Area of big offseason focus suddenly having issues for Hurricanes. Exploring

For the Miami Hurricanes, there was seemingly no bigger priority this offseason than upgrading the defensive backfield (and the offensive line).

In the wake of Tyrique Stevenson and D.J. Ivey moving onto the NFL, the Hurricanes snagged five cornerbacks in the transfer portal, one of whom (Terry Roberts) left for Michigan State months after arriving at UM from Iowa. (Roberts then left Michigan State, too.)

The Canes explored adding backup safeties but instead cajoled Brian Balom to stay and stuck with what they had behind two frontline starters (Kamren Kinchens and James Williams).

And for 3 ½ games, the pass defense was very good. But everything has unraveled during the past five quarters, starting with Georgia Tech’s game-winning TD drive in the final seconds. That was followed, this past week, by Drake May throwing for 273 yards and four TDs in North Carolina’s 41-31 win.

The Canes had no answers for UNC receiver Devontez Walker, who had six catches for 132 yards and three touchdowns.

And questions linger in the aftermath:

1). Why hasn’t UM extracted more from the veteran additions at cornerback?

2). Why hasn’t All-American safety Kinchens played as well in the past two weeks as previously?

3). Should there be personnel changes in the defensive backfield?

With regard to the first question, it was a mild surprise that Daryl Porter Jr., who struggled in one of UM’s August scrimmages, beat out UCF transfer Davonte Brown for a starting cornerback job after Brown played with the starters throughout spring practice and parts of fall camp.

Among the other transfers, Vanderbilt’s Jadais Richard has played sparingly (58 defensive snaps) and junior college transfer Demetrius Freeney hasn’t played at all.

A fourth transfer, Oklahoma’s Jaden Davis, played well the first three weeks - particularly in the run game and as a blitzer — but was victimized against UNC, permitting two of three targets to be caught for 104 yards.

So none of the four veteran cornerback additions have been great, either because of recent difficulties (Davis), or limited chances (in the case of Brown and Richard) or no game reps at all (in Freeney’s case).

Freshman Damari Brown, who received some first team snaps in August, has logged 70 defensive snaps and played well, permitting only two of seven targets to be caught for 47 yards (a 55.1 passer rating), per Pro Football Focus.

The other freshman cornerback, Robert Stafford, hasn’t played a defensive snap, per PFF.

Porter has validated the decision to play him; he has played well all season with a 57.1 passer rating against and 7 of 15 throws against him caught for just 58 yards. He was targeted only twice against UNC and allowed both to be completed for 18 yards; he wasn’t the problem Saturday.

Te’Cory Couch, who has started all season, has a strong overall passer rating against (64.2) in large part because he has three interceptions. Couch also has permitted two TD catches and 19 catches (on 32 targets) for 237 yards, a 12.5 average.

Richard has yielded four receptions on four targets against him, for 67 yards. UM overlooked his poor metrics as a Vanderbilt freshman because of his size (6-1), versatility and skill set. But that addition hasn’t yet paid dividends. Nor has the addition of Freeney, who had been playing junior college ball at the College of San Mateo.

As for Davis, he has allowed 14 of 24 targets against him to be caught for 228 yards (16.3 average), one touchdown and a 104.3 passer rating against. That hasn’t been good enough since his excellent first three quarters of the Aggies game.

On one of Walker’s touchdown catches against Davis, “I thought he was in a good spot, mistimed his jump a little bit,” defensive coordinator Lance Guidry said. “They ran a bend with a post; I thought [Davis] was inside of it enough, just misjudged it.”

The question is whether Guidry and UM coaches give more playing time to the UCF transfer Brown, who has allowed five of seven targets to be caught for just 28 yards (a 78.3 passer rating). Neither Davonte Brown nor his brother Damari played a defensive snap in the loss to Georgia Tech, per PFF.

Against North Carolina, cornerback snaps were allocated this way: 80 for Porter, 71 for Couch, 65 for Davis, 15 for Davonte Brown and none for Damari Brown, Richard, Freeney and Stafford.

For the season, Davis has played 311 defensive snaps, Porter 288, Couch 260, UCF transfer Davonte Brown 111, freshman Damari Brown 70, Richard 58.

Freeney and Stafford haven’t played any defensive snaps, per PFF.

As for the situation at safety, Kinchens hasn’t been as effective since returning from an undisclosed injury that left him briefly hospitalized after the Texas A&M game. Against UNC, he permitted four catches on seven targets for 62 yards and two touchdowns, per PFF.

Kinchens was the closest defender to the Georgia Tech player who caught the game-winning touchdown at the end of the loss to Yellow Jackets.

For the season, Kinchens has allowed 10 of 13 passes against him to be caught for 151 yards, with three TDs and an interception, equal to a 122.1 passer rating against.

Last season, Kinchens tied for the lead nationally with six interceptions. He has one in four games this season.

“Me personally watching film there’s not too many plays where I could have caused a turnover,” Kinchens said Tuesday. “The ball hasn’t come my way too many times; when it does I do what I have to do.”

PFF rated Kinchens the nation’s No. 1 safety in terms of 2022 performance. This season, he’s rated 158th.

Williams has been effective in coverage: 6 of 12 targets caught for 81 yards, an interception, and a 37.2 passer rating against. Guidry said this week that Williams likely will be a linebacker in the NFL, and he’s playing a pseudo type linebacker role at times this season.

North Carolina carved up the Hurricanes’ defense after going up tempo in the second half.

“People are going to tempo you – as long as they have a little bit of success they’ll keep doing it to you,” Guidry said. “At times we did stop them, didn’t stop them enough.”

Clemson’s offense averages 437.3 yards and 32.2 points per game, so the problems in the defensive backfield must be solved quickly.

THIS AND THAT

As expected, UM’s fourth through sixth receivers played more against UNC.

Brashard Smith logged 29 offensive snaps, Isaiah Horton 48 and Tyler Harrell 16.

Freshman Nathaniel Joseph logged five snaps at receiver.

The troika of Xavier Restrepo (79 offensive snaps against UNC), Jacolby George (63) and Colbie Young (38) got the majority of work, as they have all season, but Horton playing more than Young was a new development.