

Defensive linemen Akeem Mesidor, Jahfari Harvey, Leonard Taylor and Jared Harrison-Hunte all are sidelined, with Taylor expected to miss all of spring. Safety James Williams is out after offseason shoulder surgery.

“We’ve got some defensive linemen out right now, probably four of the starters on paper,” Guidry said Tuesday in his first public comments since he was hired to replace Kevin Steele, who left for the same job at Alabama.

“We’ll add them in the summer when they’re healthy. The good thing is the guys that are backups fighting for jobs are getting all the reps right now, so you’re really building depth, which is a good thing.

“In the fall, when we have more people battling for jobs, we’ll fight for the starting job every day. We’re not going to wait for a scrimmage. Every day we’re going to adjust the depth chart and fight for positions every day. It’s the only way I know how to do it. In the fall you’ll probably see a lot of interchanging of the ones.”

Look for UM’s defense to vary presnap looks — and use disguises — more than Steele did.

Guidry often runs a defense with five defensive backs and a player called a star, “a hybrid corner, safety. He has to cover like a corner, but tackle like a safety.” Te’Cory Couch and Jaden Harris have been playing that position early in spring.

“People say that we run a hybrid defense, a 2-4-5, and it’s not,” Guidry says. “It’s two defensive ends that are standing up. They look like outside backers. A lot of times we stand up so we can see where the back’s at in case the back jumps because we got different assignments. But it’s four down linemen, two backs and five DBs. Now, we will go 4-3 with three backers when [offenses] go heavy personnel.

“And we do a lot of different things [with defensive ends]. We can drop them, we can rush them; that’s a little bit more unorthodox. The things I do now, there’s a story behind it, and the why. I don’t copy anybody’s defense. I learned a little bit from everybody.”

Guidry is implementing his own scheme, not using Steele’s.

“We [the Canes] switched so dramatically from what we did last year, the way we called things, the coaches that were here [said] — ‘Just put it in the way you want to put it in and the kids will learn it,’” Guidry said. “So they’re doing well. We’re going to probably go a little bit slower with our installs. We will probably be at about 65, 70 percent at the end of the spring, will catch up in the summer and then throw it all in the fall and see what sticks and play with that.”

Guidry said UM’s defenders are “playing hard, taking coaching. As long as they take coaching, try to get better every day, we have a chance to be good.”

Guidry said safety Kamren Kinchens, who tied for the national lead with six interceptions last season, is “intelligent, explosive in everything he does. He’s the bell cow of the defense. I’m going to ask him to do more, talk more.”

Guidry’s defense at Marshall last season ranked in the top 10 in the nation in several categories, including first in third-down defense (just 23.5 percent of opponent’s third downs were converted into first downs), second in stop rate (78.4), third in passing defense efficiency (104.67) and yards per play (4.6), fifth in rush defense (93.0) and turnovers gained (29), sixth in scoring defense (16.0) and passes intercepted (18), eighth in total defense (294.5) and ninth in first-down defense (200).

He took a job as defensive coordinator at Tulane on Jan. 20, then left for UM 21/2 weeks later.

“I knew a bunch of the staff at Tulane,” he said. “... But when coach [Mario] Cristobal called it was kind of a job I always had interest in, even as a young kid. I grew up a McNeese State fan. LSU was never a dream to me. When I saw Miami play Notre Dame way back in the day, I fell in love with the way they played, the swag they had.

“It was always a place I thought I’d want to coach. Coach Jimmy Johnson is from Port Arthur, Tex., which is only an hour and 15 minutes from where I’m from. The U has been special to me. My first college game I ever coached was against Miami back in 2000, was our first money game at McNeese State. I’m not going to tell you what the score was, you can look it up, but it was bad [UM won, 61-14]. Miami, excited to be here and just see how good we can get.”

Only Illinois, Iowa, Air Force, Minnesota and Georgia allowed fewer points per game than Marshall’s 16.0 last season. Conversely, Miami yielded 26.7 points per game, which was 67th.

Marshall permitted 294.5 yards per game last season, which was eighth best in the country. Miami relinquished 376 per game, which was 65th.

Guidry also served as Marshall’s defensive coordinator in 2021 and safeties coach the past two years. He spent some time with the safeties during the portion of practice open to reporters on Tuesday, while secondary coach Jahmile Addae worked with the cornerbacks.

He was a head coach at alma mater McNeese State from 2016 to 2018, going 21-12, but his contract was not renewed.

Guidry said he believes he got on Cristobal’s radar when Guidry was defensive coordinator at Western Kentucky when Cristobal was at FIU.

“We beat them twice and we played really good defense against them,” Guidry said. “They had TY Hilton, who was an exceptional wideout. Most of the time when you get jobs it’s from your opponent admiring the way your guys play when they watch film, how hard they play and just schematically.

“He always stayed in touch with me, but things never seemed to work out. And then this kind of evolved really quick; we had a good season at Mashall last year. He called and I took the job. I’m excited to be here.”

Guidry called himself as a “full-blooded Cajun. On all sides I’m French, and I like my culture … My people live in Louisiana. I coached high school football there for years. I have a lot of deep ties” there.

Guidry is one of three new coaches on UM’s defensive staff, joining defensive line coach Jason Taylor (who was an analyst for the Hurricanes program last year) and Derek Nicholson, who coached inside linebackers at Louisville last year.

Taylor “is going to be a defensive coordinator in college or the NFL, you can tell already,” Guidry said, while calling Nicholson “really special.”