Greg Cote: Manny Diaz’s Canes finally win after a bye week,
Manny Diaz conquered time Friday night.
Finally.
The luxury of it, extra time to prepare for an opponent — ostensibly a very good thing — had bedeviled Diaz into his second season as the Miami Hurricanes football coach.
UM, coming off a bye week, won 44-41 Friday night at North Carolina State in an Atlantic Coast Conference game the No. 11-ranked Canes were favored by 10 points to win.
It would have been a killing defeat. It would have meant long odds to get into the ACC Championship Game, the annual goal.
It also would have meant the Hurricanes were 0-5 under Diaz after an off week, and 0-6 with extra time including last season’s bowl collapse.
“We don’t run from the bye thing. We are aware of that,” Diaz said earlier this week. “We have struggled more playing against teams we have not respected, whether that was after a bye or not after a bye.”
This was not an admission a head coach must like to make. Your record after a bye is one thing. But allowing a team that hasn’t earned its cockiness to to disrespect an opponent? Not good. Instead, a respite from such.
I like Diaz. Really like him as a defensive coordinator. As a head coach? The jury is out. Friday night helped, in a bigstakes game beamed nationally on ESPN.
Diaz’s Canes finally won after a bye week, and it kept Miami in the realistic hunt to machete through this pandemic and get into the conference title game.
UM quarterback D’Eriq King was great, completing 31-of-41 passes for 430 yards and five TDs, even with star tight end Brevin Jordan out yet again.
With Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence ‘s COVID hiccup, has King re-entered he Heisman Trophy conversation? Sure felt like it Friday night.
Every year fans long for The U to be “back” and the disappointments keep coming. Hopes, rising. Then a pin-prick to the balloon. Recent history:
2016: Four consecutive losses, three to unranked teams, derail the season.
2017: Miami is 10-0, ranked No. 2 in the nation (“We’re back!”), and then a loss at Pitt leads to a precipitous late slide.
2018: Four consecutive losses to unranked opponents.
2019: A late-season loss to FIU. And then shut out by Louisiana Tech in a bowl game. Oh my.
Friday night, 2020 would have followed in kind had a team knocking on the top-10 door in the middle of a pandemic been punched askew by a loss to a double-digit underdog.
Miami didn’t let it happen.
Great college teams are defined by how they fare against major opponents.
That isn’t Miami these days. Not yet. Won’t be until they can beat the Clemsons. By which I mean Clemson.
But good college teams trying to get to great — they simply consistently take care of business in those under-radar games. You pile up wins against the teams you should beat.
The Hurricanes did that Friday night.
Look, this game wasn’t close to making the marquee of this college football weekend. Not when No. 1 Clemson is playing at No. 4 Notre Dame on Saturday. And No. 8 Florida is playing No. 5 Georgia. And the Pac-12 finally is beginning its season.
To Miami Hurricanes fans, though, it felt big. Because of the hopes always so high. Because of the hopes made so high by five national championships and the unfulfilled promise of more.
Around here, every result alters the context.
This win doesn’t mean the Canes are “back.”
Just means they’ve inched a little closer.