Losing position coaches does NOT mean the sky is falling

The Miami Hurricanes are coming off of a College Football Playoff National Championship Game appearance in year four of the Mario Cristobal Era. This off-season has seen some change around college football but one consistency for Miami is that the head coach, offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator all return for another run at a 6th ring in ‘26.

Over the past couple of weeks the Hurricanes have seen the departures of their TE, RB, and CB’s coaches. TE coach Cody Woodiel has moved on to the Ole

Miss Rebels and Pete Golding’s staff in Oxford, MS. Woodiel coached an underwhelming unit in ‘25 after Alex Bauman and Elija Lofton were both disappointing this past season.

RB coach Matt Merritt and CB coach Zac Etheridge are both moving up to the NFL and the Arizona Cardinals coaching staff. Merritt coached Mark Fletcher, CharMar Brown and Girard Pringle as well as Jordan Lyle this season. The ‘Canes backs combined for 24 touchdowns on the ground while Mark Fletcher rushed for 5.5 yards per carry. The entire RB room returns for the 2026 season, even without Merritt on staff.

Etheridge’s biggest contribution to Miami was luring Keionte Scott to Coral Gables from Auburn/Houston. Scott dominated when healthy including two pick 6’s and five PBU’s with 13 TFL’s and five sacks. Xavier Lucas logged a team leading eight PBU’s, with CB OJ Frederique just behind him with seven PBU’s last season. The room saw some big things from a young Ethan O’Connor as well.

While losing position coaches can often be a bad thing, the sky is not falling at the Hecht over the TE or RB coaches. The TE’s needed a new voice in the room after multiple blue chippers have either transferred out or have been beaten out by dead weight players. A once proud tradition of #TEU hit a slump in ‘25 after Elijah Arroyo’s production in ‘24.

On any team the RB coach is a recruiter and re-recruiter (keeping your room intact) more than anything else. RB is an instinctive position that is often poorly and overly coached if anything. While Merritt did a great job of recruiting the room back for ‘26, money talks louder than coaches in the NIL world we live in. Pay and they’ll stay as we can see from Pringle leaving the portal and returning to The U this off-season.

The CB position was improving and Etheridge will be missed, but, Miami still has a safeties coach and a nickels coach that are returning for ‘26, and good CB coaches are out there in familiar names to ‘Canes fans like DeMarcus Van Dyke and familiar names to DC Corey Hetherman in Nick Monroe (Minnesota). There are also other names out there like Torrian Gray (South Carolina) that I have a ton of respect for.

No matter who gets brought in the point is to remember this is the price of success. Position coaches are going to seek out coordinator and NFL jobs when you’ve put together a top-2 run like Miami did in ‘25. The entire football world was watching the ‘Canes playoff run and it’s a sign of success to lose two coaches to the NFL, and a sign that Cristobal won’t think good is great in his shipping off of Woodiel.

Had the ‘Canes lost Shannon Dawson, Alex Mirabal, Damione Lewis or most importantly- Corey Hetherman, I would see more reason for panic. But even if those coaches did leave you’d have to imagine it would be for massive promotions to the NFL or as a college head coach. Just sit tight and let Cristobal work to put the staff together and find quality replacements at three less-than-key positions on a staff.