Alex Donno discusses Miami's opening for a new defensive backs coach and lists a few possible candidates he would like to see in the mix.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 Jamil Adai, who's been Miami's defensive backs coach for the past two seasons.
00:04 He has departed for a job in the National Football League. He's going to be the cornerbacks coach
00:09 with the Buffalo Bills. So that's obviously a step up and a promotion for him. And now an
00:14 opportunity for Mario Cristobal to find the best possible replacement at defensive backs coach.
00:20 Now I do expect the next DBs coach, I think we'll have a focus more on the cornerbacks position,
00:26 which is what Adai did this past year, because Lance Guidry, Miami's defensive coordinator,
00:32 spends a lot of hands-on time with the safeties because he's got a safety coach's background.
00:37 So I think the next DBs coach will be somebody who primarily works with the cornerbacks. Okay.
00:42 Now, this job being open, a lot of people are talking about potential Adai replacements,
00:50 but I want to remind everybody, Mario Cristobal's loafers work in silence. So I don't think we can
00:55 really say who the top candidates are, but we are throwing around names of interest.
01:00 Because remember, I mean, Miami, they just hired a very off the radar running backs coach. I don't
01:05 think anyone was talking about Matt Merritt before he ended up reportedly getting the job. That's
01:11 still not finalized yet. But one thing I'm getting the sense of here in the early hours of this
01:17 defensive backs coach opening, I hate to say this and I hope I'm wrong about this, but the sense
01:23 that I get is they're probably not going to go all in for my guy, DeMarcus Van Dyke, because I'm
01:29 getting the word and the sense that they still feel that DBD needs more seasoning as a coach
01:35 before he comes home to Miami. I do think eventually DeMarcus is going to come home,
01:40 but maybe this cycle is not the time that's going to happen. Somebody who could become a top
01:45 candidate for this job, again, could be, right? I don't know who Mario has called just yet,
01:51 but a name getting thrown around a lot is Nick Monroe at Minnesota. He's the Golden Gophers
01:57 cornerbacks coach and co-DC. Prior to his time at Minnesota, he was at Syracuse for seven years.
02:03 He's got a track record for developing corners, putting them in the NFL, also a strong recruiter,
02:09 was responsible, was Nick Monroe for recruiting South Florida. So he's already built those high
02:14 school connections in the area. There were some crazy streaks that Syracuse went on defensive
02:19 backs wise while he was there. Between 2018 and 2022, Syracuse had 58 interceptions in 60 games.
02:26 It's pretty crazy. Nick Monroe's salary reportedly 400K per year, which isn't that much compared to
02:33 some other candidates of interest. So you could probably give him a raise pretty easily. Now I
02:37 see a lot of Miami fans bringing up the name Patrick Sertan Sr., who's currently coaching
02:44 corners at Florida State. Now, obviously, if you could get Pat to come back home to South Florida,
02:51 that would potentially be the home run hires of all home run hires. I just, I don't know how
02:56 attainable this is. Okay. Because his job security at Florida State is fantastic. He's very well
03:02 paid. He's reportedly making 700,000 per year, which is a lot for a position coach. I would think
03:09 if there's any chance that Sertan, obviously lived in South Florida for many years, former Miami
03:15 Dolphins great, American Heritage coach for so many years. So if he really wants to come home
03:20 to South Florida, that could be the opportunity, right? Sertan, former head coach at American
03:26 Heritage, has great high school connections. He's already doing a fabulous job recruiting at Florida
03:30 State. He's a tremendous recruiter. Again, I don't know how attainable or realistic this one is,
03:36 but maybe he wants to be on staff with his old pal and Dolphins teammate, Jason Taylor.
03:41 Someone I could definitely see Miami making a run at is Chavis Jackson, who's the cornerbacks coach
03:49 and the co-DC at Marshall right now. Marshall, there's the Lance Guidry connection. He worked
03:54 under Guidry for a year and Jackson has also coached at LSU, Kansas, Ball State, and South
04:02 Alabama. So there are some possibilities out there.