Defense ready for more improvement with Diaz
CORAL GABLES — In their first year under defensive coordinator Manny Diaz, the Hurricanes were different. Better.
They were aggressive getting to the ball, just as Diaz asked. And they ultimately saw their numbers improve in several categories, including total defense, tackles for loss, yards per play and sacks.
There were individual accomplishments to celebrate, like linebackers Shaq Quarterman and Mike Pinckney earning freshman All-American honors. And defensive linemen RJ McIntosh, Kendrick Norton, Joe Jackson, Chad Thomas and Demetrius Jackson emerged as standout players capable of helping give Miami one of the best fronts in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
But with a new season looming and heavy expectations, the Hurricanes say they aren’t content with what they accomplished during last year’s 9-4 season.
Now that they’ve learned what Diaz wants, along with his terminology and coaching style, it’s time for them to take the next step in their development.
Doing that, they believe, will help them move closer to the kind of dominant unit the Hurricanes fielded during Miami’s glory years, a stretch that saw the Hurricanes win five national titles in a 20-year span while churning out a significant amount of NFL prospects.
“We haven’t really accomplished anything,” said Quarterman, who was second on the team last year with 84 tackles. “We want a ring. As long as we don’t have that, we haven’t won anything. We won the Russell Athletic Bowl. The Russell Athletic Bowl. We’re trying to go for something way bigger than that.”
Added defensive lineman Demetrius Jackson: “Good is not in our vocabulary this year. We’re trying to be great. … We can be as great as we want to be and that’s up to us.”
So what exactly does Diaz want to see his players do to take the Hurricanes to the next level?
It is, for him, simple: create more turnovers, capitalize on them and improve on third down.
Last season Miami forced their 13 opponents into 19 turnovers. And opponents converted on 81 of 210 attempts on third down. During the October stretch in which the Hurricanes lost to Florida State, North Carolina, Virginia Tech and Notre Dame, their four opponents combined for just three turnovers and were 35-of-69 on third-down attempts.
That’s not good enough to put the Hurricanes where they want to be, Diaz said.
“We can never forget the main thing — which is to uphold the legacy of what it means to play defense at the University of Miami and those things are non-negotiables,” Diaz said. “But now if we felt like last year’s defense accomplished that mission, what do we have to do to be better? Well, we have to win more games. And how do we win games on defense? How do we be a more dominating defense?
“There’s a million things they understand that we can improve on. … We didn’t get enough turnovers to win football games. When we lost games, we didn’t create any turnovers. And we have to do better on third down than we did a year ago. There are different things they all understand. There’s a lot more meat on that bone for this defense to be really considered a true Miami Hurricanes defense.”
There’s also another component to their overall improvement the Hurricanes have noticed.
Veterans say they are working to become the more vocal leaders their coaches need them to be.
They understood what it was to take the field as young players. Now they want to mentor the players coming behind them — even if those players are setting out to take their jobs.
That competition, too, will only make the defense better.