Mario Cristobal impressed with Lance Guidry's defense, young playmakers in spring game
Miami is holding its annual spring game on Friday night, giving coach Mario Cristobal a chance to see how his unit is performing after 14 spring football practices, including what Lance Guidry‘s defense looks like in a live setting.
He came away from the first half with a pretty measured evaluation, noting some positives and some negatives.
“We made some plays on both sides of the ball,” Cristobal said. “We got a little sloppy halfway through that whole thing. But you see a pretty decent effort from an alignment standpoint, holding onto the ball too long standpoint, not finishing on plays, things you want to clean up. Those things are showing up.
“But you are seeing guys competing, and we’ve got to keep this thing going in the second half. We will go to a thud temp now. We will stay up, it’ll be a running clock. We’ve got 34 plays with the ones, I believe somewhere in that vicinity with the twos, as well. We want to get 70 live plays. Now, we’re going to transition.”
Cristobal did single out a few individual performers that he was pleased with in the first half.
“You saw Rueben Bain applying pressure constantly, Jayden Wayne same stuff,” Cristobal said. “The young receivers are making plays. Good to see Jacolby George, that’s what we need out of him all the time. Tyler (Van Dyke), he got hot early but hung onto the ball a little too long there. But he’s playing some good football. And we had a couple guys that are down that other guys have got to step up. We’re making progress, still got a ways to go.”
Lance Guidry’s defense challenging for offenses
One of the big changes for Miami in 2023 is at defensive coordinator, where Lance Guidry takes over following the departure of Kevin Steele for Alabama.
Guidry arrives after spending the previous two years at Marshall.
The first glimpses at his defense provided some positives, with a number of players making some positive plays. Cristobal noted, though, that the defense isn’t going deep into its bag in tonight’s spring game.
“He’s not going to open up the whole thing tonight but what you see is he changes the picture on you,” Cristobal said. “And when you’re an offensive coach it’s difficult to train your guys in consecutive plays for that picture to change, make those adjustments and make it work.”
The second-year Miami coach heaped praise on his new charge, so it sounds like Lance Guidry‘s defense has gotten off on the right foot.
“He’s really smart, he’s a back end guy,” Cristobal said. “He connects the front and the back end really, really well. Great, great connector. I mean that guy’s got your ability to connect with just about everyone, and he’s made a tremendous impact so far.”