Report: Miami to hire Minnesota's Corey Hetherman as defensive coordinator

Miami is set to hire Minnesota’s Corey Hetherman as defensive coordinator, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported. He will replace Lance Guidry after Mario Cristobal opted to make a change after the 2024 season.

Hetherman spent one year at Minnesota under P.J. Fleck and turned the Golden Gophers into one of the Big Ten’s top defenses. They went from allowing 368.4 yards per game in 2023 to 285.7 in 2024 – the third-fewest in the conference. That helped propel Minnesota to an 8-5 record, including a Duke’s Mayo Bowl victory.

Miami’s defense was among the best in the ACC this past season, but ranked No. 69 in total defense with 327 yards allowed per game. The Hurricanes especially struggled late in the year, allowing 42 points in each of their final two games, the last of which kept them out of the ACC Championship.

That led Cristobal to make a change, announcing Guidry’s departure in late December. He cited the need to “always improve all aspects of our program” in his decision.

“I want to first thank Coach Guidry for his contributions to the University of Miami,” Cristobal said in a statement. “In a continuous effort to always improve all aspects of our program, I have decided to make a change on defense. We will move forward and make decisions that provide our players, staff and program the best opportunity to win and develop at the highest.”

Inside Corey Hetherman’s coaching career

A few weeks after Lance Guidry’s departure, Corey Hetherman emerged as a leading candidate in Miami’s search. Now, he’s making his way to Miami.

Hetherman started his coaching career in 2006 as the quarterbacks coach at his alma mater, Fitchburg State. He continued to work his way up the Division III coaching ranks on the offensive side of the ball, but made the switch to defense in 2010 when he became the outside linebackers coach at Northeastern.

From there, Hetherman worked at Western New England, Old Dominion, Pace and Maine before latching on with Curt Cignetti at James Madison in 2019. That was his first defensive coordinator job, and he earned FCS Assistant Coach of the Year honors following the 2021 season. Rutgers then brought Hetherman aboard as linebackers coach from 2022-23, and he joined forces with Fleck at Minnesota this past year.