Manny’s the man to reinvigorate Hurricanes
Sentinel Columnist It’s up to you now, Manny Diaz.
If you can’t resurrect the onceproud, once-loud Miami Hurricanes and turn them back into a consistent national power, then it’s probably never going to happen.
Since the dynamic, dynastic ‘U’ began fading into mediocrity at the end of the Larry Coker coaching era all those years ago, the ‘Canes have tried anything and everything in an attempt to recapture their magic and mojo.
They tried to fix their program from within when they hired Randy Shannon, a former UM linebacker who grew up in inner-city Miami. He was fired after four years and is now the defensive coordinator at UCF.
Then they hired an outsider in upand-coming coach Al Golden, who previously had turned around an abysmal program at Temple. He was fired after five years.
Then they brought in an established coach in Mark Richt, a former UM quarterback who won a bunch of games at Georgia before wearing out his welcome. He only lasted three years.
Now it’s your turn, Manny Diaz. We’re depending on you.
As college football fans in the great State of Florida, we want the dancing, prancing, trash-talking, brash-walking ‘Canes back among college football’s elite. And you might be our last hope.
The process begins on Saturday when your Hurricanes take on the eighth-ranked Florida Gators in the grand opening of college football’s 150th anniversary season at Orlando’s Camping World Stadium. All eyes will be on the Gators, whose quarterback, Feleipe Franks, is talking about winning a national championship this season.
Nobody, it seems, is talking about Miami, and that’s just not right. In fact, when it comes right down to it, nobody’s been talking about Miami for the better part of two decades.
Coach Diaz, your program, your city and your state are counting on you.
The reason I say you might be the last hope is because you seem to understand that for the old Miami dominance to return, it will take “The New Miami” mentality. This “New Miami” mantra you created means that the entire program — players, coaches and school administrators — must work harder and think differently if the ‘U’ is to return to prominence.
“We need to reestablish who we want to be and how we want to define ourselves,” Diaz told me Friday.
Manny Diaz grew up in Miami and is
the son of the city’s former mayor. He knows the ins and outs and ups and downs of the UM program. He understands that those historic advantages UM used to enjoy back in the days of Howard Schnellenberger and Jimmy Johnson are mostly gone now. Schnellenberger’s famous philosophy of “putting a fence around the State of Miami” and keeping most of the South Florida recruits at home isn’t nearly as easy as it once was.
“Recruiting has changed,” Diaz says. “Miami had some inherent advantages back in the 1980s and 1990s that don’t exist anymore. South Florida prospects back then were criminally under-ranked, and a lot of guys would slide under the radar. That’s not the way it is now with the internet. Now, everybody flies a plane down here to recruit.”
And make no mistake about it, Miami’s dynasty was built on recruiting great players. Coaches like Schnellenberger, Johnson, Dennis Erickson and Butch Davis would come and go, but the recruits kept coming. Unlike other more traditional programs (see Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, Notre Dame, etc), Miami never had great resources, facilities or fan support, but the ‘Canes always had great players.
Unfortunately for the ‘Canes, the landscape has changed drastically in the last 20 years. Back then, there was no UCF, USF, FAU and FIU to siphon off the under-the-radar recruits that Miami used to stock its roster with. And back then, there was no SEC Network, Big Ten Network and an ESPN TV package for the American Athletic Conference.
Jimmy Johnson told me once that Miami’s prime-time TV schedule alone back in the late 1980s used to be a major recruiting tool for UM. The ‘Canes were an independent then and essentially could schedule whoever they wanted, whenever they wanted.
“Florida … Florida State … Oklahoma … Notre Dame … Michigan,” Johnson told me. “We had a half-a-dozen games every year against marquee-type teams — and you only played 11 games back then. So half of our games were on prime-time national TV every year, and that’s when it meant something to be on TV. Hell, these days, everybody’s on TV every week.”
This is why Diaz says there has to be “The New Miami.” And that means the ‘Canes must stop living in the past and start building something structurally sound for the future. In fact, Diaz says, the same could be said for Miami, Florida and Florida State — all of whom let their rivals zoom by them in college football’s facilities arms race.
What’s it tell you about Florida’s “Big Three” that UCF was the first program in the state to build an indoor practice facility —– a full decade ahead of the Gators, Seminoles and ‘Canes.
“It’s been an issue at Florida, Florida and Miami,” Diaz says. “We all had such success without [upgrading facilities] that we became very arrogant to a point where the world passed us by. … The world is a smaller place now. Kids are taking more unofficial visits, they get exposed to more programs and it’s important to stay current. It’s hard to say, ‘We want to be a first-class program and compete for championships’ and then the recruits look around and say, ‘Well, your actions don’t match your intentions.’”
It’s a good sign that Diaz realizes that “The New Miami” can’t be built in exactly the same way as the old Miami, but he insists it still can be done. In fact, as his ‘Canes get ready to play the Gators to kick off the 150-year anniversary of college football, he believes Miami, Florida and Florida State will all rise again.
“We didn’t invent college football in this state, but we damn sure perfected it,” Diaz says of the 11 national titles won by Miami, Florida and Florida State in a 31-year span from 1983-2014.
“It used to be that winning the state championship was sometimes harder than winning the national championship … and there’s no reason it can’t be that way again.”
I hope you’re right, coach Diaz. Your program, your city and your state are counting on you. Email me at mbianchi@orlando sentinel.com. Hit me up on Twitter @BianchiWrites and listen to my Open Mike radio show every weekday from 6 to 9 a.m. on FM 96.9 and AM 740.