Lance Guidry evaluates freshmen linebackers

In his first season as the defensive coordinator of the Miami Hurricanes, Lance Guidry is looking to help turn the Hurricanes into an imposing defense. A lot of that is going to come down to the linebacker position, where Miami has several interesting freshmen.

Guidry admitted that the adjustment to college and playing at Miami has been difficult for the team’s freshmen. In particular, the mental side is difficult to manage.

“It’s a lot for them,” Lance Guidry laughed. “It’s a lot. You know, each play and each day is a different thing for them because they’re trying to learn what we’re doing, they’re trying to adjust to college football, and they’re seeing all that stuff on the other side of them.”

According to the On3 Industry Ranking, Miami had the sixth-ranked in the 2023 cycle. That Miami class had two five-star and 13 four-star recruits in it. There were also several exciting linebacker prospects in that class, including Malik Bryant, Bobby Washington Jr, and Kaleb Spencer.

Despite all that talent, there is so much for freshmen linebackers to adjust to mentally that it’s difficult to get much playing time. Because of that, Lance Guidry isn’t sure who could help the team this season.

“It’s just hard for young freshmen and linebacker and safety to play because that’s the brain trust of the defense and you’ve gotta make all the checks and you’ve gotta be right. So, it takes a little time. We won’t know about them which one will be able to help us yet.”

Lance Guidry on the Miami defense

Lance Guidry is bringing a unique defensive front to Coral Gables this Fall. It’s a defense that can be a little bit difficult to understand because it’s designed to confuse an offense. However, this Spring, Guidry broke down the defensive front that relies heavily on athletic linebackers.

“People say that we run a hybrid defense, a 2-4-5, and it’s not. It’s two defensive ends that are standing up, 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 have different assignments. But it’s four down linemen, two backs, and five DBs. Now, we will go 4-3 with three backers when they go heavy personnel,” Guidry said.

“And we do a lot of different things [with the ends]. We can drop them, we can rush them, that’s a bit unorthodox.”