Category 5 Hurricane: Our favorite pressure path by the Canes' defense
The Miami Hurricanes rode an elite pass rush all the way to a National Championship appearance in 2025. While their front four consistently won battles on their own, Miami did not rely solely on one on one victories up front. Instead, they amplified that talent with well timed pressures by adding defensive backs and linebackers to the rush and using movement and stunts to manufacture stress on the quarterback.
Rather than asking the defensive line to win every snap, the Canes created chaos through design. In this article, we will break down my favorite pressure paths from Miami this season and show how they paired aggression with structure to maximize their pass rush.
Bringing the Nickel
Keionte Scott played at a very high level for the Canes from the Nickel position, finishing the season with 64 tackles, 13 tackles for loss, 5 sacks, 2 forced fumbles, and 2 interceptions. He was productive against the run, disruptive as a blitzer, and reliable in coverage, which made him the perfect chess piece in Miami’s pressure package.
Defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman did an excellent job putting Scott in positions to impact the game. By aligning him in multiple spots and bringing him from different pressure paths, Miami was able to stress protections without sacrificing coverage integrity.
Your Nickel is usually one of the best players on the defense, and when he has the right body type, he becomes a real problem in the blitz game. That is especially true against the run, where a physical Nickel can insert fast, close space before the back gets downhill, and turn pressure into negative plays rather than just hurried throws.
Again, this is not complex. Run a reduction with the defensive line, bring the Nickel, and play solid fire zone with three under and three deep behind it. The Miami Hurricanes were masters of simplicity. They put their best defensive back on a defined pressure path, paired it with a talented defensive line, and forced the offensive line to win four or five one on one battles. More often than not, that math favored the defense.
Blitzing the Corner
You can rarely go wrong blitzing the corner, and I am a firm believer this is one of the most underutilized run blitzes in football. When timed correctly, corner pressure hits the run scheme where it is weakest, and stresses perimeter blocking rules that most offenses do not rep enough.
Against compressed sets, there may not be a better pressure than cutting the corner loose. It hits fast, it is almost always unblocked, and the corner is far more likely to make the tackle going downhill than when he is asked to trigger from a flat footed alignment. That downhill angle turns perimeter runs into negative plays and forces the ball to declare immediately.
