{"id":261765,"date":"2026-05-07T09:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T09:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/261765\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T09:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T09:12:09","slug":"mario-cristobal-promotes-two-assistants-on-hurricanes-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/261765\/","title":{"rendered":"Mario Cristobal promotes two assistants on Hurricanes staff"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Miami<\/p>\n

Miami Hurricanes head coach Mario Cristobal runs onto the field for the start of UM’s spring football game at Cobb Stadium on the University of Miami campus in Coral Gables, Florida, on Saturday, April 18, 2026.<\/p>\n

PHOTO BY AL DIAZ<\/p>\n

adiaz@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n

The Miami Hurricanes are reportedly promoting two of their defensive coaches to higher roles as they round out coach Mario Cristobal\u2019s staff for the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

As first reported by CBS Sports on Wednesday, Terry Jefferson is being promoted to cornerbacks coach<\/a> after serving as an assistant defensive backs coach in 2025 while Will Harris will be secondary coach and defensive pass game coordinator<\/a> in 2026 after being Miami\u2019s safeties coach during last season\u2019s run to the College Football Playoff National Championship Game.<\/p>\n

The moves come with Miami having to replace Zac Etheridge, who served as defensive backs coach and pass game coordinator in 2025 before departing for the NFL to be on the Arizona Cardinals\u2019 coaching staff.<\/p>\n

Miami did not immediately replace Etheridge following his departure like they did with the two other coaching staff voids that surfaced during the offseason when they hired Mike Viti as tight ends coach<\/a> (replacing Cody Woodiel) and Favian Upshaw as running backs coach<\/a> (replacing Matt Merritt).<\/p>\n

Jefferson served as Miami\u2019s de facto cornerbacks coach during spring practices. Cristobal at the time said Jefferson was a \u201cstrong candidate\u201d for the job but added they were still working through the hiring process for the position.<\/p>\n

Jefferson is in his second stint with the Hurricanes. He previously served on the Hurricanes\u2019 recruiting staff and later worked as a defensive analyst. He left before the 2023 season and became the cornerbacks coach at Jacksonville State. He returned to UM last season as a defensive analyst and assistant coach, primarily working with Miami\u2019s nickel cornerback position.<\/p>\n

Harris, meanwhile, is also entering his second season at Miami. Prior to joining the Hurricanes staff, Harris was the secondary coach for the Florida Gators in 2024 and an assistant secondary coach in the NFL for the Los Angeles Chargers in 2023.<\/p>\n

Miami\u2019s secondary was arguably its most improved unit in 2025 from 2024 and the group has enviable depth heading into 2026.<\/p>\n

All four of Miami\u2019s primary outside corners from last season return in Xavier Lucas, OJ Frederique Jr., Ethan O\u2019Connor and Damari Brown. Ja\u2019Boree Antoine also gained the staff\u2019s trust late last season as a true freshman.<\/p>\n

Zechariah Poyser and Bryce Fitzgerald lead the safeties, with Boston College transfer Omar Thornton the primary candidate to be Miami\u2019s main nickel cornerback in 2026.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published May 6, 2026 at 4:45 PM.<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Jordan McPherson<\/a><\/p>\n

Miami Herald<\/p>\n

Jordan McPherson covers the Miami Hurricanes and Florida Panthers for the Miami Herald. He attended the University of Florida and covered the Gators athletic program for five years before joining the Herald staff in December 2017.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Miami Hurricanes head coach Mario Cristobal runs onto the field for the start of UM’s spring football game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-261765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}