Don't Worry About The Secondary, Lance Guidry Challenged Them To Break The Gators
![Florida Gators tight end Arlis Boardingham (8) can’t hold onto a pass while being defended by Miami Hurricanes defensive back Markeith Williams (15) during the season opener at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, FL on Saturday, August 31, 2024 against the University of Miami Hurricanes in the first half. [Doug Engle/Gainesville Sun]](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_2612,h_1469,x_0,y_24/c_fill,w_1080,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images%2FImagnImages%2Fmmsport%2Fall_hurricanes%2F01j6w5rr6b9a6rd668pt.jpg "Florida Gators tight end Arlis Boardingham (8) can’t hold onto a pass while being defended by Miami Hurricanes defensive back Markeith Williams (15) during the season opener at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, FL on Saturday, August 31, 2024 against the University of Miami Hurricanes in the first half. [Doug Engle/Gainesville Sun]")
Dominating on all fronts of the game is what the No. 19 Miami Hurricanes did against the Florida Gators. One suprising area that they did it in was the secondary.
The Hurricanes secondary had the most question marks surrounding the team during the lead-up to the game. The explosiveness of the Gator's receivers could have caused trouble for them, however, that was one of the many things that the defense handled well on Saturday.
Plan A going into The Swamp: Break The Gators
There was no reason for plan B as defensive coordinator Lance Guidry pointed out the secondary was better than expected.
"They were really focused. They knew the types of things they had to defend," Guidry said. I thought Porter played well, everyone on the back end you know, they challenged us early. Brown broke up a ball deep then Richard broke one up deep and I think it broke their confidence or going downfield a lot and started to run the ball and things kind of played into our hands."
Even with the lack of depth, the freshman OJ Frederique Jr. stood out as one of the best but he still had nerves going into his first game. Guidry noted this during his weekly press conference on Monday.
"OJ competed really hard. You know I was laughing. OJ on that first motion that went across the field that was completed a bootleg, he knew what he had to do but he said his legs wouldn't move," Guidry said.
Transfer Mishael Powell also played well in his Hurricane debut as he hawked a ball from the air and almost returned an interception for a pick-six before being tackled out of bounds. He had one of the two picks and day, but it goes to show that this secondary is for real and proved many doubters wrong in the season openers.
