Players express support for Diaz
Despite 3-4 record, athletic director also behind head coach
CORAL GABLES — Miami Hurricanes coach Manny Diaz is only seven games into his head coaching tenure. With most programs, there’s a honeymoon period at first, but a 3-4 start at Miami means that welcome is wearing off quickly with a fan base that demands the most out of a football team that has won five national championships since 1983.
Although fans have been vociferous expressing frustration on social media with Diaz and UM athletic director Blake James, Diaz’s seat isn’t getting any warmer, James says.
“I will say I feel 100% as confident in the decision today as back when we made it in December,” James said on Monday night on Hurricane Hotline on 560-AM. “Manny is doing the things he needs to do to build a program for longterm success, and some of it we won’t see until after recruiting signing days, a different approach on things in terms of what he wants to accomplish.”
Fans have been critical of James for making the hire too quickly following previous coach Mark Richt’s retirement in December. Some feel he didn’t take his time through the process of searching for suitable candidates and rushed to fill the vacancy with Diaz, who had accepted the head coaching job at Temple before opting to come back to UM. Diaz had a successful stretch the previous three seasons as defensive coordinator under Richt.
James, speaking at basketball media day on Tuesday, addressed the coaching search that went on in hiring Diaz.
“We have the best person for the job,” James said. “Regardless of the length of the search, anytime you do a search you want to get the best person for the job — whatever profession that’s in. I can only speak from athletics.
“To me, there’s no point in just going though things just to say you did them. You go out and you find the best person for the job. Manny Diaz is the best person. I felt that way on Dec. 30. I feel that way today, and I’m confident I’ll feel that way in the future.”
James expressed a similar sentiment to something Diaz said on Monday — that while the losses are piling, a few plays have been the difference between the Hurricanes being
“He knows exactly what he’s doing, so we trust him fully, and we’re all in for him.” —UM senior defensive tackle Pat Bethel on Manny Diaz
3-4 and having a much better record.
“I think anyone who has an understanding of the game recognizes that plays that 90% of the time go your way in certain occasions haven’t gone our way,” James said. “So I could easily see us as 5-2 and, as an optimist, 7-0. The reality is we’re 3-4, and that’s what we’ll deal with and that’s who we are. That’s what the winloss column says.”
Players on the football team who have noticed some of the fan criticism relayed a similar vote of confidence for Diaz.
“There’s going to be criticism wherever you go,” said senior defensive tackle Pat Bethel, who went through three years of having Diaz as defensive coordinator before this season. “It don’t matter if you’re a meter maid. It don’t matter if you’re a doctor. It don’t matter if you work on the power line. It’s going to be criticism regardless, and that’s just the way it is. We got to put our mindset and put our tunnel vision on so that we can do the job at hand. We can’t be worried about the outside world.”
Why does Bethel feel Diaz is the right man for this job?
“He just is,” he said. “He’s a guy you’ve got to be around. He brings the same energy every day. He knows how to run the system. He knows how to coach. He knows exactly what he’s doing, so we trust him fully, and we’re all in for him.”
Said sophomore safety Gurvan Hall: “He’s still the head of the snake. I mean, he coached the defense last year. We all believe in him. We all trust him.”
James feels he and Diaz are on the same page. “Manny and I are in regular communication,” James said. “He wants to win. I want to win. We both know our fans want us to win.”